arts for life asheville 2010 report
2010
Dear Friends,
The first thing you notice about Arts For Life art tables is that they are happy places! Children who come to Mission Children’s Hospital to be treated for very serious illnesses and disabilities find much more than painful procedures and confined treatment rooms. They find brightly colored paints and papers, canvases and oil pastels, yarn and almost anything else they could want to help them create all that they can imagine. As they engage their minds and hearts, their bodies relax, they become less afraid and more animated. They laugh, sing, and play. What started out as an unwelcome trip to a stressful place becomes an adventure they look forward to as they and their families cope with the realities of serious illness. This is Arts For Life. In 2010, more than 2,100 patients, siblings, and family members at Mission Children’s Hospital made new friends, spent happy time with their families, created art beyond their wildest imaginings, and let their spirits soar. In the process, they discovered a resilience that they may not have known they possessed, and from the struggles they faced everyday, they created masterpieces of hope and joy! This is Arts For Life. Thank you for being part of the family!
Shea Godwin Executive Director
The Arts For Life Team in asheville Staff
Interns
Teaching Volunteers
Annie Rogers Program Director
Anna Long Becky Schuldt Emily O’Brien Simone Bolka Terra Midgett
Beth Semadeni Diane Hall Karen Paly Kris Paradis Kristen Brace Ed Drane Laura Elia Mimi Shackelford Valerie Poullette Altman
Shea Godwin Executive Director Rachel Zink Assistant Director Snee Howard Bookkeeper ctor annie Program Dire t table ayla at the ar and patient sh
Board of Directors
Music Fellow Anne Coombs Melissa Hyman
Becky Anderson John Dickson Karen Fitzgerald Matthew Leggatt Judy Major Doug Michaels Al Root Anne Sessions
Advisory Council Valerie Poullette Altman Dr. Cindy Brown Gil Calderwood Peggy Drane Brent Ford Katie Hild Chris Pollak Mary Timmer
Arts For Life Arts For Life is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people facing serious illnesses. By providing educational art programs, we enrich patients’ lives, nurture their minds and spirits, and encourage positive healthcare experiences for children and their families. Arts For Life helps children all day everyday in four cities across North Carolina. Arts For Life began in 2001, with one patient, one hospital room, and one camera. Today, AFL’s staff members, volunteers, and interns teach the arts to patients for over 240 hours each week. We work with more than 4,700 patients statewide annually. Our visual art, creative writing, and music programs decrease patient stress and anxiety, keep patients active and engaged, and help families cope with the realities of illness.
AFL Taught
Thousands of Art Lessons at Mission in 2010
Our team of art educators, volunteers, and interns brought 9,164 top-notch educational art lessons to 2,143 patients, siblings, and family members last year.
Arts For Life at mission children’s hospital
Patients and families visiting the Zeis Children’s Cancer Center, the Olson Huff Center, Mission Hospital’s Inpatient Units, and other areas at Mission Children’s Hospital count on AFL to help them through their healthcare experiences. • Young patients arrive at the Zeis Children’s Cancer Center and make a beeline to Arts For Life’s Clinic Art Station. At the art table (available to all hematology and oncology patients, siblings, and family members), the children learn to create artistic masterpieces while they meet other kids and explore their talents. Being active at the art station enables patients to stay focused and positive during what could be long, frustrating hours of waiting for and receiving treatments. In addition to art in the waiting rooms, AFL team members also work with kids one-on-one in treatment rooms, helping to pass the hours and ease anxiety by learning dynamic and fun art skills. Arts For Life teachers tailor lessons in both settings specifically to each student by taking into account the students’ skills and interests, as well as the time they are in clinic.
• Arts For Life’s Huff Center Art Station is staffed almost entirely by incredible AFL volunteers, who generously donate four or more hours of their time each week. The art table is located in a large waiting room and sees twenty to forty eager young artists each day! Teachers in the Huff Center work with children with a myriad of conditions and developmental disorders including ADD and Autism, and kids who require physical, speech, or other therapies. Art projects in the Huff Center are designed to be completed by children of a variety of ages and abilities in varying time frames. • In our Inpatient Program, AFL teachers travel from room to room teaching young patients guitar and music, painting and drawing, and sculpture and writing. In working with their AFL instructors, patients and their siblings experience success as they learn new artistic skills, express ideas and emotions, and build self-confidence. Because these encounters are much more individualized, AFL teachers can provide much more in-depth art lessons. AFL students in the hospital have knitted scarves, painted large-scale acrylic paintings, and learned play songs on the guitar.
