The ABC Project

Art Builds Confidence. Art Builds Community. Art Benefits Children.

Engaging the community through the arts always has favorable results. I knew this as a K-5 art teacher. When families and the community are given the opportunity to view the work of one of their own, the excitement is evident. The young artists and performers realize their creativity, they come to understand that their work is appreciated, and the community develops a creative and artistic awareness. People learn to seek out exhibits, they start asking about opportunities to make art, to learn and build on techniques and to display work. All of it, in turn, feeds the support needed to retain or enhance programs in schools or communities or even to start new ones. This was my motivation.

I began to teach art once a week at our local Boys & Girls Club. The Boys & Girls Club of America is founded on several principles, one of which is the idea that children and youth participate in Fine Arts regularly through their club. As the local school district did not have an art program at the elementary level, if they had never taken the art session through the club, they were unlikely to have been exposed to the types of projects we were going to do together.

The Fundraiser through Art

Our club was experiencing some financial stress. To try to help remedy that I suggested putting on an exhibit of student work, which would be sold through a silent auction over the period of a month. The art work would be created entirely from our art sessions, within a 6-8 week period, and the pieces would be framed and hung at a local coffee shop, which had graciously agreed to host the exhibit.

The art sessions were only for one hour every week. The mix of students varied, and so some projects were started and completed at different intervals. In addition, the students represented Kindergarten through 7th grade, demonstrating a significant span of ability, much less exposure to art concepts and techniques. I collected different materials from the community: fabric was donated by a local interior decorating shop, with mat board from the frame shop. The projects had to be simple, engaging, and yet needed to offer a differentiated outcome for each artist. This was about empowerment through art, as well as being an opportunity to support an after-school program. No small task for these young artists, and yet they set about to create an incredible exhibit known throughout the community as the ABC Project, which stands for Art Builds Confidence; Art Builds Community; and Art Benefits Children.

The ABC Project Exhibit

I hoped for about 20 pieces of art. I ended up with 38 beautiful works that were donated to the Boys & Girls Club by the young artists to benefit the programs that serve them. I sent out an email to a long list of friends and parents of club members describing the project and inviting individuals to sponsor the framing of the artwork. Thus several generous individuals contributed to the underwriting of the frames. The local frame shop cut the mats for each work, and a local artist donated the use of display panels to exhibit the works.

We launched the exhibit with a reception for the artists. It was wonderful to see them arrive with their families in tow, to see their work exhibited in a local shop, right on the town square. The bid sheets were laid out, with an opening bid, ready for the next. The local newspaper came to interview. Families took photos of the artists with their work. And the community rallied to support the artists by bidding on the artwork.

Art supporting Art

In the end, the club raised just under $1000 to support programs for its club members. Because the overall support for the club had been so great, the club's corporate board elected to allocate those funds to the fine arts program, thus ensuring that the children and youth served by the club continue to experience fine arts programming. We plan to take a few field trips this coming year: one will be to an art museum, for sure.

http://artsonia.com/boys7/ (this is our online art exhibit)

http://bgca.org  (This is the Boys & Girls Club of America official website)

National Standards:

• Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories
• Students understand there are different responses to specific artworks