Arts Education Outreach

Learning to See

Learning To See Outreach (LTS) is an award-winning, in-school, cross-curricular program with an emphasis on critical thinking, innovation and celebration of diversity. Many lessons are inspired by the artwork and life stories of local artists. This framework provides our youth with present day role models who have exceled in pursuit of their passions. LTS nurtures visual literacy and each student’s confidence in their own expression. Each lesson provides real world applications to math, science, history and language arts. With an emphasis on experiential learning, LTS students benefit beyond the art class and enhance their capacity to learn with creativity and focus. Their confidence builds as they are supported in their explorations by Teaching Artists. LTS lessons support the California content standards.

Are you an educator or administrator working with new Prop 28  funding? Learn how the LTS program can work at your school.

Adaptable lessons for elementary through secondary grades.

Flexible funding from Prop28, PTA funds, grants & donations.

Professional artists with educational experience.

Variable programs range from eight weeks to a school year.

Our unique curricula provide real world applications to math, science, history, and language arts while supporting critical thinking, innovation and celebration of diversity.

Years

Students

School Districts

Lesson Plan Samples

Traditional Weaving Inspired by Porfirio Gutiérrez

The weaving lesson inspired by Porfirio Gutiérrez provides students with concepts that go far beyond learning how to weave. Additional lessons about botanical contour line drawing, creating natural dyes and indigenous symbols help them to understand that every step of creating a weaving is related to the Zapotec way of life, like many indigenous cultures, of living in harmony with the earth. As students prepare their cardboard looms and begin to weave, they gain an appreciation for the dedication it takes to create a weaving. Fine motor skills are honed, individual color sensibilities are expressed, and patience is rewarded as they weave row by row. Many students feel an instant connection to this lesson as they and their families have similar experiences to Porfirio.

Paper Weaving Inspired by Christine Morla

Christine Morla stands as a wonderful role model for children. She is a first generation Filipino-American and local Oxnard girl whose work reflects her cultural heritage and connection to the world – in a very modern way. Having learned Filipino mat weaving as a child from her father, Christine has incorporated these elements into her artwork. Learning to See students learn the same weaving process. They explore color, shape, texture and composition, creating their own paper weaving and flower shapes, similar to Christine. They are prompted to pay attention to how the components ’talk’ to each other on the page. Similar to Christine’s collaborations with others, students mindfully place their individual pieces together as one artwork. The result is a joyous collaborative installation of colors and shapes on the classroom wall!

Paper Sculpture Inspired by BiJian Fan

Students can see how BiJian elevates the art-form often related to child play with the sensibility of a zen master and the execution of a scientist. By cutting, folding, and curling, they transform flat rectangles into beautiful sculptural planes of light and shadow. Some evoke the feeling of a playground or sophisticated public sculpture, leading to discussion about the materials needed to fabricate a monumental sculpture. The LTS Teaching Artist uses a flashlight to cast moving shadows over the paper sculptures to mimic a rising and setting sun. This literally illuminates the integral aspect of shadows to a sculpture for the student. In learning about BiJian’s path as a brilliant ‘dragon child’ in Communist China, achievement of a PhD in engineering and desire to be an artist, students learn that no one is immune to parental and societal pressures. The found freedom and joy that BiJian brings to his art supports students in pursuing theirs.

Magical Surrealism Inspired by Christine Brennan

Students are delighted to tap into their imaginations with this lesson inspired by Christine Brennan. They start the way Christine often does with marks on their paper, then letting their minds wander, eventually seeing something visually spring to life.  Given official permission to express themselves, each student creates something uniquely different from one another. Within this freedom, LTS Teaching Artists coach the students to address the formal aspects of art that Christine has mastered: form, shadow and light, and a strong sense of space and color. Prismacolor colored pencils are used on uniquely textured or colored paper to provide an elevated drawing/coloring experience.  These tools help the students to further articulate their ideas and create works of art they are truly proud of and look forward to sharing!

