The Expressive Arts Leadership Program fosters youth working independently in the studio, planning and executing their own program and culminating art show. Through the program´s leadership component, youth engage in community collaboration and use the arts to make a difference in society, to inspire, educate, and promote social justice.
Now in its fifth year, the Expressive Arts Leadership program focuses on issues that are important to our teens and young adults in society. Since 2019, projects have included three annual Love Yourself performing arts events and art shows at the Colonial Theatre in support of youth suicide prevention, and The Art for Social Justice Project, The Togetherness Project, and Art for Social Change. Each year, guest mentors in the arts work with our teens and young adults to help them express their voice about what matters to them and the issues they face, as well as to help them organize their ideas for change.
Art for Social Change – 2022-2023
Art for Social Change aims to help empower all of us to express our voice in a safe, supportive and trauma-informed environment; to use the arts to help promote social justice; and to explore creative ideas for making change and shifting cultural perceptions. This year in response to the overturned Roe v Wade decision, and the powerlessness that so many of us feel, we have chosen to turn our energy into using the arts to process feelings, mobilize for action and make change relating to having choice with our bodies. We also will examine and discuss broader issues of body autonomy related to transgender and non-binary gender identities, body image and empowerment, consent, race and social class.
Youth meet with members of the community to have an interactive dialogue about how we can access power in our bodies through the arts, and how we can use art activism to promote social change. Art projects include guerilla style social action postcards, self portraits, body empowerment altars, graffiti art and sloganaeering in art. Collaborators include the following guest artist activists: Marney Schorr Artist and Art Therapist, filmmaker Raymond Brown, Graffiti Artist, Maleek Adams Powell, Art Educator and Curator, Katy Holt, and Visionary Nature-based Artist, Misa Chappell.
More than 35 works of art were exhibited at the Whitney Center for the Arts in February 2023. The artists gathered with the community and held an Artists Talk on February 12th.
LISTEN TO THE ARTISTS TALK HERE:
The Togetherness Project – 2022-2023
The Togetherness Project aims to build bridges between underserved, marginalized and/or oppressed populations in the local community through the power of art. The Project involves AIRY teens and young adults visiting and making art with local residents including mothers and teens recovering from domestic violence at the Elizabeth Freeman Center, veterans at Soldier On, and adolescents of color in the R.O.P.E. program (Rites of Passage and Empowerment). Through creative collaboration we also aim to reduce the traumatic isolation that people have suffered because of the Covid-19 pandemic, by creating a sense of community connection in a positive, creative and uplifting way., and by creating an opportunity to build a sense of much needed togetherness.
Making Art: All art materials are provided by AIRY with easy and accessible art projects geared toward creating a stronger sense of community. The teens and young adults, under the supervision of the Director, will assist residents with learning new art skills that promote spontaneous, playful and meaningful creativity. Such art activities have numerous wellness benefits, for mind, body and spirit, as well as the social aspects they provide. Our youth will engage in heart to heart talks to learn more about the residents. Following the site visits, they will make art for the residents as a way for them to remember their experience and to thank them for their time and participation.
Community Engagement: We hope to showcase the artwork of community residents alongside the members of the Expressive Arts Leadership group at a community event in the Spring of 2023. As part of the program, the teens and young adults will plan the event, as well as its venue, date and agenda. They will help hang the art show and put together a program and marketing for the public. We strive for this community event to raise awareness of the need for equity, diversity and inclusion in our community and in society in general, and to promote ways to accomplish this in our day to day lives.
The Togetherness Project Exhibit will be on view from March 10 – April 6, 2023 at the Colonial Theatre at 111 South Street in downtown Pittsfield, with a reception on March 14, 2023 from 4-6 pm.
The Art for Social Justice Project – 2020
In 2020, AIRY members chose to focus on the topic of Art for Social Justice. The young artists interpreted social justice issues in a variety of expressive media including painting, poetry and digital art. The areas of social justice that they have chosen to explore include racial injustice and oppression, violence against women, stigma and bullying, rights of LGBTQ+ persons, freedom of gender expression, body image and gender equality.
Seven guest artists joined the Art for Social Justice project as mentors to discuss their experiences and ideas about social activism in the art world. From diverse backgrounds, they include Pops Peterson, creator of the Reinventing Rockwell series at Norman Rockwell Museum which reinterprets the Four Freedoms from a black perspective (See https://www.popspeterson.com/copy-of-reinventing-rockwell) Katy Holt, creator of the Wifebot art zine which explores gender role expectations of women; Em Reim Ifrach, transgender social activist and art therapist on the theme of body image and gender expression (See https://www.artache.org/); Caroline Kelley, feminine arts activist (See: https://nuartsgallery.com/artists/caroline-kelley/); Amanda Warriner, Sculpture Artist and LBGTQ+ rights activist; and Emma Lenski, artist and counselor at the Elizabeth Freeman Center (https://www.elizabethfreemancenter.org/); and Marney Schorr, who chronicles her experience in a psychiatric hospital in oil pastel and acrylic paint. Mentors provide constructive criticism and feedback to the youth artists on their individual works, demonstrate their own methods and techniques, create art in response to working with the youth group, and share resources such as links, videos or articles.
