Blog
Bronx Wash Mural Community Paint Day
The Bronx Wash is a cement covered arroyo that is an uninviting eyesore in the Northwest Neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona that cuts off access from the south to Mansfield Park. The goal of the Bronx Wash Mural Project is to encourage a sense of pride and ownership in the area, to reconnect the neighborhood and involve local residents in beautifying this shared space. On July 11, 2009 more than 25 Northwest Neighborhood participated in the Bronx Wash Mural Community Paint Day. The project involved a prior series of design workshops for youth and adults at the Northwest Neighborhood Center led by community artist Michael B. Schwartz ( www.michaelbschwartz.com ) where ideas were brainstormed and combined through dialogue, drawing and journaling. The process fostered understanding and trust among a diverse group of neighborhood residents and they achieved a final design which came alive during a series of community paint days. Read More »
Alliance Data Associates Teach Art Basics to the Boys and Girls Club
Throughout May, 12 Alliance Data associates spent at least an hour each week of quality, one-on-one time with a Boys and Girls Club student to teach them the basics of an art medium, such as photography, oil on canvas, mosaic, clay sculpture, and other crafts. The Alliance Data/NTBCA arts mentoring program and accompanying OMOT participation in early August marks the first time art created by children at the Boys and Girls Club will be judged by professional artists alongside works from adults in the OMOT art program. Read More »
Frozen River Film Festival
In 2006, Theatre du Mississippi began a collaboration with Winona State University, the City of Winona, the Winona Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Telluride Mountain-films to produce the first Frozen River Film Festival. The Festival's goal is to inspire, educate and engage students about issues surrounding the environment, world cultures and adventure sports through a broad range of multi-media experiences. We raise public awareness through key artists, speakers and filmmakers who share their stories through film, music, workshops, educational programs, and outdoor activities. Read More »
Art Corps’, Alayna Wool, Empowers Women Through Art
Except for an early morning routine that consists of awakening to crowing roosters, making coffee, and preparing for the 30-minute bike ride to the nearest community, no single day is ever the same for Alayna. Philadelphia native and San Juan, Puerto Rico adoptee, Alayna Wool, is one of four ArtCorps artists to return for a second year in 2009. A 2005 graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a major in general sculptural studies and a minor in photography, Alayna began working with ArtCorps partner World Neighbors Guatemala in 2008. Read More »
Teaching Kids Core Values and Virtues with Art
As a volunteer in July 2009, I taught jewelry making to a group of young people ages six through fourteen at the community-based Knowledge-First Empowerment Center in Houston, Texas. The director of Knowledge-First, Inc., Mr. James Allen, had seen samples of my artwork and asked me to become involved in the Empowerment Center's Summer Camp. We wanted to provide activities for the children that would not only be fun, but would also teach core values and virtues through the Arts. Read More »
BookPALS: Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools
I am a BookPALS reader for this national Screen Actors Guild Foundation organization: Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools. For several years, I've been working with 4th and 5th grade students at a Manhattan Public School. Read More »
Making Music with Tallahassee Girl Scout Troop 49
The Florida State University chapters of Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI), a professional women’s music fraternity, and Tau Beta Sigma (TBS), a band service sorority, joined together to put on a free workshop to help over 100 Tallahassee Girl Scouts earn their music badge in a day-long event. Read More »
At-Risk Teens: Summer Enrichment Program
Members of the Symphony of the Americas worked with Changing Directions 4 Youth & Families this summer to provide strings and music theory classes for at-risk teens in Pompano Beach, FL. Students learned that their bows were an international cooperative with materials from Siberia, Africa, and South America. Read More »
The Singing Tree
I have a lifelong mural project, inspired in 1999 by then 8 year-old Meredith Miller of Virginia, who said, "What if the whole world made a painting together?" I have used this vision of unity through creativity to oversee the creation of 10 murals with 8000 people from 15 countries. Read More »
Curator’s Weekly Tours for Visitors and School Classes
Curating an exhibit and writing a catalogue at Key West Art & Historical museum and giving a curator's tour weekly to locals, visitors and school classes. This Sanchez retrospective is set up so that the viewer can see the history of Key West through the eyes of the artist. Mario Sanchez: 100 Years & Better Than Everâ at The Customs House Museum. Read More »
Project Linus Blanket
After the 1:30 performance of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, members of the 08/09 Adventure Theatre Bookclub and several cast members joined together to make blankets on behalf of Project Linus' Blanket - a charity that donates blankets to children in need. Read More »
Dancing Sculptures in Inner City Neighborhoods
My goal is for my sculptures to Dance Across the Street, for them to dance to as many Inner City neighborhoods as possible. Ideally I want to see this series installed on the Broadway Malls from Lincoln Center to Washington Heights, using all of Broadway as one stage. Read More »
Medal Day at MacDowell
This August, The MacDowell Colony, the nation's leading artist residency program, celebrated 50 years of Medal Day. Medal Day at MacDowell honors an artist for lifetime achievement and in the past has brought such luminaries as Georgia O'Keeffe, John Updike, Merce Cunningham, and Aaron Copland to its community of 6,000 in the hills of New Hampshire. Read More »
Volunteering for JazzMN
Shortly after I retired in 1999, I attended the initial JazzMN Big Band concert and completed a volunteering card, telling the director that I was a grant writer-fund raiser. Doug Snapp called me the next day and I have worked as a volunteer general manager ever since. Read More »
Colorado Business Committee for the Arts Provides Training for Business Volunteers
For 14 years Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) has trained business professionals to serve as board members in the arts and cultural community and beyond through Leadership Arts. CBCA has graduated over 435 participants who have gone on to serve nearly 70 arts and cultural organizations and over 50 other nonprofit groups along the Front Range. Read More »
Old Town Temecula Community Theater Relies on Volunteers
Since opening on OCT 4, 2005, The Old Town Temecula Community Theater has benefited from a talented and hard working group of dedicated Volunteers. We are very appreciative of their work, for as our most visible welcoming greeters, their primary role is to ensure that each patron who attends the theater has an excellent, memorable experience. Read More »
Open Art Studios Opens Their Doors for Tours and Demonstrations
The majority of Madison area artists work full time and do their art on the side, so the OAS event allows them to interact with the public in an intimate way, sharing technique, showing sketchbooks and works in progress, and talking about their artmaking interests and processes. Read More »
Symphonicity: All-Volunteer Orchestra in Virginia Beach
Symphonicity-the Symphony Orchestra of Virginia Beach, is an all volunteer community orchestra which presents 7 free concerts per year, and 5 classical Masterworks concerts at very low prices. The Music Director and Conductor is David S. Kunkel.The orchestra, now in its 29th season, consists of people from all walks of life and all ages. It is especially important that younger advanced players are mentored by older, experienced players. Read More »
The Arts Bring Teamwork and Creativity to Students
As a volunteer teaching artist registered with the TN Arts Commission Artist Registry, and as a mentor at the alternative school, I began, ten years ago, teaching art classes for high school age at-risk students in Loudon County which then had the state's highest dropout rate. Read More »
Painting Stimulates Alzheimer Patients
My volunteer work began several years ago as a small class teaching art to Alzheimer patients at a Life Care Center. As I noticed how painting stimulated the right brain, and my students began to IMPROVE, I began to take note of the importance of art in our development. Read More »