Westlake's Premiere Fine Art School Has New Location

Feb. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Westlake Village, California - Mission: Renaissance Fine Art Classes, home of the award-winning Gluck Method of fine art training has a new home in the City of Westlake.  The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 12, 2012 at  11:00 a.m. 5776 – A1 Lindero Canyon Road in Westlake Village.  Fine artist and educator Larry Gluck, Founder of the Mission: Renaissance franchise will be in attendance with his wife, Co-Founder Sheila Gluck as well as distinguished City Officials.  http://www.thegluckmethod.com

Although it has been nearly 30 years since the passage of Proposition 13 – which cut local tax revenues for public schools and virtually eliminated arts programs – schools are still struggling to find a place in their budgets for the arts. According to the California Department of Education, there are 8,305 full-time credentialed art teachers, teaching 1,462,297 students in discipline-specific arts classes, representing only 23% of the State’s 6.3 million students.  

A 2001 study in Los Angeles County found that most local school districts allocated less than 2% of their annual budget to arts education, one of the reasons Mission: Renaissance became the go-to art school to receive a solid fine art education.  

“In 1970, the passage of the Ryan Act eliminated art and music requirements for elementary teacher preparation. As a result, the vast majority of today’s K-8 classroom teachers have had little or no systematic preparation to introduce their students to the visual arts. In the 1980s and 1990s, independent teaching artists, PTA's and educators from state and local arts organizations partially filled the arts gap in some schools on a limited basis. Mission: Renaissance has been filling that gap at our own schools teaching tens of thousands of students since 1975” said Ted Prescott, President of Mission: Renaissance.

Mission: Renaissance invites the community to receive a free introductory art class in celebration of its new location in Westlake Village.  (800) 430-4ART.