ART SHOW & OPENING: The Art for Social Justice project showcased these works in a virtual show on the MCLA Gallery 51 website from June 6- August 1, 2021. Youth also participated in an in-person art show and artists talk on Saturday June 12th, 2021 from 3-6 pm at Common Folk Artists Gallery on Holden St in North Adams, MA. For info about the show please visit http://www.commonfolk.org. Proceeds from art sales will help fund the Arts in Recovery for Youth program and support our young artists in their creative endeavors.
Funding for the Art for Social Justice project was provided by the New England Grassroots Environment Fund and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
New England Grassroots Environment Fund awards help solve the problems and realize the promises in addressing climate change and energy action, local food, environmental health and justice, land and water and local economies. For more information, please visit http://grassrootsfund.org or call 603-905-9915.
EXPRESSIVE ARTS LEADERSHIP
The Expressive Arts Leadership Program aims to reduce risk factors for youth suicide through expressive arts leadership roles for teens and young adults who face multiple barriers in society with the following premises:
(1) Youth-driven expressive arts leadership roles (such as planning and executing an art show and performance piece at Berkshire Pride Festival) can create a sense of belonging, being needed in a group, and eliminate isolation.
(2) Expressive arts leadership opportunities (such as working as peer mentors and co-facilitators in the AIRY program) can increase a sense of purpose and eliminate feelings of hopelessness;
(3) Youth leaders in the AIRY program (such as co-facilitators, peer mentors and studio interns) become positive role models for other youth, modeling social skills, emotion regulation, mastery and problem solving;
(4) Expressive arts leadership roles (such as planning, designing and publishing a color comic book specific to the current issues young people face) can bolster youth’s workforce skills for future success, enhance self esteem and have a positive impact in the community.
(5) The EAL model can make learning suicide prevention skills more attractive to other youth, showing them how recovery is possible for their similar-age peers.
Through the arts, the Expressive Arts Leadership Program builds upon and expands the previous AIRY model to ensure long term suicide prevention and to provide an enhanced level of support to teens and young adults at risk for suicide. AIRY recognizes the value of lived experience of youth recovering from feelings of suicide, and helps them build resilience. Our ¨train the trainer¨ model teaches them leadership skills to become peer mentors, studio interns, performing arts planners, curators, group co-facilitators and program assistants.
This program is funded in part by Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, New England Grassroots Environment Fund and the Berkshire Coalition for Suicide Prevention.
YOUTH ART SHOWS
As part of the Youth Leadership for Success (YLS) Inititiave, several young emerging artists have held their own art exhibitions at First Fridays Artswalk in downtown Pittsfield.
RACHAEL BENTZ, SOPHIA BILIA, JACK KELLY, AYAH LEHTONEN & AIDAN SPANIOL
“ELEMENTAL”
Common Folk Artists Gallery, 73 Main St, North Adams MA
‘Elemental’ showcases a diverse body of acrylic and watercolor paintings and digital art, connected by the process of using art as therapy. The Elements of Step Up are based in nature – releasing negative emotions through Fire, balancing emotions by grounding to the Earth, calming and cooling through Water, and accessing wisdom and whimsy through Air and Wind.
The artists hope to convey how art is its own universe, malleable and changing as we change. Art has the power to humble us or make us feel like gods. Art materials stretch us beyond reality while nature’s elements offer insight into our personalities and relationships.
AIDAN SPANIOL
“War Heroes”
Aidan Spaniol at NUarts, 311 North St, Pittsfield
NUarts presents the first solo exhibition of youth artist, Aidan Spaniol during First Fridays Artswalk on September 6, 2019, opening reception from 5-8 pm in the gallery. “War Heroes” features a vast collection of hundreds of original comic drawings on paper, created over a several year period since his childhood. The drawings are inspired by franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, D.C., Dragon Ball, Black Clover and One Piece. Also on display are three Lego sculptures which are the blueprints for Aidan’s comics.
Aidan Spaniol is a fifteen year old comics and graphic artist from Pittsfield, MA. In 2019, he began adding color and size to his comic book characters whose storylines usually involve friends fighting a common enemy to protect what they love. The artist is also exploring acrylic painting using thick brush strokes and a palette of dark and vivid colors like Van Gogh.
RACHAEL BENTZ
On April 5, 2019, First Fridays Artswalk featured the debut art exhibition of 16 year old artist and illustrator, Rachael Bentz. The opening reception for ‘Myth and Nature’ was held from 5-8 pm, and the show is on view through May 30. Myth and Nature features 18 figurative works on paper in alcohol-based marker, colored pencil and watercolor, as well as original digital art. Each piece embodies a narrative myth about the feminine power of the natural world, inspired by emotions and nature expressed in the female form.
Rachael Bentz is a self taught artist and performing musician from Pittsfield. Her art and song were recently featured at the “Love Yourself” event at the Colonial Theatre in February. While this is her first exhibition, drawing and painting have always been her passion, as she plans to attend art school and pursue art as a career. See: https://m.facebook.com/events/595526094296155?
BREANNA LYTLE
On March 1, 2019 First Fridays Artswalk and Unitarian Universalist Church featured the debut art show of 16 year old artist, Breanna Lytle. ‘Birdie’ featured brand new abstract works on paper and canvas.
The artist described her spontaneous pour method as “putting my emotions and colors into a cup”, in the Feb 10 premiere of the documentary ‘Messages of Hope’ at the Colonial Theatre, where all of Breanna’s works on view have been sold. Proceeds of art sales support the artist in her aspirations with youth leadership in the arts. See: https://m.facebook.com/events/292256771441464?
Arts in Recovery for Youth 