This summer military families can visit over 600 museums free from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The National Endowment for the Arts has partnered with noted art museums such as The Art Institute of Chicago and New York’s Museum of Modern Art, as well as science centers, children’s museums and other sites in all 50 states.

 The Blue Star Museums program is being offered for active duty military personnel and their families. To read more about the “Blue Star Museums” program, click on the link to the story below written by by Brett Zongker for the Associated Press.

Military families offered Free Museum Visits

For one autistic kid, art gets him talking.

Seven-year-old Jalyn Weston loves sharing his artwork with anyone who wants to see. This summer, one of his drawings will be displayed in a national traveling exhibit with the 2010 International VSA festival, The International Organization on Arts and Disability.

His mom Pam explained the importance of art in Jalyn’s life since being diagnosed with high-functioning autism.

“I want to make sure that we never forget to display our ability. Getting speech for him was everything,” she said. “And art gives him something to talk about, and it focuses on something that he is good at, and I think it has made so much difference.”

To read more about Jalyn’s art talents, click on the link to the story below written by Beth Drinnen for knoxnews.com.

Boy with autism communicates through his award-winning art

Ines Lozano, principal of the International Christian School, knows the healing power of art. That’s why he helped put together “Through the Eyes of a Haitian Child,” a project that has him and three other educators visiting Haiti to teach art and photography to homeless and orphaned children.

“Art could be a great therapy to relieve most of the anxiety, a way of forgetting,” said Lozano.

Lozano’s school community has been on board with the trip. People donated art supplies and students created artwork of their own to share with the Haitian children.

The school is teaming up with Friends of the Orphans, an organization that runs an orphanage and pediatric hospital in Haiti. Jessica Wendorf, the Regional Developmental Manager for the organization, hopes Lozano’s new project creates a lot of memories…and maybe something a bit more permanent.

“To collect enough supplies for all the kids to last them throughout the summer, and possibly even longer is our biggest goal.”

To read more about the project and find out how you can help, click on the link to the story below written by Esther Medina for the Key Biscayne Times.

Haiti art project seeks to show life in Haiti through children’s eyes

Last June, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson wanted to raise the profile of arts in the city. So, he helped create the For Art’s Sake initiative and raised $100,000 within the first week.

Talk about putting money where his mouth is.

“We are going to promote the arts in a real way,” Johnson said.

Since its inception, For Art’s Sake has held monthly public meetings showcasing an arts venue and welcoming appearances by celebrity artists with local ties. Members of the initiative have also put together a creative action plan of three strategies to be carried out over the next few years: strengthen cultural infrastructure, improve access to the arts and arts education and invest in talent and the creative economy.

To read more about For Art’s Sake and the exciting things it’s already doing for art education, click on the link to the original story written by Jonathan Mendick for the Sacramento Press.

For Art’s Sake looks to make impact

They’re like sports trading cards, except they don’t have a picture of a baseball player on the front or any stats on the back. When dealing with these cards, the message is a little less obvious.

They’re artist trading cards, miniature works of art that are traded or given away. The movement, which started in 1996 in Switzerland, has recently exploded thanks to the Internet where clubs and forums spread the word about spreading cards.

The tiny canvases allow artists and teachers to experiment with media and techniques, and the finished product can be used as art therapy or be given as thoughtful gifts to people near and far.

Art therapist Lisa Kay gives out the cards to patients at a cancer care center in DeKalb, Illinois.

“For the patients in the center, it really gives them a sense of hope that people who don’t even know them care enough about them to do this. It’s a gesture of love from humankind,” she said. “That’s what makes it so powerful. It’s the greatest expression of giving.”

To read more about the artist trading card movement, including how members of the military have benefited from it, please click on the link to the original story posted below written by Dana Herra for the Daily Chronicle.

Card collections are works of art

A small study revealed art therapy reduces anxiety in kids who suffer from asthma.

Anya Beebe, an art therapist at National Jewish Health in Denver, led a study of 22 children between the ages of 7 and 14 with persistent asthma. Beebe and colleagues assigned one group of children to undergo art therapy along with their usual asthma treatments for seven weeks and assigned the other group to the usual asthma treatment without art therapy.

