arts education

ArtThread Making a SPLASH! in Special Needs Community

I am a writer. I string words together to communicate information, persuade, amuse. I express my creativity by thoughtfully using language to paint vibrant pictures and performances in your mind, making you feel, think, react. It is my art. When I write I am filled with light.

For people with special needs, their ability to communicate, to express their feelings, to ask for help, to explore what is possible are often stymied by physical or mental limitations. Without an expressive outlet, their inner light is burdened by darkness. They can’t easily find a way out, so they may never become their best selves.

Art can be the switch that fills the darkness with light, and Jay Klein (founder and CEO) and Rob Rothschild (president) of the ArtThread Foundation, are making artistic expression easy and accessible with an online art program centered on a “digital Etch-A-Sketch” tool called SPLASH! And it is doing wonders for people of all ages who had been limited by their own minds, bodies, or environments.

student

Try SPLASH! It’s free! Just set up an account and click “Create Art Online.”

“Our mission is to make art and creative expression more available to everyone, especially those impacted by social circumstance and physical limitations,” says Jay. Through the ArtThread Foundation, teachers are using SPLASH! in schools across the country to help children learn, express themselves, vent their frustrations, discover their creativity, and build self-esteem. “This is an adaptive technology that enhances success for students with disabilities,” says Jay.

The Power of Expression

Alonna had the opportunity to try SPLASH! when she was in her early 20s, shortly before aging out of the Florida school system. She lives with spina bifida, a spinal birth defect that affects her ability to walk and learn. She made it through high school in St. Petersburg and entered a transition program called Project 10 to prepare for living in the adult world. Project 10 is an ArtThread “pARTner” and uses the program to help students explore their artistic side.

“She really took to it in a special way,” says Rob Rothschild, president of ArtThread Foundation. Alonna was one of  a small group of Project 10 students who were selected to participate in Work of Art (WOA), an ArtThread program that teaches participants how to turn their love of art into an online business.

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Alonna in her SPLASH! studio

Developed in conjunction with VSA Florida and funded with a grant from The Able Trust, WOA helps students set up e-commerce businesses through which they can sell products featuring their original art. Through a custom portal to the online marketplace Zazzle, the artists create and sell shirts, coffee mugs, and other items featuring their work.

 

Rob showed Alonna how to set up and manage her store and design products on the Zazzle platform. “Alonna was very shy,” says Rob. “Learning how to create art and sell it in her own online store really boosted her confidence. She really took to it in a special way.”

“I love to paint and draw and be creative,” she wrote after launching her online store. “When I do art I am free from all the challenges that I face on a daily basis.”

How It Began

The initiating concept for ArtThread was born from Jay’s National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute, and U.S. Department of Commerce funded research at the University of Florida. “I was studying the effects of artistic expression on symptom management in children undergoing cancer treatment,” says Jay. “I found that they had a better quality of life because they found meaning in the art. People who are more resilient have been able to attach positive meaning to their journey. That positivity displaces the negativity of their circumstance.”

“Then it dawned on me that it could help people with disabilities as well,” he says. “That’s when we came up with the idea to create the ArtThread Foundation as a way to develop the tools and partner with organizations that would benefit from it.”

“Any place there is no darkness there is light.”

Jay used the power of creative expression as a survivorship tool himself when he battled and beat cancer as a young man, and he is passionate about using technology and creative expression to foster self-esteem and community among children with disabilities, health challenges, and difficult social circumstances. The foundation partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to develop SPLASH! and the platform for the online art galleries.

Amazing Results

ArtThread has taken root in Florida with organizations serving people with special needs such as VSA and Project 10, and in Sonoma County, CA, with the Early Learning Institute. It is also used at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa, FL, where young patients can create art with SPLASH!, providing a way to express themselves and bring light into their lives.

At VSA, Bonnie Hammer is a teaching artist implementing the program in schools in and around Sarasota, FL. Special education teachers apply for grants through VSA to implement an 8-week program. At the start of each program, she works with the teacher to use the online art tools to enhance the curriculum, whether it’s learning colors and shapes, combining shapes to build things, or learning math and science.

“It’s like a giant coloring book,” says Bonnie. “Once the students see me using it, they get very excited and want to try it.” The program also helps students develop fine motor skills and can help students focus, relax, and express their feelings. “I’ve even used the program with young offenders in a juvenile prison,” she says. “They have a lot of anger and other issues, and through the creative process they’re able to work through them.”

wow

ArtThread opens limitless possibilities for people of all abilities.

Karen Holtman tested ArtThread with kindergarten students at John B. Riebli Elementary School in Santa Rosa, CA. “Jay asked me to collect data to document how effective the program was with 5-year-olds. It had only been used with older children and adults, so he was skeptical it would be successful.”

“It was extremely popular with the kids,” says Karen. ArtThread provided the hardware for three SPLASH! stations in her classroom! She used it to teach the children colors, shapes and patterns. She paired them up and had them copy what one another created, teaching them how to work together. “It really helped lay the foundation for using technology in a fun way.”

Turn on the Light

Jay and Rob would love to see ArtThread in every school, particularly those that have eliminated the arts because of budget constraints, so students can use art to discover their abilities and unlock their full potential.

“When you remove art, you remove not only an individual’s ability to express himself, but you also remove a society’s ability to express itself,” says Jay. “Creativity is a key part of our wellness.”

If you would like to begin a program in your school or organization, contact ArtThread to become a “pARTner.”

You will be amazed at how quickly the light chases away the darkness.

