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Charity Profile

Art with a Heart

March 3, 2008
By Tyisha Manigo
Photography Courtesy of Art with a Heart

 
 

CHARITY’S MISSION

Art With a Heart, Inc., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing, empowering and changing the lives of underserved and disadvantaged Baltimore-area residents through the visual arts.

Background

Art With a Heart was founded in March 2000 by Randi Alper Pupkin, a former attorney. Inspired by her own interest in art and a desire to help Baltimore’s struggling neighborhoods, Pupkin created weekly art classes in areas where access to art was limited or nonexistent.

Art With a Heart classes were initially held in four sites: at a shelter for battered women and their children; at an Alzheimer’s facility; and at two group homes for emotionally troubled adolescent boys. Today, Art With a Heart conducts more than 1,100 classes a year throughout the city, reaching more than 8,000 participants.

What does Art With a Heart do?

Art With a Heart staff and volunteers lead art classes at sites throughout Baltimore, including shelters, community centers, schools, hospitals and senior citizen facilities.

Students work on a variety of projects using an array of mediums, from painting to pottery to sculpture. Art With a Heart staff design class curriculum and projects with an educational focus that includes cultural, historic and world events.

Art With a Heart aspires to provide a creative and nurturing environment in which participants can learn life skills such as trust, communication and teamwork, says Pupkin, the organization’s executive director.

“We try to help disadvantaged people make changes in their lives,” Pupkin says.

Pupkin draws on research that shows art is an important part of human development, enhancing critical thinking, reasoning and planning abilities. People “simply do better” when they express themselves creatively, she says.

In addition to art classes, Art With a Heart offers community service opportunities and an “art to market” program. In June 2006, the organization launched a summer job program aimed at keeping at-risk youth safe and productive. Participants, ages 13 and older, meet five days a week for four weeks and produce marketable works of art while learning about the work world. Students receive a daily stipend.

“We use art as a vehicle to teach job skills and workplace protocols,” Pupkin says. “We expect participants to treat it as a job — to dress appropriately, speak appropriately and come to work every day.”

The students’ artworks are sold at Artscape, with proceeds given to the community in which the work was created. Last year, the 45 participating youngsters from East and West Baltimore sold $3,453 in merchandise at Artscape.

Community leaders say Art With a Heart demonstrates that the city’s young people, when given the opportunity, can effect positive change in their neighborhoods.

Clayton Guyton, director of the Rose Street Community Center in Baltimore, says he sees firsthand the positive impact Art With a Heart classes have on the center’s middle and high school children.

“Art With a Heart encourages young people to find the best in the themselves and to see the world in different ways other than the coldness of the streets,” Guyton says. “They’re getting a chance to express themselves and to look at what they can do, and they know that they’re creating something worthwhile.”

Many past participants stay in touch with Art With a Heart staff and volunteers, providing updates on their lives. Pupkin recounted the story of a 2006 summer program participant who “job shadowed” at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore. In November 2007, he celebrated his one-year anniversary as a full-time Hyatt employee.

“I don’t know if I had expectations when I started,” Pupkin says. “I was on a mission to help people and we do that every day.”

Fund-raising efforts

Art With a Heart’s current budget is $309,000, a 27 percent increase over 2006.

Board of directors

Joanne Brooks (secretary); Vic Cheswick Jr.; Emily Gaines Demsky; Randy Garfield Friedman; Amy Gross (vice president); Mary Ann Masur; Dr. David O’Donaghue, PsyD; Sarah Shapiro (past president); Brian Sims (president/treasurer); Karen Singer.

Volunteer

Art with a Heart welcomes
volunteers. For more information, please call 410-366-8886 or visit
www.artwithaheart.net

 
 
Filed Under: Charity Profile