SPLASH
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Mission Statement
SPLASH creates a safe professional art studio environment for young artists including urban low-income and disadvantaged at-risk youth to grow and express themselves through the fine arts via free art classes and workshops. The art studio workspace environment encourages art education, entrepreneurship, focus, relaxation, introspection, and creativity. Art making increases hand eye coordination, critical thinking, research and productivity causing a sense of well being and accomplishment as well as brain growth. The attributes of art making addresses issues of healthy (beautification} environments and mental health. Students in the past have seen an improvement of grades in other subjects because of increased discipline and focus. Negative behavior patterns change because of new found interest, achievement and validation. The murals and personal works of art will revitalize and beautify homes and neighborhoods. Teaching preschoolers will prepare them for school life affecting the direction of their lives, creating broader educational, social and career opportunities. Many will go to art school and college. Parents will learn the value of their child's gift. SPLASH's apprenticeship style encourages and teaches entrepreneurship and self employment. SPLASH will educate the entire Chattanooga Community about the importance and power of art for everyone and the potential in poor and disadvantaged youth and the powerful and wonderful art that they are capable of creating. SPLASH will: 1. Nurture, develop and encourage young artists to use their gifts and talents by offering free art classes, workshops, and apprentice programs. 2. Present youth art shows to display and sell their art, 3. Promote the arts of undeserved youth in Chattanooga to a diversified audience. 4. Outreach to schools, churches, recreation centers and other community gathering places with fine arts enrichment programming. Outcome 1: Increase access to visual art classes to at-risk youth from under-served neighborhoods. Strategy 1a: Close opportunity gaps in neighborhoods with limited access to visual art classes. SPLASH will recruit at-risk youth (grades 3-12) from under-served areas in Chattanooga where visual art programs are not provided or easily accessible via public transit. SPLASH will reach out to community centers, church groups, and high need schools to recruit students. We recruit by personal outreach, sending fliers and sharing information on Facebook and SPLASH website. Strategy 1b:Provide weekly visual art classes at no charge in locations that are easily accessible by walking or public transportation. SPLASH will provide all art supplies set a regular schedule art class in the Westside and East Chattanooga and Avondale neighborhoods. Outcome 2:Increase students’ knowledge of self through creating worksof art. Strategy 2a:Students will be guided through a series of visual art classes that teach beginning,intermediate and advanced drawing and painting. Strategy 2b:Students will be introduced to famous artist of African American American as well as western and world heritage. Outcome 3:Increase students ability to persevere through exhibiting a completed a work of art. Strategy 3a:SPLASH will exhibit student work at galleries, festivals and alternative venues like hotels, churches and parks. Outcome 4: Keep kids off thestreet awayfrom gangs and other negative influences. Strategy 4a:Schedule regular art classes after school. On weekends and during summer break and holidays. Strategy 4b:Provide snacks and meals for kids.
About This Cause
SPLASH was founded in order to give African American youth free access to the arts in a safe environment. SPLASH provides high-quality professional art classes and studio access to kids in a community devoid of any art institutions or classes. Kids have no transportation because their parents live below the poverty level. SPLASH is based in an abandoned school building in the middle of three housing projects College Hill Courts, Golden Gateway, and Ridgeway. All classes are absolutely free of charge and all art supplies are free as well. College Hill Courts is located on what is called the Westside in Chattanooga. Housing around 2000 families is also the home of about 15 gangs according to a recent study done by the city of Chattanooga. We offer classes in the three most violent areas in our city; The Westside, Avondale, and East Chattanooga. SPLASH saves lives by offering an alternative to young kids. Splash is the only art institution in these neighborhoods and is the only provider of free art classes. This population historically does not frequent museums or art galleries and knows little about the power or the importance of the arts in everyday life. Lack of education in art causes parents to be unconcerned about art classes and cannot see art as a viable alternative for their kid's future. Discrimination and racism in the arts historically have not celebrated the contributions that African American artists have made to our society further exacerbating the problem. The majority of the kids that we serve don't have art in their school and know little or nothing about African American Art or artists. This cultural dearth adds to low esteem, hopelessness, and violence among young people in the community perpetuating self-hatred instead of pride. SPLASH literally brings art into the community and homes via the art of their children, exhibitions, and classes. Splash educates and informs parents and gets them excited about sending their children to our art classes. When a child sells artwork in our shows they receive half the money and half goes back into the program for frames and etc. Parents learn that art is a business and are more interested in what their children are learning. They begin to value their child's creativity. The sales supplement the household income. We become art surrogates infusing new creative concepts into the child giving them new possibilities helping them navigate their environment changing their lives forever. Parents have visited mainstream art institutions like The Hunter Museum, The Creative Discovery Museum, and City Hall for the first time. This project broadens the artistic scope of families and the community. SPLASH an apprenticeship-based youth arts workshop believes that kids can begin their journey to becoming an artist early in life. SPLASH is the only visual art class in the neighborhood. The Art Tank is an extension of our Entrepreneur program that introduces the business of art to kids age 8 to middle school age. Based on the concept of Shark Tank our kids are focused on design, fabrication, quality control, framing, marketing, and distribution of their work for exhibition and sales at festivals, markets, art fairs, and galleries. The kids learn studio practice and get to make the connections between focus in the studio and reward at the end. They critique their own work while learning from the teaching artists. They have mentored in art practices as well as behavior, collaboration skills, studio and workplace etiquette, critical analysis, self-pride, pricing, display design, salesmanship, and all the things necessary for a successful art career. Classes include beginning, intermediate and advanced techniques of drawing and painting including composition. color theory, organization. perspective, sketching to finished drawing. Art history and critical analysis are also incorporated into the classes in a natural progression that matches the kid's development. Students learn every aspect of drawing including the physicality of making marks with dry or wet media ie. relaxation, posture and etc. They are trained in seeing and expressing 3d forms on a 2d surface. Elements include line, shape, volume, shading, value, color, and light. Techniques include hatching, blending, modeling, scraping, glazing, washes and etc. All classes are taught in an apprenticeship style teaching studio practices helping individual kids find their own voice. African American and culture, as well as Western History, inform the studio atmosphere and teaching. Classical and African Music is heard on the studio speakers as well as other musical genres like Jazz and Soul and others. The artist observes the student's stylistic development closely and introduces the student to famous artists with similar styles helping to facilitate a direction for experimentation. Kids are allowed to develop at their own pace. The Art Tank is an educational tool that informs parents and gets them excited about sending their children to our classes. When a child sells artwork in our shows they receive half the money and half goes back into the program for frames and etc. Parents learn that art is a business and are more interested in what their children are learning. They begin to value their child's creativity. Because of our mentor-ship model we are able to adapt to serve a broad range of kids and meet a variety of needs. Participants are mostly Black kids ranging from age 3 to 17 from single-parent low-income homes. Most parents are unemployed and receive some sort of government assistance and kids are on food vouchers. These families are in forgotten under-served, over-policed gang-infested communities until gentrification forces them out creating hopelessness for many. The kids I serve often have never been to an art gallery or museum before joining SPLASH. Many have never met an artist before especially a Black artist. Many of the older boys are already in a gang or are being recruited by one. Around 20 of the kids are preschoolers and we hope to increase that number. We market the program by word of mouth and through partnerships with local non-profits operating in the community. We also market through social media. The kids are making a SPLASH in their homes, neighborhoods, and city.