About me: I am Pete Resler, a dad of two boys with special head and shouldersneeds. I created this blog to tell stories of exceptional people, including those with special needs and those who give of themselves to make life better for them. My hope is that these stories expose more people to what’s good in the special needs world and inspire them to give of themselves to make life better for those with special needs.

You can help:  I’m always looking for new ideas. If you know someone you think should be featured, shoot me a note at specialopstories@gmail.com.

Don’t Dis My Abilities! Help Them Shine!

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”  – Georgia O’Keeffe

Artists have a special gift that often lies dormant until someone provides encouragement and opportunity, allowing it to fully blossom. Be it painting, dancing, writing or film-making, creativity needs inspiration and an outlet to release expression, regardless of a person’s physical voice.

DeAnna Pursai and Pam Lindsay have opened that door for adults with disabilities by founding the College of Adaptive Arts (CAA) in San Jose, CA. There students have a unique opportunity to express themselves like they never could before thanks to a dedicated team of professionals who are building a true college experience for people who don’t have a place in a traditional college classroom.

CAA hiphop

Professor Isabella Torres and dance student Renee show their hip-hop moves during the 2015 graduation ceremony. Photo courtesy of Linda Krakow Eaman.

A Better Option

“When people age out of the special education system as young adults, there aren’t many programs for them,” said DeAnna, who serves as executive director and is a public school teacher. “We wanted to provide an environment where they can explore and expand their abilities, not sit in a day program for the rest of their lives because of their disabilities.”

She hatched the idea while running a non-profit theater program for children with disabilities, called Angels on Stage, named for her sister, Angel, who has Down syndrome and acted in a similar troupe as a child in Indiana.

There she met Pam, whose daughter performed with the troupe. With a professional background in acting and other performing arts, she began directing the troupe. She soon saw the need for a similar program for disabled adults and began running an acting workshop for them.

Pam had also been homeschooling her daughter, Val, using theater and music to help Val learn, and was also completing a master’s degree in theater arts with a focus on how techniques used in teaching character acting can be effective in teaching social cognitive skills to autistic children.

CAA founders

CAA co-founders Pam Lindsay and DeAnna Pursai. Photo courtesy of Linda Krakow Eaman.

Going Live

With DeAnna’s experience in special education (she still teaches part-time) and running a non-profit, and Pam’s arts and education expertise, they launched CAA in 2009, renting a small space at a dance studio for their first 12 students. Seven years in, CAA has moved around a bit as discounted spaces are lost and new ones found, all the while growing to more than 70 students today.

They enjoy eight different courses of study, learning dance, vocal and instrumental performance, TV and film production, fine arts, and a variety of other courses in the arts and other educational disciplines and life skills.

And like traditional universities, CAA offers low-cost bachelor’s and master’s degree tracks in each discipline. The standards and accreditation are unique to CAA, but that fits its unique community perfectly. And so does the staff, more than half of whom also have a disability.

Life is a Stage

Performers and artists learn their craft in the classroom, then, like other professionals, take to the public stage, screen and gallery to share their art with the masses. Performance groups, such as the graduate theater troupe, perform for local children, while TV and film students produce a TV show and debut their short films at the annual Celebrating Differing Abilities Film Festival.

Several aspiring actors even had the opportunity to participate in a professional-style audition before some of the top professionals in Bay Area theater through a partnership with City Lights Theater in San Jose. Students experienced it all, from preparing their resumes, complete with professional photos, to rehearsing, performing and receiving feedback from the panel.

“It was really a great experience for the students to feel the pressure and excitement of a real audition,” said Pam. “But it was also a real revelation for the professional judges, who now view our actors as legitimate members of the theater community.”

CAA Carlos & Nathalie

Carlos and Nathalie keep the rhythm during one of many music classes at CAA.

Student Ambassadors

When it comes to selling the school, the students are the secret sauce. “Every time someone tours the college or the students go out and perform, we win at least one more heart,” said DeAnna. “We’re not a day care; our students want to be here to learn, create and contribute, and it shows in their enthusiasm.”

When it came time to find the space the college now occupies, it was a student who sold the property owner on providing the space at a discount. But with that discount comes the possibility that CAA will lose that space if someone else is willing to pay full price. “We’ve had times when we’ve lost our space and had to scramble to find places to hold our classes,” she said. “We’re very fortunate and thankful that we have this space, but we are always looking for a permanent place to call home.”

Growing on a Permanent Foundation

Their goal is to find an area college that will welcome CAA as a charter school on campus, providing a permanent home and giving students a real campus where they can utilize more resources and mingle with typical peers.

“Once we have a more permanent location, we’d like to grow into other markets to provide opportunity to adults with disabilities in other parts of the country,” said DeAnna. They have also submitted a grant application to fund the technology they need to provide distance learning for people who are physically unable to get to campus or live in other parts of the world.

Stay Tuned

The story of CAA is rich and evolving, with students, professors and volunteers all working to build a community where adults with special needs can learn, grow and express themselves as they want. It’s all too much to tell in a single post, so stay tuned to Special Ops for more stories of exceptional people at CAA!

About me: I am Pete Resler, a dad of two boys with special needs. I created this blog to tell stories of head and shouldersincredibly good people, including those with special needs and those who give of themselves to make life better for them. My hope is that these stories expose more people to what’s good in the special needs world and inspire them to give of themselves to make life better for those with special needs.

You can help:  I’m always looking for new ideas. If you know someone you think should be featured, shoot me a note at specialopstories@gmail.com.