Arts Learning Grant
Arts Learning Grant
Emerging Butterflies: Empowering individuals to build confidence and community through art.
Tara Makinen: former-Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Tammy Mattonen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Roxann Berglund: musician; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, Artistic Director of the Duluth Playhouse Family Theatre; Betty Firth: writer; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher
ACHF Arts Education
The goal of this project is to deliver high quality arts learning opportunities to an underserved population ? adults living with mental illness. We aim to increase their familiarity and skill in a variety of mediums and also encourage their exploration of visual art as an outlet for expression and a tool for mental health recovery. We hope our project will break down barriers for the participants and help them see art as something that is accessible and available to them in their every day lives as a resource. The project also aims to build community by bringing in guest artists and creating connections between KWC staff and members and the broader community. Through interactions with teaching artists and participation in the First Friday Art Walk with displays of work, program participants will feel more integrated into the Grand Rapids area arts community. Janet Miller has developed a feedback form to be completed at the end of each class to assess how the class helped each individual through their mental health journey, what they would like to continue working on, a list of skills they feel they gained at that class, and a scale of 1-10 on symptoms before and after the class is completed. This will be shared with each individual's team of mental health professionals so they know how to best encourage that person in their mental health recovery. The evaluation tool will also provide feedback to KWC staff on ways we can improve the program, add more supports, or pursue additional art projects. The goal of greater community integration will be harder to measure, but staff observation, informal conversation, and a survey of participants near the end of the program will be tools for gathering data and assessing the project's effectiveness in building a sense of community and connection.
We were able to create community connections by inviting the public to join us during the art events in practicing skills as well as have conversations with us regarding mental health and its impact on our community. We had community members both receiving mental health (MH) services and not receiving MH services attend the classes. We were able to create opportunities for our members and community members to learn pottery and painting skills alongside each other, developing techniques, artistic skill and creatively expressing our feelings. We also achieved the goal of community integration by inviting community members into our space and engaging in conversations on stigma, mental health and reducing barriers for those in our community. We also worked on a mural butterfly project to show how the many can do our own part and make something beautiful. It is now framed and hangs within our building near the entrance.
Other,local or private