Let’s Stay Creative! Art Kit Drive
Covid 19 is impacting our cities in unimaginable ways. Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) is teaming up with art organizations for an art kit drive to deliver supplies to children and youth in our most vulnerable populations.
Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC), Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA),
Vision Quilt and Junior Center of Art and Science are teaming up to show LOVE, and are continuing to inspire learning through creativity. Realizing that students may not return until the fall and Teaching Artists may be out of work for the remainder of the school year, we have identified some simple and unique ways to provide alternative options for children to access arts instruction.
Please help us with this immediate need to keep children and families engaged.
ArtEsteem ArtMobile at the Lunar New Year Bazaar
The Lunar New Year Bazaar is an annual Oakland event. Through the ArtEsteem ArtMobile, AHC was able to be out in the streets, connecting with the community directly during the celebration.
AHC was excited to participate in the 2020 Lunar New Year Bazaar. Through the ArtEsteem ArtMobile, we were able to be out in the streets, connecting with the community directly during this annual celebration. The Lunar New Year Bazaar is a free annual event hosted in the heart of Oakland's Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There is a cultural entertainment stage with live performances and over 80 vendors selling traditional new years decorations, flowers, candies, and gifts.
According to Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the Metal Rat. AHC was able to customize an art project for the event; a temporary 5’ x 15’ mural featuring a metal rat, dragon and red Chinese lantern symbols. There was also face painting and coloring book activities for youth.
The holiday is traditionally a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It is also a time to bring family together for feasting. The main Chinese Lunar New Year activities include: putting up decorations, eating reunion dinner with family on New Year's Eve, fireworks, and gifting red envelopes filled with money.
The ArtEsteem ArMobile is a fully-equipped mobile art classroom, and an extension of our award-winning arts education program, ArtEsteem. The vehicle has allowed us to extend our services outside the classroom and directly into the neighborhoods that need access to arts education. Since the launch of the ArtEsteem ArtMobile, we’ve been able to participate in over 41 community-based events, offering customized projects involving table crafts, painting, drawing, large murals, face painting and much more. With our knowledgeable staff and on-board sound system we can make your next school event, festival or private party one to remember!
Click here to book. - Jamie Sanitate, ArtMobile Manager
Check out the ArtEsteem ArtMobile in action at festivals, schools and
community-led conferences.
Ending Gun Violence, an ArtEsteem and Vision Quilt Collaboration
Vision Quilt and ArtEsteem have come together because they believe that through the act of art-making and public expression Oakland youth can both heal from the trauma of gun violence and contribute to its prevention.
Health is inner peace. Healing is letting go of fear. This is one of the Principles of Attitudinal Healing, created by mental health professionals in Tiburon in the 70s to help children with life threatening illnesses use their minds to heal their bodies. For decades, ArtEsteem has utilized the power of these principles in art classes in Oakland to help young people address and heal from the life-threatening presence of racism and violence in their communities.
Students learn the 12 Principles of Attitudinal Healing. (click to enlarge)
Today, gun violence is a national epidemic, and the United States is suffering deeply from its wounds. Every year, nearly 3,000 children and teens (ages 0 to 19) are shot and killed and approximately 15,600 are shot and injured. On average, 51 American children and teens are shot every day. In a recent national poll, 75 percent of high school students aged 15 to 17 cited mass shootings as a primary source of stress, and more than one in five reported that the possibility of a shooting at the school is a source of stress on a day-to-day basis. In a time when our children are needed to create a better future for their communities and the world, they are traumatized and anxious for their safety. How can young people embody things like hope and peace when they are busy recovering from trauma and their future is so uncertain? Can our youth use their minds to heal not just their minds and bodies, but their communities from the root causes of gun violence?
Members of the non-profit Vision Quilt work on design samples for students
Vision Quilt and ArtEsteem have come together because they believe that through the act of art-making and public expression Oakland youth can both heal from the trauma of gun violence and contribute to its prevention. Daytime art sessions are taught by seasoned artists with the aid of circles, talking pieces and the Principles of Attitudinal Healing. We have chosen the collaborative quilt as the form to follow, for its association with family, comfort, community, nurture, protection and recovery. The textile curriculum offers exposure to art and craft techniques like applique, lettering and portraiture, as well an encounter with the great talent of American quilters like Oakland's own Marion Coleman (recently deceased), Faith Ringgold, Jesse Telfare, and Bisa Butler, whose quilts tell stories, honor individuals, and send urgent messages.
