Albuquerque
Community Art Closet www.datacharter.org
Group Offers Monthly Art Supply Giveaway By DEBORAH BEGEL
LOTTERY OPEN NOW GRADES 7-12 SPACE STILL AVAILABLE IN GRADES 7 & 8
DATA’s Expeditionary Learning is...
Nontraditional We include the world outside as an extension of the classroom.
Personal / Contextual Experiences are rooted in real-world contexts that empower students to explore and develop their own passions.
Learner Centered Student-focused learning adaptable to the needs and potential of each learner.
Competency-based Learners work towards mastery in essential core knowledge, skills and dispositions.
1011 Lamberton Pl NE Albuquerque, NM 87107 phone: (505) 341-0888 fax: (505) 341-0658
14
New Mexico Kids!
November/December 2021
Winding through the campus of the now shuttered Santa Fe University of Art and Design on St. Michael’s Drive in Santa Fe, I followed red signs with black arrows to a parking lot beside two large buildings. As I walked between them, I saw about a dozen tables filled with boxes of art and craft supplies, from colored pens to pipe cleaners and paint brushes of assorted sizes. Missing from the picture, a table with a cash box and people collecting money. Imagine that! Tall and lanky Raashan Ahmad, a musician, poet, community worker and DJ, is coexecutive director of Vital Spaces, which operates the monthly art supply give-away. An experienced multi-tasker, he smiles and talks as he opens packages of acrylic paint and pours them into a box Sonia Mendez, 12, likes to paint people. Photos by Deborah filled with the Begel. colors of the rainbow, the sea, the land and all kinds of vegetation. “The idea of the Artist Closet started during the pandemic,” Ahmad said. “Schools were closing and kids were sitting at home. There needed to be some creative outlet for a lot of these kids.” So he and CoExecutive Director Hannah Yohalem, an art critic and art historian, decided to buy and collect donated art supplies and give them away on the third Saturday of every month. “It’s not just for young artists,” Ahmad added, “It’s also for emerging artists, older artists and other artists in all ranges.” Vital Spaces partnered with local organizations, including museums like Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe Children’s Museum, Museum of Contemporary Native Art and Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and businesses such as Kaune’s Market, Artisan and Fine Art Framers. In addition, departing film crews and Santa Fe residents have donated supplies and resources like paints, books and fabrics. “Artists repurpose everything,” Ahmad said. I ambled about, looking at people intent on finding just the right supplies for their next art project. My hunch that they were tapping into vast vaults of imagination was confirmed when I began to ask them about their ideas and plans. Seven-year-old Rory Parker was keeping the sun off her face with a pink canvas hat covered in white dots. She held up a satiny piece of periwinkle cloth. “Look Mom,” she said. “Are you going to take that?” asked her mother, Linda Parker, who was herself rummaging through a box brimming with fabric swatches.
