Feature: SEASONS OF ART at TOTEM Arts Education

The life of the artist, despite being frequently depicted as glamorously long-suffering and deeply emotional, features pragmatic components. (That which gives the artist the drive to create does not also eliminate the need to function in society.) An arts education is valuable, but there's no substitute for experience to master the set of practical, emotional skills outside the purview of university or conservatory classrooms necessary to a fulfilling life in art. TOTEM, a local arts education and exploration program, provides young artists with an energy-rich, secure space to experience these emotional realities.

Headed by local artists Jenna Tico and Sio Tepper, TOTEM is a multifaceted supplementary arts program structured as a series of workshops designed to connect artistic skills and mindset with the natural changing of the seasons. Each TOTEM event is a weekend convention based around a nature-based thematic element, such as shedding and harvest in fall, and death and hibernation in winter. Students attend events and prepare projects in relation to the theme. TOTEM uses frames of movement-based expression, improvisation, written word, handcrafts, and community interaction to encourage students to broaden their perception of creative communication.

An important aspect of TOTEM's culture is citizenship within an artists' network. Tico and Tepper cultivate this burgeoning connectedness by inviting local artists to present their work during the workshops, and by taking the students into the community. At a recent TOTEM event, Janet Reineck, Executive Director of World Dance For Humanity, introduced the group to harvest dances from India and Albania. Students also searched the farmer's market for intriguing food items, and engaged with farmers about the cycles of planting and harvesting. These exercises encourage practicing curiosity and maintaining interest in habitual surroundings.

"We do a lot of work, movement wise," says Tico of recent programming, likening the exercises to the natural process of sewing, growth, and reaping. "We did a movement piece, and I made them stop and start over, stop and start over. We're so instant gratification that we pull things up too soon. Doing something where the point is giving it time to grow rather than to finish and move forward--it's radical. It's punk rock."

TOTEM's assortment of creative offerings allows students to interact with forms of expression that may seem unnatural or uncomfortable, and to find enjoyment in both success and failure. Tico enjoys working with teenagers for their availability to explore these new forms of communication. The emotional need for the comfort of specialized proficiency increases with time, and most teens have yet to commit to a finite cluster of marketable skills. Tico calls this period in life "the sweetspot between discipline and proficiency; teenagers are in that crack in the sidewalk where stuff can grow."

TOTEM also provides teenagers mentorship from an important, but somewhat underrepresented, age group in Santa Barbara: 22-28. The high cost of living often alienates this aspect of the population; starting wages generally aren't enough to afford an easy lifestyle in SB during the post-college years when people build career skills. Connection with young, relatable counselors gives teens an accessible view of what life can look like just beyond the immediate thresholds of high school or college.

"When we were working on (the recent SBHS production of) Hair, it was clear that Sio and I had a unique place in the kids' lives as people who could hold space with them. They're going to jump into the water knowing that I have a hand on them. There's a safety in that. But we're not so removed from them that we don't have some sense of being what's thrown at them; technology- and social media-wise, especially."

Officially under the umbrella of local artistic collaborative, Fishbon, and partnered with SBCAST, TOTEM creates opportunities for young artists to both show and see works in progress. Tico sees the project as a way to re-invent the idea of the indigenous Santa Barbara artist: "To be indigenous means to be thinking about what your community will be like for future generations. It takes the power out of the circumstance of your birth. Teach kids to be artists, but also to come back to the city after college or travelling, and infuse life into the community they're from, or the community where they land." TOTEM looks to give students the resources to be thoughtfully engaged in our community, and to create work that reflects their experience in a variety of forms.

Currently TOTEM is fundraising, with both a crowd-funding campaign (check it out here: https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/totem-santa-barbara/x/15584864) and a Back to the Future 50s/80s mash-up Prom fundraiser this Friday, December 16, at Brasil Arts Café. Music curated by DJ Darla B, tickets 15$ at the door, 5:30-10:30 pm.