The youth learn design fundamentals
Student cuts out her first design (West Oakland Middle School)
We are also grateful to have the support of local activists, such as Marilyn Washington Harris from the Khadafy Washington Foundation. Ms. Harris lost her son to gun violence in West Oakland almost 20 years ago, and created the Khadafy Washington Foundation out of an urgent need for resources serving victim’s survivors. During her visit, we learned that nearly 70% of students enrolled in our program had directly been affected by gun violence. They shared their stories and were given space to strategize solutions. Our Oakland students will be delivering their stories and messages to the nation when their school quilt is exhibited locally, and nationally with other Vision Quilt art submissions across the country.
Marilyn Washington Harris from the Khadafy Washington Foundation visits our program
Ms. Nan writes down suggestions from our students…“Protect Our Youth” and “Secrets Don’t Help People”
Keep your eyes on Vision Quilt. It was born of inspiration from the 54 tons of quilts created during the AIDS epidemic, and is actively accepting commissions of quilt panels on the subject of gun violence prevention from artists of all ages. Through this national organization our youth have an opportunity to join forces and voices with the many youth around the country that have mobilized to effect change in public policy, gun ownership laws, gun safety efforts and help to create ways.to encourage a culture of acceptance and watchfulness in school communities to help prevent school shootings.
Right: Images curtesy of Vision Quilt
If you are local to the East Bay you may recognize the work of ArtEsteem for the beauty and creativity that their students, with support from OUSD and the City of Oakland, have brought to our streets in the form of storytelling murals under the freeway at San Pablo, Market and West Streets in West Oakland at the Emeryville border. ArtEsteem has been offering art classes and workshops to students in the Bay area for over 20 years. Their programs promote personal empowerment, a deepened understanding of the structural challenges of racism and violence in our communities, and help our youth to create a path to personal and collective healing and a toolkit for problem solving and prevention.
Part of the ArtEsteem Mural (click to enlarge)
ArtEsteem student with self-portrait
Nan Eastep, October 2019
Nan is a teaching artist and board member of AHC. She brings expertise and experience in fiber arts, textiles, handcraft tailoring and industrial design. Eastep is also co-founder of City Slicker Farms in West Oakland.
Thank You to the Cultural Funding Program for making this work possible. To find out more visit the CFP Grant page.
Maze Cut Bookmaking: Honoring LGBTQ and Black Communities
The celebration and honoring of the LGBTQ community and Black community has been stiched into our art project this week at Tenderloin Community School (TCS) in San Francisco. Along with their mentors, our participating students learned and celebrated the LGBTQ and Black community during regular school hours. ArtEsteem stopped by TCS to support in the capturing of that knowledge and materialize it
into a book for the students to keep and share.
The handmade book integrated modern and classical symbols from all over the world that represent various gender identities. In addition, in honor of Black History Month students familiarize themselves with the classical Adinkra symbols from Ghana that centered around respected characteristics like strength, knowledge, honor, etc.
Mr. Eddie and Ms. Nan assisting students in the bookmaking process.
In all, it was a fantastic day of learning, celebrating and honoring the LGBTQ and Black communities in addition to learning a new art medium that will not be forgotten shortly.
-March 14, 2019
Three students pose with their freshly-made books.
Learning Fabric Arts with the ArtMobile
This week we took the ArtMobile across the Bay for Art Week at MLK Middle School! We facilitated fiber art classes for 3 days to over 400 students. Working with fiber arts is a unique experience, and the students were able to let their creativity soar.
Our projects involved bold designs, and we spoke about symbols relating to Black History Month, in addition to icons of peace and personal development.
Thanks to everyone at MLK Middle School for hosting the ArtMobile pop-up. The ArtEsteem ArtMobile is a fully equipped mobile art studio available for schools, festivals and community building events. To learn more, click here.
- February 27th, 2019
