Plato says you can tell a society through its arts, music, and athletics. Llewellyn Richie weaves both sports and art together this month with his exhibit of drawings and photographs at the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

Richie, a physical education teacher in the Berkeley school district, teaches sports creatively using invented games. "I tell the students football on the left, fine arts on the right, and ballet in the middle," Richie said.

Particularly impressed by New York's Dance Theater of Harlem, Richie said, "It is the height of perfection. It is the utmost. It is superb beauty. It is the cross between the physical and the visual. The students can now see the relationship between a beautiful painting and the grace and ease as shown in football and basketball." His drawing, Timely Elegance, captures his impression of Dance Theater.

Sport and art curricula are the first to be cut out of Berkeley's educational budget, but Richie said, "I won't let money get in my way. I pump my own money into the program." Of the money he invests, Richie said "the kids give it back to you, by continuing their art."

A University alumnus in art education, Richie returned to Penn State Saturday to old friends and professors. Welcoming him in a reception called The Artist Comes Home were many critical, knowledgeable members of the art faculty. With a hearty handshake, Richie informed a former professor "You're selling Picassos and Pizarros. You could be selling Richies!"

Lawrence Young, director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, said he feels Richie "has developed a unique style based on the teachers he has had. It suits his own perspective. There is a sense of flow to his work, a sensitivity to the subject. He draws people, not buildings or landscapes. It is refreshing.

"The exhibit is designed to provide understanding of the limitless variety in the world of art, to provide people with points of view and perspectives. Art is both instructive and aesthetic. Something happens to you when you see art. Impressed, depressed, repressed, there is a reaction. You can't help but change in some way. Our aim is exposure," he said.

Richie has corresponded with Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth on the subjects of mixed media and photographic techniques.

In some photographs, Richie has captured graffiti on background walls. Although Richie said he "can't stand" graffiti, he said when his "disturbing, war-zone feeling" California neighborhood was white- washed, it was like "the clearing up after the rain."

However, most of the exhibit is devoted to drawings of Richie's father, son, and fourth through sixth grade students. Richie said sequential photographs interest him, including many action shots of baseball and double dutch jump-roping. Sports are prevalent subjects in Richie's artwork.

Richie also uses art when teaching sports, demonstrating mental leaps and jumps to his students. A former basketball player at the University, Richie had sacrificed the sport for a better education.

Richie is a success with his students; many return years after they have left his classes.

"I don't talk down to them. I'll get down on my knees to talk on their level," Richie said. "Children should be seen as well as heard."

Portraits of his former students which are displayed at the exhibit show the comparison between the models' maturation and Richie's developed talent.

"I see something I like. It's an instinct. I may pass by it two or three times. But then I won't let it get away," Richie said.