February 1st, 2007 by: Ashley Cecil Email this to a friend
ArtBridge lets homeless children of Houston create masterpieces
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7″ x 9″ watercolor
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Obviously I have contacted many non-profits and given them my pitch, but never have I had a response like the one I got from ArtBridge. Instead of the usual, “we would love to have you” I got, “we would love to have you teach our kids about portraiture.” Forget what I was after, ArtBridge was focused on their goal of bringing art to the homeless children in 8 Houston shelters.
Each year, ArtBridge programs serve more than 2,000 children whose families are indigent, in crisis, and struggling to meet their needs…They have experienced family chaos, neglect, and often, domestic abuse. Some have been abandoned and are living alone in shelters.
How do you turn down an offer like that? So I did indeed end up introducing myself to a small group of people half my size and explaining to them what “painting journalism” means. Then I asked each of them about their day and to model their mood for the person sitting across from them. Although restless 8 year olds don’t make very good models, I did eventually have a room of artistic journalists attempting to capture what they saw on paper. Short attention spans made completed pieces nearly impossibly, but there was at least a lot of dialogue about the events of the day. I was flattered to be drawn by several of the kids (proudly displayed on my fridge) and got some big hugs before I left. It was a humbling and heart-warming experience.
If you’re one of my Houston readers and have an artistic flare, I’m sure you would enjoy volunteering with this amazing organization.
2 Comments
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Thank you for sharing this! I am not a Houstonian, but I am pretty close and I had never heard of this organization before. I will definitely be looking into them more!
Jut reading about your interaction with the children is inspiring. What a wonderful approach (yours: journalistic art) to get them to think, talk, understand, and “vent” about the events and people happening/existing in their worlds.
Kudos to you!
May 12th, 2007 at 9:22 am
[…] Last fall, I was a guest artist at a Houston community center for ArtBridge. The nonprofit organization offers art programs to homeless children as a much needed emotional outlet. I was given free reign and decided to have the children replicate what I do, with an emphasis on portraiture. My explanation to them of my work went something like this: “I paint people doing good things. Sometimes their work is very hard (ie CASA) and it can make them sad. Then sometimes they get to do things that make them very happy. I make art of all of it.” […]
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