Every kindergartner knows that "A" is for apple, but in hundreds of Utah schools, "A" also may be for art.
Original works of many of the state's premiere artists - and at least one internationally noted painter - are not hung in galleries but in school hallways, offices and classrooms.What may be Utah's only original Norman Rockwell painting is in the office of the Draper Elementary School. It is one of two renderings the Americana artist did of Ichabod Crane as the quintessential teacher.
In the painting, a delightfully gangly Crane, his stockings sagging below his laced breeches, his pocket full of books, a quill behind his ear and a switch discreetly behind his back, casts a baleful eye over his shoulder at unseen students.
Rockwell himself wrote of the Ichabod painting (obviously before the work was acquired by the Utah school): "I painted . . . it twice as I wasn't satisfied with the first attempt. But it's a sad story. I found no public that would take them, so they died a terrible death. But I still think the idea is sound." The artist's perception of failure has been fully disproved as appreciation for the Crane painting, along with its value, has increased significantly.
Described in an art anthology as a depiction with "just-right grotesqueness," the 24-inch-by-38-inch Rockwell was acquired in the early 1950s when Reid Beck was principal of the combined Draper Elementary/Junior High School.
Beck was an art lover and took his faculty and sometimes his students on annual pilgrimages to Springville for that community's art shows, a school record says. When they saw the Rockwell during one of those shows, the students became smitten and wanted to add it to the school's already sizable collection.
The story goes that Rockwell, when he found his picture had caught the eye of students, significantly reduced the price so they could have it.
Draper also boasts a small bronze statue by Utah sculptor Avaard Fairbanks. The "New Life, New Frontiers" piece is a small version of the work Fairbanks did for the Chicago World's Fair. Paintings by such Utah artists as James T. Harwood, C. Salisbury and P. Salisbury, B.F. Larsen and John Henry Moser hang along the walls of hallways and decorate rooms.
The collection is a rich resource for the Draper Elementary children and for other students who are occasionally invited to visit the school, said current Principal Ronald B. Jarrett.
The artworks in many Jordan District schools are a legacy from early leaders who encouraged the schools to create and add to collections.
Many of the schools have just a few pieces, but Draper and Oakdale elementaries both have significant collections that they inherited when junior high schools broke off and built their own buildings.
Collecting art was a community project in many schools. Children brought small change, participated in a variety of fund-raisers and solicited cash votes for an Art King and Queen each year to make the purchases, said Jean Hendricksen, who attended the Draper school when it incorporated both elementary and junior high school programs.
The increasing value of the art items in the schools has been both a blessing and a challenge to education officials. Security, not just for art items, but to protect other valuable school equipment and furnishings, has been improved almost universally.
Many schools are equipped with movement sensors and tied electronically to local law enforcement agencies so any unexplained intrusion in the buildings brings an immediate response, said Jordan Superintendent Raymond W. Whittenburg.
During the Great Depression, Utah's schools got a windfall in art from one of the provisions of the Works Project Administration.
The make-work brainchild of President Franklin D. Roosevelt was launched in December 1933 to put Americans back to work after a devastating economic disaster.
In the spring and summer of 1935, the WPA programs were implemented in Utah. One element of the program encouraged artists who had been impoverished by the Depression to produce works for public buildings.
Darrell J. Greenwell, then editor of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, was named administrator, and the program functioned through the Utah State Institute of Fine Arts, forerunner to the Utah Arts Council.
Paintings, murals, sculptures and fine prints began to grace the walls of public buildings, including city and county offices, universities, libraries and schools.
The participating artists earned an average salary of $85 per month. They were expected to produce an art piece every four to eight weeks and to make their works a reflection of something American, according to "Utah Art of the Depression," a history of that era.
The names of many well-known Utah artists are included in the WPA lists: Carlos J. Anderson (Andreson), Elzy J. Bird, Harwood, Roy H. Butcher, Lynn Fausett, Gordon N. Cope, Millard F. Malin, D. Howell Rosenbaum, Florence Ware and many others.
Their works not only established an aesthetic treasure for the schools but offered a visual history of the state, with scores of works that focused on early Utah events and everyday living.
Schoolchildren contributed to the purchase of some of the pieces. North Cache High School students, for instance, sold candy bars with a penny from each sale devoted to the purchase of WPA art, the history recounts.
The impact of Alice Merrill Horne on Utah's art scene in the same era also had an effect on how many pieces went to schools. She was "an art pusher," recalls Gary Swensen, former Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation Department director and longtime Granite School Board member. He has had a long-standing interest in art in general and Utah artists in particular.
Horne traveled Utah promoting the cause of art wherever she could, including in the schools, Swensen said. "Probably more than any individual she was responsible for getting art into the schools. She was known to catch a trolley with a couple of paintings under her arm and go to the districts to encourage them to purchase items for their schools. Some important pieces were acquired because of her."
Many of the artworks that found their way into schools in the first half of this century are still there. Some are valued, appreciated and safeguarded. Others that should logically have been valued as important parts of Utah's art history have been forgotten, ignored, thrown out, sold for a pittance or relegated to the care of custodians who tucked them away in attics and crawl spaces - or chucked them into the furnace - depending on the awareness of changing school personnel, said Swensen.
One of many stories about school art that failed to get the proper appreciation involves two paintings by Minerva Teichart, who is well-known for her treatment of LDS Church themes.
The works were hung at old South High School on State Street. When the school wanted to raise money for football helmets, the Teichart paintings were auctioned off for $5 each.
"The last anyone saw of them, they were headed down State Street tied to the top of a car," said Swensen.
While serving on the Granite Board, he became intrigued with identifying the artworks that hung in the district's schools, especially the older buildings.
"I was aware the district had some art, and I began to look for it. No one had ever cataloged it, and we hadn't done a good job of keeping track of it," said Swensen. In 1972, Granite art supervisor Delbert Smedley was directed to conduct an inventory.
What he found was amazing: several hundred works of art, many of which had multiplied in value many times over from the date of their purchase. The district now has a complete record of its art items and is looking out for them. Some other districts have followed suit, cataloging their art items and taking steps to safeguard them.
Swensen would like broader public exposure of the school art. Schools no longer hold an Art Week, culminating in a community invitation to visit the school and view student art and art collections.
While still a board member, he tried to promote a rotating gallery, possibly located in one of the buildings the district was vacating. He envisioned such a center as an educational resource and an opportunity for the public to see works normally sequestered away in the schools. But the project never materialized.
The Draper Visual Arts Foundation, a group recently formed in Draper, has also begun a campaign to protect and promote the art in that community, said Hendricksen. The foundation will seek grants and gifts to protect, refurbish and display the art now housed in the community. Ideally, a joint project with the Draper Historical Society and the Draper Arts Council would provide a showcase for both the visual and performing arts, she said.