Fresher and Local: Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Shows!
As a way of sowing the seeds for a grassroots initiative to empower children as philanthropists, we are launching our first national initiative to help any child or children, anywhere, provide art supplies for schools in need. The Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show program springs from the publication of our first children’s book, Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist. The book tells the story of little 8 year-old Pablo who was always getting in trouble for drawing when he ought to be doing something “more important”. In the story, Pablo’s artwork is discovered by Fresh Artists. He learns how Fresh Artists works, consults with his aunt about being a philanthropist, and readily agrees to include his picture in the Fresh Artists’ collection. As Pablo learns about “philanthropy”, he sees that his artwork has the power to bring art supplies to hundreds of children in need. As we developed the story, we realized that not every child’s artwork could be invited to be part of the Fresh Artists’ collection, so we designed a way for any child, or groups of children, to make, show, sell and donate the proceeds from the art sale to purchase art supplies for a school in their community that is struggling with severe under-funding of their art program.
The Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show program will provide suggestions for organizing the show and a simple, fun “kit of parts” with templates to download from our website. The kit will contain sheets of Pablo-branded art labels, name tags, certificates of artistic and philanthropic achievement, and a simple reporting form to send back to Fresh Artists so we can keep track of the good works of children around the country…and the world! We are designing a blog for children to post their experiences showing and selling their artwork to help other children, as we are interested in their response to this innovative call to social action.
We are hoping this program will encourage, engage and empower children of all ages to hold a little clothesline art sale and see the fruits of their creativity and generosity. We will be offering this program to one or 100 kids, in neighborhoods, scouting programs (wouldn’t this make a terrific Brownie or Cub scout badge!), faith-based organizations, public and private schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, PAL centers, and through the network of Big Brothers and Big Sisters. A Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Sale can be one child making artwork, hanging it up in the back yard, and inviting his or her family and neighbors to come, see and buy…or an entire school could embrace this effort supporting schools in need. The sky’s the limit! We don’t know where this will go, but we have a hunch it will spread quickly as it is simple, direct, and effective.
Photo courtesy David Cruz, AL DIA
Please email ideas of how we can spread the word. We are interested in your feedback as we design this engaging little grassroots initiative to empower children as philanthropists.
