Recommended Event: Opening Night of Art For Well Beings
Art For Well Beings (AFWB) is a modern art center which expands the opportunity for people in the community to create art, with particular emphasis on opening up this opportunity for local populations of at-risk youth, the developmentally disabled and those people who are recovering from an illness or injury. Art is a therapeutic tool which can be used as a form of self-expression and communication by those who have difficulty communicating via more traditional methods. AFWB recognizes this and provides the space and tools for artistic communication.
Help support the work of this new center by attending the opening celebration this coming Sunday, May 6, from 3 – 5 p.m. The center is located nearby in Palo Alto at 2800 W. Bayshore Road. Contact Director (and artist) Judy Gittelsohn at me@judyg.com with any questions; see an interview with the artist here.
Additional information on AFWB follows:
ART FOR WELL BEINGS
Art For Well Beings (AFWB) serves the community, offering opportunities for people to create art. AFWB emphasizes working on an unfolding process of creating – encouraging people to uncover and flower. Employing a playful teaching method I call Very Serious Play, I have devised unconventional exercises that allow people to simply enjoy the process and forget that they are learning, making art, or expressing themselves. The focus of AFWB is with populations that may have a difficult time communicating traditionally – through conversation – yet have so much to impart. The groups that I am currently working with are the developmentally disabled, at risk youth, and people recovering from illness or injury. See here for list of current classes at AFWB.
Current Projects on Board:
€ A Book About Women by Girls
A 32 page book of paintings by girls from the Girls Club of the mid-peninsula created in 2006 from a grant from the Peninsula Community Foundation. The 20 girls all painted 9 women role models from East Palo Alto. There are approximately 180 paintings in the series. I highlighted each woman with several paintings and produced a prototype of the book. It is ready to print (with a few changes) and I have raised $1000 toward printing 1000 books for a total cost of $2670.
€ A Paint by Puzzle© Kit
I developed an art exercise/product called Paint by Puzzle©. I outline panels, number them and create a color guide. I give the panels to the group of participants, one participant paints each 8 x 10 board, and the painted boards are reassembled to create the final painting. I am crafting a kit, which contains a number guide, a color guide, instructions, the panels of the puzzle to be painted and hopefully the paint. I am researching the cost of printing a paint by puzzle© kit. This I will market to schools – in particular at-risk youth and other teams and groups.
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[...] “Art is a therapeutic tool which can be used as a form of self-expression and communication by those who have difficulty communicating via more traditional methods. Art for Well Beings recognizes this and provides the space and tools for artistic communication.” – San Fran Voice. [...]