Biodiversity Inspired by Hiroko Yoshimoto

Hiroko states, “The series, Biodiversity reflects my ardent wish that life’s diversity would continue to flourish in the face of accelerated destructive forces created by human hands. The seemingly infinite and wondrous diversity of life forms, like the microbes in a drop of water, inspires unique colors, shapes, and lines that then come alive on my canvas.”  The Biodiversity series is a perfect model of the connection between science and art. Before this lesson starts, students are invited outside to look straight down on the ground observing the plant and mineral life below their feet. Teaching Artists lead conversations with the students about the interdependence of all living things and how they are affected right where the students are standing. Once in the classroom, students are directed to use the plants and rocks placed on their tables for inspiration, not copying.

Student Artwork

Ventura Unified School District after school art 24-25

Ventura Unified School District after school art 24-25

Ventura Unified School DistrictAfter school art classes 2024-2025  Artwork by 1st-8th grade students from ATLAS, E. P. Foster,Mound, Lincoln, Portola and Serra Elementary Schools;Anacapa and DATA Middle Schools[dipl_image_card_carousel _builder_version="4.27.4"...

Tidepool Biodiversity with the Merito Foundation

Tidepool Biodiversity with the Merito Foundation

Tidepool Biodiversity Artwork by 5th graders from Mar Vista Elementary in Oxnard who participated in Vamos a la Playa! with the Merito Foundation.  They visited local beaches and learned about tidepools, marine life, ocean habitats and the importance of protecting...

Oxnard Botanical Contour Drawing

Oxnard Botanical Contour Drawing

Oxnard School District  2022 -2023 Many lessons are inspired by the lives and works of diverse artists from Ventura County.  Karen Kitchel photographed at work in her studio. Close up image of Kitchel's grass paintings. Botanical Contour Line Drawings inspired...

OVSD Paper Weaving & Collage

OVSD Paper Weaving & Collage

Ocean View School District  2022 -2023 Each lesson is inspired by the life and work of a Focus on the Masters Documented Artist.Artist Christine Morla and one of her woven paper artworks.  Paper Weavings inspired by mixed media artist Christine Morla Having learned...

OVSD Botanical Contour Drawing

OVSD Botanical Contour Drawing

Ocean View School District  2022 -2023 Each lesson is inspired by the life and work of a Focus on the Masters Documented Artist.Karen Kitchel photographed at work in her studio. Close up image of Kitchel's grass paintings. Botanical Contour Line Drawings inspired...

OVSD Recto Verso

OVSD Recto Verso

Ocean View School District  2022 -2023 Each lesson is inspired by the life and work of a Focus on the Masters Documented Artist.Carlos Grasso photographed with Mind Tapestry #19 - Center part (8 x 16 feet) of the big 8 x 46 feet complete work. Recto Verso Lesson...

Ocean View School District

Ocean View School District

Ocean View School District - Learning To See Student Gallery Artwork by students from Mar Vista, Laguna Vista, and Tierra Vista Elementary Schools, and Ocean View Junior High.Learn about the FOTM Documented Artists who inspired the artwork in this gallery. Students...

Ojai Elementary Schools

Ojai Elementary Schools

Ojai Elementary School Gallery This gallery showcases student artwork from classrooms at Meiners Oaks and Topa Topa Elementary Schools in Ojai. The lessons included here are Biodiversity, Clay Vessels, Botanical Contour Line Drawing and Earth Art.  Thank you to the...

Middle School Artworks

Middle School Artworks

Featuring artwork from classrooms at Anacapa Middle School in Ventura, Isbell Middle School in Santa Paula and Rio del Valle Middle School in Oxnard.

