Our Programs
ART Encounters
Enhance self-esteem and confidence, encourage self-discovery, improve communication skills, build personal connections, teach art principles
Youth participate in 2-4 art classes per month.
Youth exhibit and sell their art at bi-monthly exhibits at a professional art gallery and retain the profit from these sales.
Youth attend gallery opening receptions where they speak about their artwork to professional artists and other reception guests.
Youth participate in 3 field trips to the Orlando Museum of Art.
Youth attend 1 professionally produced play at Orlando Family Stage.
Location: Edgewood Children’s Ranch (reparative, residential care for troubled youth)
ART Discoveries
Enhance self-esteem and confidence, provide access to new arts experiences, teach art principles
Youth participate in 1-2 art classes per month.
Youth participate in 3 field trips to the Orlando Museum of Art.
Youth attend 3 professionally produced plays at Orlando Family Stage.
Locations: Orlando Union Rescue Mission (homeless shelter for families).
Creating Community
Educate the community through art, and enhance cultural pride
Educational art activities are provided for the public at community events to raise awareness of child welfare issues, or to honor achievements by minority cultures and their leaders.
Locations: Orlando and Winter Garden, Florida
ART Additions
Enhance and support public school art programming at low-income schools
Students are given the opportunity to participate in special community art exhibits.
Complimentary tickets are provided for students to attend a play at Orlando Family Stage.
Art supplies are purchased and donated to support school art programming.
Volunteers provide weekly assistance in the art classroom.
Location: Maxey Elementary School
Kits for Kids
Expand art access
Disadvantaged youth receive art kits allowing them to continue creating art outside of class.
Locations: Various organizations in Orlando and Winter Garden, Florida
START the Conversation
Provide input from youth and encourage conversation regarding community development initiatives
Children in under-resourced communities create art to highlight existing assets and future dreams for their communities.
Residents of long neglected neighborhoods are often reluctant to speak up to local leaders because of past experiences.
Children and the art they create opens up the conversation and gets everyone talking.
Clients: Lift Orlando, Polis Institute, and St. Luke’s United Methodist Church
Healing the HEART
Provide therapeutic art experiences for victims of sexual abuse, their caregivers, and siblings.
Therapeutic Family Art Nights are held 3 times per year.
Families complete introspective art projects while spending quality time together.
Therapists who counsel victims of abuse participate in stress relieving art workshops.
Location: Howard Phillips Center for Children & Families (support services for disabled, disadvantaged, or abused children, child abuse prevention programs)
ART for Understanding
Educate the community through art, and enhance cultural pride
Children’s art is exhibited in prominent public venues or at community events to raise awareness of child welfare issues or to honor achievements by minority cultures and their leaders.
Locations have included: Orlando Family Stage, SoBo Art Gallery, Orlando Museum of Art, University of Central Florida, Orlando City Hall, Orange County Administration Building, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church