Teaching Volunteer and Board Member Valerie with a young patient at the Huff Center
2010 Calendar of Arts For Life Programming Mission Children’s Hospital the arts for life program schedule atAtmission Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Zeis Center Art Table & Procedure Suite Program Director
9 am - 5:30 pm Zeis Center Art Table & Procedure Suite Program Director
9 am - 2:30 pm Zeis Center Art Station & Procedure Suite Program Director
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Zeis Center Art Station & Procedure Suite Staff/Intern
9 am - 5:30 pm Zeis Center Art Station & Procedure Suite Program Director
2 pm - 6 pm Inpatient Unit: Music Fellow (Jan. – June)
1 pm – 4 pm Inpatient Unit: Music Fellow (Dec. - present)
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Huff Center Art Table: Volunteers
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Huff Center Art Table: Volunteers
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Huff Center Art Table: Volunteers
8:30 am - 5:30 pm Huff Center Art Table: Volunteers
10 am – 2 pm Inpatient Unit: Intern
3 pm - 5:30 pm Inpatient Unit: Program Director
1 pm - 4:30 pm Reuter Center General Waiting Area: Volunteer
5 pm - 8 pm Inpatient Unit: Volunteer
10:00 am – 1:00 pm Inpatient Unit: Volunteer (Jan-June) Staff (Sept-Dec) 2:00-5:00 Inpatient Unit: Staff (Jan-Aug)
10 am - 1 pm Inpatient Unit: Music Fellow (Dec. - present)
Shayla, proudly displaying her artwork at the Zeis Center art table
spotlight: annaleah
“Crab,” by Audrey, age 7
Every Tuesday afternoon, Annaleah arrives at the Zeis Cancer Clinic for her regular appointment wearing a smile she can hardly contain as she speedwalks to the art table.
“Is there something I was working on?” she asks Program Director Annie Rogers. And, more often than not, there is. Annaleah likes a project. And when she puts her mind to it, she sees it through until it’s finished. That often means that her projects take two or three weeks to complete. Whether it’s a Fauve-inspired collage heart, a birthday card for her best (stuffed) friend Joe Duck, or a string of brightly-colored, Kandinsky-esque plastic cup discs, Annaleah shows great attention to detail in each of her creations. Her incredible imagination emerges in her whimsical drawing style, her use of bright, bold colors, and in all of her artwork. But it is her sweet, open-minded, adventurous spirit that makes Annaleah such a complete joy to work with. The greatest gift an art teacher can receive is watching young artists eagerly develop their skills and explore their talent, and there is no greater art adventurer than Annaleah.
frie
Untitled Cheo age 7
& Shayla at nds Brittany
the art table
Collage by Andy, age 9
Arts for life
art show masterpieces from the young artists in
AFL Asheville’s program “Peace,” by Brittany, age 7
“Chickens,” by Amber, age 10
“Cats,” by twin sisters Ashlyn (left) and Skylyn (right), age 5
in 2010, Arts For Life asheville taught over
100 hours of art lessons each week to patients, siblings, & family members
“Lion,” by Cainan, age 8
music fellow: Melissa
In November of 2010, we were thrilled to add Melissa Hyman to our team as Asheville’s newest Music Fellow. Melissa has an impressive background as a touring and performing musician, and has also enjoyed lots of experience working with children. Working with Arts For Life has offered her her first opportunity to combine her love for music with teaching children. Since she started teaching on the pediatric floor at Mission, Melissa’s infectiously bubbly personality and rich singing voice have coaxed smiles out of even the most reserved students. She has regular students who literally hop out of bed when she knocks on their doors. Melissa even has one student who bought her own bag of instruments so that her whole family can jam when Melissa comes to visit, and so they can practice when Melissa’s not there. We send a big THANK YOU to the Janirve Foundation and the North Carolina Arts Council, for making AFL Asheville’s Music Fellowship Program possible. This program was supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
interns in asheville
In 2010, Arts For Life Asheville continued building its Internship Program, with five college students joining the AFL team. From teaching art and preparing projects to creating community awareness for Arts For Life Asheville, interns are an incredible asset to our programming. A huge thank you to Anna Long, Becky Schuldt, Emily O’Brien, Simone Bolka and Terra Midgett for all of their incredible work in 2010! Together, they brought many additional hours of art programming each week to patients and families.