At the end of the study, the art therapy group had lower anxiety and higher quality of life and self-concept scores than the group who didn’t participate in art therapy.

“It’s not about painting pretty pictures,” Beebe told Reuters Health. “It’s about helping people go deeper, and using art as a process to express and release their feelings.”

To read more about the results of the study, please click on the link below to read the original report written by Rachael Myers Lowe for Reuters.

Art therapy reduces anxiety in kids with asthma

At Byng Arts, classes go on long after the last school bell rings.

The school within a school, Byng Arts boasts an enrollment of 450 students out of a Lord Byng student body of 1,300. Most of the students apply for a spot in middle school and audition for acceptance into the visual art, band, strings or theatre program.

Drama and band student Will Hopkins boasts that Byng Arts has given him a place to flourish and become a more confident and mature individual.  

“Because [students] have this sense of belonging and they’re able to move on because they know they won’t be shut down if they say, ‘Yeah, I like to dance and act and sing.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, so does everyone else here. You fit in.’”

Students receive both a textbook and arts education from Lord Byng and Byng Arts schools. Many graduates pursue arts in their post-secondary education, but others choose careers not in the fine arts.

“If we can teach the students to be confident in who they are, or provide the opportunity for them to be confident, if they don’t go to art school, who cares?” Jon Hartley-Folz, coordinator of Byn Arts and visual arts teacher, said. “They’ll be confident scientists, they’ll be confident business people, they’ll have faith that they can do anything.”

To read more about Byng Arts Mini School and how it operates, please click on the link below to read the original report written by Cheryl Rossi for the Vancouver Courier.

The art of education

For the projects made in the art therapy class at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, there is more to the artwork than meets the eye.

In honor of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, adult students from the New Jersey Foundation for the Blind visited Concordia Learning Center at St. Joseph’s to host art therapy classes for kids. Concordia students got the opportunity to learn skills from grown ups just like them and engage in art therapy, according to artist and foundation student Bojana Coklyat.

“I really feel that art projects are art therapy, for adults and children. It’s a way for the children to express themselves. Some don’t. Some can’t speak. They can’t say, ‘I’m angry or frustrated,’ but you can see it in their artwork.”

Together, the adults and students created colorful paintings that will be on display at the foundation’s gallery until Labor Day.

To read more and see images of some of the works of art, please click on the link to the original story posted below, written by Jim Lockwood for The Star-Ledger.

Legally-blind adults mentor visually-impaired children in Jersey City

When Washington, D.C.-based artist Kevin Reese moved to Wausau, Wis. last fall, he wasted no time launching his $30,000 project “Mobilizing the Community.” Reese visited various Wausau schools and had the students create miniature mobiles. He took photos of them all, studied them and then recreated the students’ ideas into 12 large mobiles.

The mobiles taught the kids more than just how the creative process works, according to Reese.

“I think [this project] will be part of their lives for years to come. We used math, physics and teamwork to bring these to scale.”

Starting in June, the mobiles will move to several area businesses, hospitals and libraries that adopted the large pieces of art for $1,000. The money all goes to the George and Estelle Wolff Fund for the Arts, an organization that supports future cooperative art projects.

To find out more about how the community reacted to such a grand project, please click on the link below to read the original story written by Megan Loiselle for the Wausau Daily Herald.

Art project goes mobile

Amoako Buachie used to create fights with his mother in the morning. Now he creates art instead.

This June, the 18 year-old autistic artist will have one of his works of art displayed in the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Buachie’s painting is one of 75 pieces from New York’s K-12 public school students that was selected to hang in the Met as part of the Department of Education’s annual P.S. Art program.

Buachie painted the selected portrait in a small PS 370 art class that concentrated on maintaining eye contact—a skill that can often be difficult for autistic children. His art teacher, Audrey Lacy, had her students sit directly across from one another and instructed them to maintain eye contact and draw the person across from them. It was Lacy who submitted Buachie’s painting to the competition.

“He’s so creative and very talented,” said Lacy. “Art is his outlet, and he’s very proud of himself.”

To read more about how Buachie’s talents in art have bettered his life, please click on the link to the original story posted below, written by Jake Pearson for the New York Daily News.

Autistic high school student has painting in Metropolitan Museum of Art