Teaching Artists

Aimee French

Aimee French

Education Director

Aimee French is a lifelong artist whose earliest memories are of being fascinated by shapes, edges and textures. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from The Ohio State University. Having explored and worked in a wide range of mediums, a painterly quality marks much of her work, even when using the hardest materials. It is process oriented, and symbolism is often used. After many years of painting on silk and with oil, her current mediums are assemblage, felted wool and encaustic.  Aimee joined Focus on the Masters as the Learning to See Outreach Education Director in January 2011. Her extensive arts education experience includes class instruction, program development and management serving populations from all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and learning levels.  Her experience in museum education, certification as a Social/Emotional Arts Facilitator and 7 years working in humane education has given her a broad insight into the importance of how and what we learn manifests in a student’s life. Her goal is to nurture inspiration and trust in one’s unique creative voice.

Belle Jongmi Kim

Belle Jongmi Kim

Teaching Artist

I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. After moving to the US, a simple birthday, holiday, or phone call became a complex math equation. The influences of growing up in a dense urban environment across the sea while living almost perpetually in two opposite time zones are evident in my work. My creative process is simple. I open my mind to all possibilities, step off the cliff, and work from moment to moment. This doesn’t sound straightforward, and it is not. The concept of my work is the movement, intersection, and manipulation of time, and these are never straightforward. I am working with fabric and found objects. Since I cannot predict the future, I take it one moment and one thread at a time.

Learn more about Belle and her practice at bellesbrush.com.

Nichole Hendrix

Nichole Hendrix

Teaching Artist

Nichole Hendrix is an artist who explores multiple art disciplines to find points of connection that she can use in her art practice. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from the University of New Mexico. Of the many art disciplines in her repertoire, Nichole most often utilizes painting, printmaking and most recently ceramics. Through her art, she explores the interactions of colors, patterns, and figural poses to create simple yet complex portraits. Nichole discovers and examines the intersections between her many mediums and combines them to create something new. Currently in her ceramic era, she is exploring how to bring whimsy to the functional nature of ceramics. Apart from her art practice she fills her time with sharing the love and practice of art by teaching children and adults alike in the painting and ceramic mediums.

Learn more about Nichole and her practice @Nichole_Hendrix_art.

Betsy Zuck

Betsy Zuck

Teaching Artist

Betsy’s journey is comprised of overlapping skills sets spanning myriad artistic disciplines. Her professional journey began with a BFA in Theater Education at the University of Arizona, which took a turn towards teaching English and storytelling, followed by a return to graduate studies, earning an MFA in Technical Theater at Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduation, she was a scenic painter with such organizations as Wolf Trap Public Opera and the Washington National Opera and a set designer for theaters and operas in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. After a foray of artistry in public events, her attention turned to film production where she joined the Art Department on narrative films as well as historic docudramas and series. Favorites include the History Channel’s series Sitting Bull, and Titans: the Rise of Hollywood on Curiosity Streaming. Recent art explorations include attaining a certificate in Deep Puppetry and becoming a Beat the Odds drum circle facilitator—both explore empathy and humanity through artistic expression.

Learn more about Betsy and her practice betsyart.org.

Maya Chafe

Maya Chafe

Teaching Artist

Born in Santa Barbara to artist parents, Maya Chafe had a magical childhood: she was always encouraged to express herself creatively. A lover of flowers and beaches, she became a dancer, writer, and an artist.  Moving to Taos, NM, in her teens she thrived with the influence of the indigenous people and their art forms, as well as painters, poets and writers.  She studied theater, ballet, belly dancing, folk dancing, silversmithing, costume history and sewing.  With a BFA in Acting/Dance from University of New Mexico, Maya went to New York City upon graduation.  She focused on dance, specifically flamenco, winning a scholarship to the Heeren Flamenco Foundation in Sevilla, teaching in the dance department at Rutgers University for 10 years, dancing 4 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and creating her own successful dance company Flamenco Revolucion.  Teaching art, theater and dance to youth, from the most elite to the most disadvantaged, was a consistent part of her life in NYC.  Now back in her home state of California, she continues sharing her passion for the arts and artists with the students of Learning to See.

How we can help with

Prop 28 Funding

As school administrators and staff decide how to best implement Prop 28 funds, LTS is here to support these efforts by providing new individualized guidance, feedback, and support services to those pivoting to full-time staff art educators and other new frameworks.
Click through the slides to learn more.