The Arts Cart exhibit was so big, we had to use two galleries. Yes, both of our upstairs exhibition spaces are being used to house this wonderful exhibit.
Big painting by participants from Comprehensive Care Children's Program
The Arts Cart program is a grant-funded outreach project designed to be a mobile version of the “Community Arts Center experience” accessible to groups that may not be able to normally participate in some of the other opportunities that the Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky provides. The groups that participate in the program show a great range of diversity (i.e. adults with mental disabilities, Big Brothers Big Sisters, children with emotional disturbances at our local Comprehensive Care center, and perhaps most interesting – a mixed group of senior citizens and kindergartners that meet at McDowell Place, an assisted living facility). The idea for the project came from a blending of two concepts. The first was my experience working on a 21st Century Grant program in Lincoln County, Kentucky where I would provide arts programming to groups of disadvantaged children in an after-school program and the second was from a concept that I found googling other un-related Community Arts Centers online. The concept was called “Art To Go” from the Community Arts Center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
(Read more about the Pennsylvania Arts To GO program here: https://www.communityartscenter.org/art-to-go/) By marrying my experiences with the 21st Century program and the “Art To Go” concept, we started a successful outreach project. Rather than developing a curriculum and having art “classes,” the Arts Cart focuses more on arts “activities” where the participant is allowed a bit more individual freedom to explore the art within the time period and is spared the criticism that may hamper their willingness to participate and enjoy the activity. With the Arts Cart, we simply want people to enjoy themselves through art. Rather than being considered “art therapy” we go for the approach of “art as therapy.”
Each group has its own unique skill set and limitations for which Arts Cart staff and volunteers must consider when preparing an activity. For example, the group at Pioneer Vocational Industries is limited in their abilities to use scissors and other fine motor movements. The group of seniors and kindergartners has difficulties with very small objects like beads. Participants in several of the groups have low literacy levels, requiring full verbal instruction on most projects. Planning the day’s activity is the most difficult task. Every element of the activity must also be adaptable in order to fill the near hour-long time slot. For project staff, improvisational skills are an essential.
Although there is a lot of work to see in the exhibition, the pieces exhibited are only the tip of the iceberg. Most arts cart participants choose to keep their art, so the exhibit only shows a few of pieces that we have been able to collect over the year and a half that the program has been in operation.
Among the works exhibited are what I like to call “the big paintings.” These paintings are done on a painter’s canvas drop cloth, which I highly recommend as a low-cost solution to providing a big canvas space. They usually cost around $10 for a cloth about 9’ by 6’, the largest of the big paintings on exhibit. With the exception of a couple of paintings done for Great American Brass Band Festival displays, the big paintings are a unique artist collaboration between Arts Cart staff and participants. In preparing a larger painting, I encourage the participants to draw images on a particular theme. When the drawings are finished, I cut out and separate each image, collaging them together to make a larger composite scene. When I have the layout completed, I then reduce the size of the combined images in order to make it the proper size for our opaque projector. The image is projected onto the canvas and the basic lines are painted, almost like a coloring book. The next session is spent with the participants coloring in the lines and shapes to complete the final big picture. One of the most beneficial aspects of this particular process is that the participants must learn to work together to create the final product. The person that originally drew an image on the painting might not be the person that gets to paint it in. I like the way that the original nuances of the participant drawings can be translated onto a larger surface by projection without losing their individual charm.
Other works on display include paintings from our 2008 Summer Camp where we had around 40 kids show up for free arts activities. They made ceramics, paintings, and drawings as well as participated in classes in creative movement and dance with assistance from some of the areas gifted arts instructors including Jacque Kahanic, Jack Kaiser, and Yolanda Pace.
The Arts Cart program is one of the Community Arts Center’s greatest outreach programs and backs up our belief that art can be and should be accessible to everyone. Through the Arts Cart program, we attempt to create a great day for all of the participants involved through the arts. We are observing some positive results among our participants as well. Nancy Martindale has noticed of her group at Advocate Homes, “That one student early on would paint with such force that the bristles would fall out of the brush, making holes in the paper. Now that same student has learned to make delicate brushstrokes.” The Arts Cart is also a very warm and rewarding opportunity for our staff and volunteers working in the program. There truly is no greater joy than to walk into a room and hear, “The art guy’s here!” by an excited and eager group of Arts Cart participants.
Danville - Painting by Arts Cart participants from the Southwood program at Comprehensive Care.
The exhibit will be on display throughout April 2009 with an opening reception on the 16th from 6:00-8:00 pm.
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