This month has been crazy as I am gearing up for the school year as the Coordinator of the ArtREACH program, an after school arts program for local homeless students. I will continue with my weekly updates once the school year begins to roll. ArtREACH is a collaboration between the Young at Art Children's Museum, the School Board of Broward County, and local area shelters.
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Here is more information on the ArtREACH Program:
Article below from Young At Art's Spring/Summer 2004 newsletter, The Drawing Board
Museum’s ArtREACH Homeless Program Breaks Ground
"This program is a blessing. They come home so excited." That’s what Jenny Malcolm, mother of three daughters, recently told a Sun-Sentinel reporter. What makes the afterschool program she was describing uncommon is that the home to which her girls come at the end of the day is a transitional shelter for homeless families
"One of the most striking things for me was being reminded of just how many young kids are in homeless shelters," says project director Samuel Joseph. "We’ve tried to design the program to use the arts not just to create beautiful artwork, but to help gain access to some subject areas with the kids that they might not otherwise get to." So, the program’s first art assignment required children to design their own "artistic license.
We gave them some background on ‘what is art,’ and we wanted them to experience that creative freedom, to not get locked into having to color within the lines."
Joseph says that the program has also had an important impact on the Museum. "It’s really given us a chance to live up to our commitment to serving the community, including those in greatest need," he says, "and has provided us the opportunity to make an even more profound impact and change lives for the better."
http://www.youngatartmuseum.org/grantimls.php
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