An artist's monthly reflections on working with youth as they discover expression through art.
Micala Gingrich-Gaylord, the Expressive Arts Center (EAC) Coordinator at the Newton PRTF, has spent the last five years of her career at Youthville streamlining art into the daily routine of the children residing there.
"We have provided basic foundational material for learning more about expression and the youth have been the courageous ones who have taken that and flown with it," said Micala. (The names in this journal have been changed to protect client confidentiality)
The Expressive Arts Center has the great privilege of being a little like Santa's work shop this year. We will be hosting a gift wrapping night for all the gifts that are donated to the youth who otherwise may miss the spirit of the holiday. Volunteers and community members will descend making the magic happen and we will feed our guests cookies and hot cocoa. We will be a winter wonderland of sorts with plenty of holiday projects and decorations to go around.
On December 5 from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. the EAC will have our annual Christmas Sale. Included will be the various works from our kids. All prices range from $2 to $5. The center as always is moving through the holiday season with great vigor and busy with holiday dinners, art sales and relishing the success of the YouthAloud event. All told we had about 80 guests that night and the kids all said they felt like "real poets". The campus is still spotted with the shirts and the afterglow of getting recognition for a job well done. As with all our projects, this is the most rewarding to see kids who feel good about their expression.
Coming up in we have our annual rest period moving into the New Year. 2010 Has high hopes of many projects with more Chalk on our hands, Survivor, Art Shows and the start of Interest Clubs for the youth on campus. May the spirit of the holiday inspire you to create something lovely!