Little Christos : Elementary Students Raise Umbrellas on Thousand Oaks Hillside

When it comes to staging big-scale art events, the environmental artist Christo has the definite edge on scope, visibility and money spent for his behemoth umbrella art project.

As for enthusiasm, however, he may have nothing on Sherrill Hyink’s sixth-grade students at Weathersfield Elementary School in Thousand Oaks.

Hyink’s class, along with two others, took to a hillside with umbrellas Friday to perform a miniature version of Christo’s massive umbrella display, now showing in the rolling brown hills of California’s Tejon Pass, and in the rice paddies north of Tokyo.

For a few brief, shining moments, the steep Weathersfield hillside joined in the glory as, on cue, the school’s 103 sixth-grade students opened umbrellas of many hues and sizes to form letters and designs before an audience of Weathersfield students and teachers.

“They prepared for two weeks, trying to approximate as closely as possible what Christo was doing,” Principal Deanna Roth said.

As Hyink blew a whistle, students formed what they said was the letter “W,” for Weathersfield, then popped open their own umbrellas in the oppressive afternoon heat. Next, they formed the letter “M” for Meadows Elementary School, where sixth-grade students were staging a similar project.

Then they formed a sunburst design, and finally a more complicated configuration meant to represent Christo’s eyes.

“It was kind of weird, I didn’t get it,” said fifth-grade student Nema Missaghian, 9, after studying the eye formation. “They just opened them up, and boom.”

Hyink said the students had been following the progress of Christo’s project for several weeks, and also took the opportunity to study other artists and to discuss what defines art.

“At first the kids were saying, ‘Giant umbrellas? Why would anybody want to do that?’ ” Hyink said. As their discussions continued, however, they decided they could try Christo’s project themselves.

“Art can be anything you want it to be,” said sixth-grade student Todd Cibere, 11.

Not only were the students’ umbrellas considerably smaller than Christo’s 28-foot-wide giants, so was their budget: While Christo spent $26 million to stage his project, the Weathersfield students simply brought their umbrellas from home.

“You don’t need a lot of money,” said Collin Wedel, 11. “You can make just about anything if you use your mind and imagination.”

The students wrote to the artist asking if he could attend their event, but their letter, addressed simply to Tejon, Calif., was returned, Hyink said. They still hope the artist can visit the school and discuss his work, she said.

“I don’t know if I understand everything about what Christo did,” said sixth-grade student Laura Nigro, 11. “But what he showed is you can create art in any form.”

While acknowledging that their project was smaller, some of the Weathersfield artists said it cannot really be compared with their mentor’s.

“I think that art cannot be judged, or one cannot be better than the other,” said sixth-grade student Tiffany Swisher, 11. “Ours and Crisco’s--I mean Christo’s--are the same.”