Fresh Artists Blog 

“Tell me about the child who made this artwork“, we hear as we install another huge, vibrant reproduction in a corporate office. People always want to know about the young artist or about the lesson being taught through the artwork. Not always, but we often know a little about the child, the art lesson, or some interesting tidbit about what inspired the teacher to introduce this subject to their young students.

A wonderful young writer, Janine James, jumped at the chance to work with us to create “story-sheets” on some of the most popular pieces of artwork from our collection. A talented creative writing major from Eastern University, Janine has joined the Fresh Artists team as our intern and her project is to document stories of the children, their inspiration and processes by interviewing their art teachers.  We will be able to create customized storybooks for our donors about the specific pieces they have chosen to display in their offices.

Fresh Artists intern Janine James

Our aim is to build a bridge of understanding between our generous young artist-philanthropists and the generous donors who support Fresh Artists. Having stories about the art available in the donor’s offices can make the artwork more meaningful to those who visit and work there.  We thank Janine for her gifts of time and talent to bring this important project to life.

The icy wind whipping down Powelton Avenue just about ripped the huge panels of artwork out of our hands as we unloaded the car. Bringing 15 enormous pieces of children’s artwork into the lobby of Red Cross House created a stir with the folks waiting for their shelter intake interviews. As on most days, the place was full of people seeking warmth, hot food, a dry place to sleep and help with the disaster that just befell their families. Fire, flood, explosions, collapsed houses. This family shelter for disaster victims in West Philadelphia welcomes more than 1,000 desperate people a year to the expert loving care of the Red Cross. This wonderful place is clean, bright, warm and blessed refuge for people who have no where else to go.  But it was BARE. Bare walls. Thousands of square feet of bare walls.

Fresh Artists fixed that! On January 14th, we filled the 33,000 sf two-story shelter with 15 gorgeous, joyful works of art from the Fresh Artists collection. Made and donated by Philadelphia public school children, this collection of art represents all ages, from kindergarten to seniors in high school. It is a permanent gift from Fresh Artists and  made possible through a novel and innovated partnership with some of the region’s most influential corporations and individuals.  Read on….it’s a bit complicated but pretty interesting.

Red Cross House Director Yohan Weerasingha with Fresh Artists Barbara Chandler Allen, and installation crew Roger Allen and Emil Bogdan

Fresh Artists wants tons of people…and kids…to see children’s art.  Really, to SEE the children who made the art. We believe that under-resourced kids are essentially invisible in our society. One of the central tenents of Fresh Artists is to bring the children, their stories, their need for a quality public education, and most importantly, their abilities to the attention of the world. Small goal, eh?

We’ve been really successful filling the halls of corporate America with this extraordinary artwork, raising money to deliver tons of art supplies and innovative art programs to public school kids and giving kids of modest means the opportunity to be real philanthropists in their world…in three years.  But we realized that the kids…and ordinary folks, weren’t seeing this beautiful artwork. Just the people who worked in the “spaces of success”, the big, pretty fancy office buildings.

So we climbed into our “Give Tank” (aka “think tank” which is actually the kitchen table) and brainstormed a new way to get this art out into the community where loads of people can see it and be inspired by these incredible kids. Of course, being an entrepreneurial social business, we had to work in making some money in the process. And include getting more and more business people engaged in Fresh Artists. Easy, eh?

Our January installation at Red Cross House is the culmination of this pilot program! Yippee!

Here’s how it goes…stay with me now…

1- Fresh Artists partnered with World Cafe Live, a snazzy new-music venue and cafe on the Penn campus and home to super-cool public radio station, WXPN. Always jumping with adults and kid’s rock, pop, jazz and folk concerts…the place is a beehive of activity…and complements our “brand”…eg. FRESH!  With the happy encouragement of World Cafe’s founder/owner Hal Real, we filled the place with kid’s art from our collection, and committed to refresh the entire installation every year. The employees of World Cafe Live (chefs, waiters, dishwashers) get to choose the art.

2-We install 15 pieces of Fresh Artists’ large-format reproductions of kid’s art for a year.

3-In the fall, we replace each piece with a new piece, again chosen by vote of the WCL employees!

4-We move the previously-exhibited artwork into a community nonprofit that wants “freshening up”.

And here’s the “Bottom Line”…the money part:
This Fresh Artists’ program is supported by an annual bash at the World Cafe that they host (and pay for!) called “Salon on the Schuykill”.  Our wonderful Business Advisory Council has adopted this event, and takes responsibility for finding 15+ businesses to “adopt” each piece of artwork. Their sponsorship is proudly announced on the wall label of both the NEW art installed at World Cafe Live for the year, as well as with the RECYCLED art installed permanently in the nonprofit community partner.  They are honored at the Salon, and a special art opening at the new community installation (coming soon!)  Suggestions for community partnership are encouraged from our art sponsors. Sponsors also may receive a piece of artwork for their own offices as part of their sponsorship package, as well as eing invited to sit on the Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council to help plan next year’s bash at World Cafe Live!  Cool, eh?

So…..Voila!

