Arts Learning

The staff had described the families we would be serving accurately: Families in transitional housing with a mix of races, cultures and abilities. We opened the workshop to younger children than our original ages 7+ plan to facilitate the participation of families with a wide range of siblings. The Tubman staff offered additional daycare for younger children who did not want to or were not able to participate. Z Puppets worked with Tubman staff to distribute and post flyers, connected with Free Arts (an arts organization who had been doing ongoing year-long residency) to ask their advice on how to best recruit participants. Both the staff and Free Arts said that the most effective method was to have the kids' themselves experience it and then spread the word. Both reported that they overheard our core group of youth speaking excitedly about Happy Places to others. The parents' concern for confidentiality was much lower than we anticipated and instead they readily granted permission to share the youth's work publicly even when it included images of their faces. Because confidentiality was not a barrier, the final reached a much wider audience than we had planned, via online and social media opportunities we had via the City of Maplewood. The participants responded positively to the multi-cultural artist team, as the families were all multiracial and multicultural. The balance of males and females on Z Puppets' artist team was also a positive in strengthening the connection of both young males and females to the project. 1. Participants explored new art forms (toy theaters, green screen photo and video, iPad editing) and completed multiple phases of the project from 2 and 3-D design to video and performance. Families in transitional housing shared joyful, imaginative expression together and with the wider Maplewood community.