Intern Becky with young artists at the art table
“Arts For Life provides a great service. I experienced some truly wonderful moments with the children I worked with. I saw how learning about art entranced them, and I witnessed them explore their creativity. I watched them swell up with pride in their accomplishments. Arts For Life gives the children an opportunity to get something positive and educational from their doctor’s visits. I had many students who told me how they looked forward to coming every week, and that Arts For Life was the only reason they came for their appointments. I am so thankful that I was given an opportunity to share my love of art and learning.“ -Terra Midgett, 2010-11 Intern, UNC Asheville
In 2010, thanks to a grant from the Janirve Foundation, AFL was able to strengthen its programming by hiring Anna Long as part-time art teacher in the Olson Huff Center and the Zeis Cancer Clinic, where she spends three days a week working with some very special kids. The consistency of a regular art teacher as creative and compassionate as Anna makes a world of difference at the art table. Anna Long, teaching a student to make a miniature robot
in loving memory Haley, Trinity, and Bailei inspired all the AFL teachers who had the honor of creating art and sharing laughter with these special girls. Haley
Trinity and Bailei
arts for life volunteers
When Diane Hall attended the Southern Highland Craft Guild Fair in July of 2007, she had no idea it would offer her a first look at the volunteer experience she had been seeking since moving to Asheville. Remembering that day, she says: “I saw an Arts For Life booth manned by founder Anna Littman. I was very impressed by what she told me about the organization. It seemed like a wonderful way of using art to make a difference in a child’s life.” Diane has been making a difference in the lives of hundreds of children and their families for the past four years, as a teaching volunteer at AFL’s art tables in the Olson Huff Center and the Reuter Center general waiting room. Each Thursday, she brings with her a selection of dynamic projects, honed through her years as an artist and teacher. She prefers projects that “let kids create a story about what they are doing.” She likes to involve as many different kinds of materials as possible - patterned paper, yarns, sequins, oil pastels, clay, and stickers, just to name a few. Diane regularly contributes her project ideas to Arts For Life’s Huff Center project rotation, and her projects are always some of the kids’ favorites. Arts For Life simply could not exist without our volunteers’ generosity of time, energy, and spirit. Thank you to all of our incredible volunteers: those who teach, those who prepare art projects to put in the creative hands of our students, and those who help Arts For Life continue to grow in our community.
fun & learning at the
arts for life art table
programming goals: • Utilize art stations, art teachers, and art lessons to transform and improve healthcare environments; • Provide hospitalized and seriously ill children access to the arts and education; • Help young patients and their families cope with short and long term effects of illness; • Give patients opportunities to interact with peers (other patients and siblings); • Foster patients’ imaginations, critical thinking skills, and creativity; • Help patients to set and achieve goals; • Guide patients in focusing on positive activities during waiting times and during stressful experiences; • Provide positive educational experiences that add a sense of purpose and accomplishment to children’s lives.
Arts For Life Sends a Heartfelt
Thank You! to the People Who Made Our Work Possible in 2010
Our deepest appreciation goes to our friends at Mission Children’s Hospital. With the hospital’s support, AFL brings peace, light, and laughter to young patients on their darkest days. We could not accomplish our work without the support of Dr. Krystal Bottom, Dr. Doug Scothorn, Dr. Orren Beaty, Dr. Susan Mims, Miriam Scott, Kim Delk, David Stegall, the Child Life team, the Volunteer Leadership Committee, and the incredible nurses and healthcare professionals at Mission. We thank the Janirve Foundation for making our Music Fellowship Program possible through a generous grant. With help from the Janirve Foundation, Arts For Life is able to provide many hours of art and music lessons. arvato digital services is our community partner in so many ways. Whether hosting a charity golf tournament to benefit AFL, holding Cakes For Kids bake sales in the employee dining room, rounding up groups of volunteers eager to prepare art projects for kids at Mission Hospital, or providing much-appreciated advice from top executives to our staff, Arts For Life is proud to call arvato’s people neighbors, supporters, and friends. Support from the Martin-Gillette Family Foundation made our first Fancy Pants Dance possible, which raised over $30,000 for our services here in Asheville. We also extend our deepest thanks to the committee of volunteers and our sponsors who gave us a fun and fanciful evening! Arts For Life simply would not exist without the love and support of the Clear Light Fund, the Owen and Cecil Families and the Mission Hospital Foundation. Thank you for all you do for the special kids and families in our programs.
Our gratitude goes to: Asheville Savings Bank Blanchard Hyundai The Brown Family Foundation Cathedral of All Souls And Thank You to: Becky Anderson Brian Gaines Canvas Paint & Mingle Castle Rock Winery Colleen and Gary Guglielmo Dianne and Robert Levy Doug Michaels and Mariano Garrido-Lopez Eleanor and Charlie Owen Frances Ackerman Gary Weiner Gil and Joe Calderwood Hedy Fischer
Festiva Hospitality Group Jubilee! Merrill Lynch and Bank of America New York Community Trust
Highwater Clays Jill and Joe Lawrence Jim Barkley Toyota Judy and Jim Warren Linwood Watson and Charlton Ward Louise Glickman Lynn and Steve Forbes Margaret Newell Mimi Shackelford Myrt McNeely North Carolina Arts Council Rebecca Manske Ron English
How You Can Help:
Rosalind Willis and Greg Olson Southern Highland Craft Guild Stewart Griffin and Ray O’Neill Teresa Van Duyn TILT Works, Inc. Valerie Poullette and Stewart Altman Val Johnson Whitt’s Catering Service William Winkler Women on Wine and countless more
CONTACT arts for life
Host a Coffee Talk or a House Party to share AFL’s work with the community ! info@a Volunteer at Mission, teaching art to young patients fln 828-65 c.org Make a donation to sustain our vital arts programming 8-1599 Organize a Cakes For Kids Bake Sale to benefit Arts For Life Contact us today to find out about opportunities to get involved with Arts For Life! to learn more about our work with young patients
& families, visit: Front Cover Artwork: “Giraffe,” by Shayla, age 7