Our year of Conversations with Children
We are proud of what we all have achieved in just two years:
- Placed 250 works of art in high-profile businesses throughout our region, Michigan, Washington D.C. and Massachusetts
- Received the gift of artwork from 395 generous and creative children
- Delivered the retail value of more than $100,300 in art supplies to 265 severely under-resourced inner-city art teachers
We have created a sustainable annual event to honor the young artist-philanthropists, a sophisticated museum-quality image database and unique art installation procedures.
Now we are turning our attention to “conversations with children”. Adults all seem to “get it”. They are delighted to participate in our innovative social business. But we felt that we needed to reach out to children so they understand the full power of what they are doing as part of Fresh Artists. When we interviewed children who had been invited to be part of Fresh Artists, we found that, although we explained the goal and the process in letters to them and their families, they often felt that they had simply “won an award”. The impact of their donation was not clear to many of them. The idea that they are philanthropists was not coming through.
So we decided to take this year to create specific ways to communicate directly with children, both those who have been invited to join Fresh Artists, and other children who ought to know about the difference kids can make in the world. Our tag-line says, “empowering young lives through art”, but we weren’t sure they knew they were empowered!
To make this right, we are focusing on three specific initiatives:
- Writing a children’s book called Pablo the Philly Philanthropist. Pablo loved to draw and paint, and sometimes got in trouble for drawing when he should have been doing something else. A talented boy, Pablo was invited by Fresh Artists to donate the use of his artwork to their program to help other kids in his city. Pablo agreed, and is told he is now a “philanthropist”. He doesn’t understand the impact of his giving until he actually sees large-scale reproductions of his artwork hung in a large office building, and watches boxes of art supplies pour into his school.
Pablo is eight and three-quarters
He gets in trouble all the time for drawing.
I am profoundly grateful to three creative young men who have helped me: Stephen Trueman, an aspiring children’s book writer jumped in and wrote a really charming narrative. My son, Gardner Allen, volunteered to do the fabulous illustrations. Roger, my younger son and co-founder of Fresh Artists, has been doing a terrific job coordinating the artwork, graphic design, layout and pre-press work.
The book is now on our webpage (button on the homepage) in beta format and we will be printing it this month for use in our program. Love to have input, so please write us and give us your thoughts. We hope to see it on Amazon in the future!
"Pablo" collaborators Gardner Allen (illustrator) and Steve Trueman (author)
- Designing a children’s box game based on the classic “memory” or concentration game, using the brilliant images from the Fresh Artists collection. We hope to have this inter-generational game widely distributed through the network of art and children’s museum shops, highlighting Fresh Artists’ mission of empowering the philanthropy of children through their artwork.
Prototype box game
- Creating “Sign Studio”, a real-life social entrepreneurial business where kids make and donate their art, see it used in a real-life application they can understand (a grocery store), and actively participate in delivering the art supplies to children in need within their community.
Please read the previous post to hear and see about Sign Studio!
