A Bus Ride Changed My Life
Patty Smith
Looking back, my first field trip was a life-changer! Riverside City Schools gave me a ride on a school bus all the way from Riverside to the San Diego Museum of Art! What a ride that turned out to be! I'd never been on a school bus before so that in itself was an experience. Plus, I'd never been to a museum. The field trip opened up a whole new world that I had never been exposed to! The following years, I went on two other field trips (thanks to Riverside City Schools) that included a visit to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and the Southwest Museum in Pasadena.
These field trips were the pathway to a life-long interest and love of the Arts! Having grown up as the daughter of a first-generation American, his plan for me was to take over the family business, which was a home improvement and rental center. That was not my dream! Instead, I began my own business as an Art Consultant and gallery owner! Art Expressions Gallery continued for 30 years until I retired in 2011. It was the catalyst for my interest in giving San Diego's students a "Ride to the Arts and Sciences" by co-founding ArtsBusXpress in 2002!
Field Trips Do Matter! Help us continue this much needed funding. School budgets no longer include funding for out-of-classroom field trips or in classroom virtual experiences. ArtsBusXpress fills that gap enabling teachers to enrich their students’ learning through these in-person and virtual Field Trip Xperiences.
A Field Trip Sparks a Love of opera
Donna Burtch
Envision a stage, a splash with pinks and purples projected onto creative scenes in three acts, beautiful, amazing costumes, and an exciting, enchanting story that engaged your imagination – this was probably my most favorite memory of a high school field trip to see Beauty and the Beast at the University of Montana. Not so unusual you may think, but this was a very rare and special experience because my little school of 50 students (for 12 grades) was on an Indian reservation, and it was only because of my art teacher, Corinne Taplin, that we were able to go see it. She was so talented and an inspiration to me. She often said, “You don’t have to be an artist; you can learn how to be artistic,” and because of her love for art, she taught us so many things about art, color wheels, dimension, and perspective in drawing and in painting. It was an enriching time, and now many schools have no funding for these kinds of field trips or art teachers.
This sparked my love for the arts and music, and years later, as an adult living in New York City, I explored museums, experienced for the first time, Broadway plays and concerts, including Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein. My memorable favorite first was seeing my first opera, Rigoletto at Lincoln Center, and I have loved opera ever since.
A Lake between Phoenix and tempe?
Jeri Denniston
At my high school, we were required to take two years of a foreign language to graduate. I chose Spanish and fell in love with the language and culture, thanks to a wonderful teacher, Miss Figarelli. She brought the language alive by playing Mexican and Spanish ballads that we had to translate while listening to the music. She didn’t just teach us grammar, she taught us to feel the heartache and joy woven into the music, art, and culture of the language.
Then she arranged a field trip to a Mexican restaurant in Tempe where we were required to only speak Spanish to order our meal and converse with one another. The restaurant staff only spoke Spanish with us and pretended they couldn’t understand English.
The most memorable part of the trip for me, however, was the bus ride. For the most part, I walked to and from school or was dropped off by a parent. Plus, I had never been to Tempe! We lived in North Central Phoenix, and the restaurant was to the east in a separate city. I remember being in awe when we crossed a bridge over a lake. A lake? In Phoenix? I couldn’t believe it. We passed the Grady Gammage Auditorium I had yet to experience and traveled between two small mountains into a charming downtown area that was very European in design. It reminded me of European plazas our family visited while living abroad. I don’t remember the meal or the conversation from that field trip, but the bus ride itself is imprinted on my brain. Miss Figarelli brought the language to life for me with a field trip across town, proving that sometimes, you don’t need a passport to travel – you just need a bus and a teacher who knows how to drive.