• Fresh art for tens of thousands of all ages to enjoy at World Cafe Live
• Fresh art for a severely financially and visually under-resourced charity
• Funds raised to support the innovative art programs and supplies deliveries of Fresh Artists
• Steady stream of engaged and inspired new business people making a difference for kids
• Sponsors receive long-term public recognition in high visibility locations
• Sponsors receive artwork for their own offices with dedication wall label recognition
• Sponsors have a useful networking and client entertainment event that’s informal, fresh and fun

We have just completed an enormous installation of 170 pieces of our children’s artwork at Safe Shores, a Child Advocacy Center on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Michele Booth Cole, Executive Director of Safe Shores, discovered Fresh Artists when we were exhibiting our program at the national leadership conference of the National Children’s Alliance in May. Safe Shores, a 40,000 sf. state of the art facility caring for children who have been sexually abused and maltreated, had just been finished, and the had miles of clean, blank walls crying for artwork! We thank Michele for inviting Fresh Artists into this amazing place of healing and care.

Safe Shores occupies the former Bundy Elementary School in NW DC

Hallways were transformed

The Safe Shores staff voted on their favorite artwork from the Fresh Artists’ collection and artist-philanthropist Sara Hendrix, Creative Director Roger Allen and founder Barbara Chandler Allen assisted them in placing their choices throughout the building. Stairwells, hallways and treatment rooms were transformed with vibrant welcoming artwork.

"Silly City" tableau by 2nd and 3rd graders

Children welcome children at reception desk

Children are greeted with three beautiful faces of children made by third graders when they enter the building. These faces send a clear a message to the children that this is a child-centered, safe place. Every room they enter has a piece of artwork made by a kindergarten through 12th grader. Wall labels tell the artist’s name and grade, assuring the children that this is “their place”.

Safe Shores Executive Director Michele Booth Cole with Fresh Artists installation team in front of Amanda Long's artwork

As confidentiality is so important in a CAC, we had to install the artwork during hours that there were no clients in the building. Our high school intern, volunteer Andrew Diemer, helped us install the bulk of artwork over the Labor Day weekend.  Fresh Artists installation technicians Hilary Merzbacher and Quincy Ellis, both graduates of Rhode Island Design, were on the installation team as well. We installed 137 pieces in three days and nights. When we returned over the Halloween weekend to finish the job with an additional 33 pieces, we heard stories from Safe Shores staff about the strong impact the artwork had on the children who came for forensic interviews, examinations, treatment and therapy…but also the impact the artwork had on the staff. “The artwork has brought a visual message of hope into the building. The images are positive, brilliant, and comforting. It is uplifting in a place that sees great sadness,” a veteran social worker told us.  We were all moved by the stories we heard while working there, and very proud that we could in some way help the thousands of children who will come through Safe Shores each year.

Shereen Williams, DC Public Schools, toured the artwork with Fresh Artists founder, Barbara Chandler Allen and Executive Director Michele Booth Cole

Staff breakroom with fresh food series

6th grader's inspiration from Georgia O'Keefe brightens up a workstation

"rainbow map" greets people as they enter the auditorium

The artwork was made possible by a grant from the Washington Children’s Foundation.

Although Fresh Artists was designed as primarily as a corporate art program, our vision was to also help nonprofits serving vulnerable children. That time has come and we are busy filling child advocacy centers like Safe Shores in DC, the Bucks County Child Advocacy Center, the Philadelphia Children’s Alliance and the Willow Tree Center in Green Bay Wisconsin with the healing, transformative artwork of our generous, caring children.

Reception room at Philadelphia Children's Alliance CAC

Photo credits: Seth Shimkonis, Roger Allen

Fresh Art-vocates assembled at World Cafe Live for the Second Annual Salon on the Schuylkill.  This annual fundraising event showcases new art installed for a year-long exhibition in public spaces throughout this popular new music cafe/cabaret. The World Cafe Live staff, waiters, dishwashers, chefs and bartenders vote on the art they want on their walls from the more than 500 pieces in the Fresh Artists collection. The art installed last year will be removed and re-installed as a gift to Red Cross House at 40th and Powelton Avenue in West Philadelphia, a family shelter for disaster victims.  We were pleased to have Donna Palmieri, COO and Interim CEO of Southeastern PA Red Cross Chapter attend the Friday Salon event. She expressed her delight and gratitude for being chosen as recipient of Fresh Artist’s artwork, “This beautiful and inspirational artwork will bring so much pleasure to the families staying in our Red Cross House Center for Disaster Recovery. The images are positive, bright and most importantly, hopeful.  I can’t wait to see the artwork displayed on the walls throughout the Red Cross House and the joy the artwork will bring to the children and adults recovering from a disaster at our transitional housing facility!”

Thanks to our generous Salon Sponsors: Anapol, Schwartz, Elliott-Lewis Corporation, Robert and Marcy Fenza, The Glenmede Trust Company, Goodwin College of Professional Studies, Drexel University, Hangley, Aronchick, Segal and Pudlin, Haworth, In Posse, LLC, Martin Banks, The Neiman Group, SAP, Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group, