A Month Filled with New Friends and New Experiences |
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The month of May was filled with some special experiences for Art with a Heart. The organization was honored to host six exceptional MBA candidates from Harvard Business School as part of the school's FIELD Immersion Project. The insight and strategies the candidates shared with Art with a Heart will elevate the organization in the weeks, months and years to come.
Art with a Heart also enjoyed hosting a field trip to its office for Baltimore Homecoming. The guests enjoyed creating art on a different type of canvas...rocks! The colorful rocks made during the field trip will be added to hundreds more that will form an inspiring rock garden at the Center for Hope.
The Art with a Heart Board shared an experiential afternoon in collaboration with the Art with a Heart team. The group participated in a tour of Baltimore similar to the tour conducted for Art of Leadership students. The tour was facilitated by Sache Jones and Mia Smith who have partnered with Art with a Heart for several years. After an in-depth debrief, the group enjoyed refreshments and an art making activity.
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During the month of May, Art with a Heart facilitated over 1,300 art classes. The superhero teaching team provided opportunities for students of all ages to connect to nature, literacy, community and their inner selves through the comprehensive Art with a Heart curriculum. In addition to these connections, Art with a Heart classes continue to foster strong social, emotional skills like curiosity, open-mindedness, self-management, positive relationships, self-awareness, and self-efficacy.
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Community Service and Public Art |
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In May, Art with a Heart’s Community Service and Public Art branch continued to provide the Baltimore community with meaningful, calming, and creative tools for self care, self expression and mental health. The team installed a new public art piece for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Childhood Education Center. This 10 x 10 painted mural enhances the renovated playground of the preschool and includes hidden numbers and letters painted throughout the mural for the children to seek and find. Several species of birds, animals, insects and flowers indigenous to Maryland were added to foster the children's learning and discovery of the natural world.
Art with a Heart also launched a new project with youth at the Springboard Youth Resource Center, engaged with the community at the Center for Hope, and facilitated a Paint and Play program at a Ready by 21 event in Druid Hill Park.
Art with a Heart is grateful for 183 volunteers and 14 service groups who helped with public art projects, preparing materials for Art with a Heart programs, advancing special projects, and completing new products for Heartwares.
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Art of Leadership students spent an active day at Outward Bound focusing on team cohesion and communication skills. To build trust, leaders worked together to tackle challenging initiatives and strategy games, including holding and releasing live mouse traps in each other's hands! Art of Leadership Cohort 7's Capstone Public Art project is also underway! The 4'x8' creation will beautify the volunteer nook at NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore and was designed to represent the complexities of a mental health journey, the importance of having a supportive network, and to celebrate the organization's dedicated volunteers and impactful work. Students were joined by volunteers and staff from NAMI at six workshops this month.
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The HeARTworks/ HeARTwares team has been busy restocking the store, facilitating innovative programming, and preparing for a full summer. Workforce students from the Claremont School and Itineris have created multimedia flower artwork, hearts created from natural elements, and crystal sun-catchers. HeARTwares hosted five art parties this month, where participants reported feeling, "calm," "creative," "proud," and "happy!" Thank you to Md Coalition of Families, AIGA Baltimore, Monarch Sister Schools and Chizuk Amuno Congregation for partnering with the organization. Email Christina Ralls at christina@artwithaheart.net to book your art party today.
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Art with a Heart's Special Project's team spent the month of May creating beautification projects with the students and community members at four Baltimore City schools, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, and Art with a Heart's own Art of Leadership students. In the next three weeks, Art with a Heart will install five art pieces at four locations throughout the city:
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Two murals at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. Participants in Art with a Heart's after-school art club have worked on the murals since January, providing students with ownership over the pieces and an opportunity for artistic-expression in a school with no visual arts classes.
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A large ceramic mosaic measuring 4’ x 6’ at George Washington Elementary School. Students in grades kindergarten through 5th created original ceramic elements to form a landscape of their community to demonstrate pride in their neighborhood and their creative abilities.
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A triptych mural at Carver Vocational-Technical High School featuring ceramic tiles created by 9th and 10th grade students to extol the values of their learning community. For most, it was their first time working with clay, and they were enthusiastic to discover that they loved it!
Special Project work continues on several other projects that will be completed this summer. In one notable project, community members of all ages have painted floral and botanical elements that will be included in a beautification project for Lillie May Carroll Jackson Charter School's auditorium.
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3000 Falls Road | Mill No. 1 | Baltimore, MD 21211
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