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Free Arts of Arizona - Healing Abused Children Through Art“When I lead an art group, I like a mess,” Free Arts of Arizona board member and volunteer mentor, Karen Grande said. “I figure that everything else in their lives is so strict and so structured that they might as well put paint everywhere.”
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona is a nonprofit organization that utilizes the arts to help homeless and abused children in Arizona learn to trust and heal. Free Arts staff and volunteers serve more than 8,000 children each year through mentoring and community activities that engage children through visual and performing arts. Since its founding in 1993, Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona has helped over 95,000 children build trusting relationships with caring adults and learn to use artistic expression as a coping and healing method. “Art is a really accessible thing for kids,” Grande said. “They know crayons, they know pencils. So we start slow and we build kind of an arc of self-confidence and interaction amongst them and ways of expressing yourself in non-violent, non-harmful ways.” Free Arts offers three programs in which volunteers can get involved depending on their availability and level of commitment. Free Arts Days immerse children in their communities through collaborations with local arts and culture organizations including the Herberger Theater Center and the Phoenix Art Museum. Many individuals, like volunteer Dakotah Acosta, begin their involvement through Free Art Days and decide to delve deeper into the organization. Acosta is now a volunteer mentor who is spending two hours every Friday leading art with a group of three and four-year-olds in a group home. Mentoring is Acosta’s favorite Free Arts program of the three she has tried so far. “As you show them that you’re there just to do art with them, you’re not necessarily there to give them therapy or to talk about their feelings - even though we do touch on that a lot through the art itself - you see them grow,” Acosta said. Free Arts’ mentoring program sends volunteers to work with the same group of children in a homeless shelter or group home for an eight to 16 week period. Volunteers go on the same day at the same time every week to build a trusting relationship with the children they are mentoring. |
“A lot of times you’re the only person in that child’s life who isn’t getting paid to be there or hasn’t hurt them, and that’s huge,” Grande said.
Volunteers must pass fingerprint testing and several classes and trainings to learn what to expect and how to navigate the settings in which they will be placed as mentors. Volunteers, however, do not have to be artists. Rather, they have to be willing to learn along with the children. “If you can be brave enough, along with the kids who are being brave, to just dive in and say it’s okay if it doesn’t turn out perfect,” Grande said. “We always say there are no mistakes in art.” A far different approach from the rigid arts education she received in college, Acosta has formed a greater appreciation of the artistic process and healing power of art from Free Arts’ “no mistakes” approach. “The process is mainly the most important for art as healing, not the end result,” Acosta said. A third program offered by Free Arts does require art experience, though. The professional artist series is a two week program that commissions local artists to teach children art in a specific area and expose them to career opportunities in the field. Artists lead individual projects or a single collaborative work that is put on display to incorporate the students into the arts community. “It allows them to take time to step back from their reality, especially in this demographic of homeless children and people in group homes,” Acosta, who also led a professional artist series said. “It gives them a break.” Local muralist Kris Kollasch has led groups through the creation of around 10 murals with Free Arts in the Phoenix area. The creation of a mural is a chance for the separate members of the group to contribute to a single product that is larger and more public than their individual projects. |
“I see a lot of pride in what they’re doing,” Kollasch said. “They see how what they’re doing is important in the end because it’s not just an individual thing. It’s now something that’s going to be out there in public.”
Kollasch uses the experience of creating a mural with the children as a means of practicing teamwork and collaboration through both planning and execution. “The mural projects innately become collaborative,” Kollasch said. “So it’s no longer owned by me or by you, but it’s owned by the community.” Kollasch is currently working on a mural with a group of girls at Florence Crittenton Youth Academy that will be unveiled at its finally location on an external wall of Flo’s on 7th. Murals created by Free Arts serve a double purpose according to Kollasch. The Free Arts logo in the mural serves as advertising for the nonprofit, while the creation of the mural serves in helping the children involved heal. “It gives them a chance to express themselves that they’re not allowed to do anywhere else in their lives,” Kollasch said about the practice of art by students. No matter what level of commitment a volunteer is looking for, Free Arts has a program fitting for anyone seeking involvement. More information can be found on Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona’s impact and how to get involved at freeartsaz.org. Every level of involvement is appreciated by both Free Arts and the children they serve. “Some of the adults, it’s a little harder for than others - they’re a little stressed about the art component,” Grande said. “But showing up and coloring every week is better than not being there.” |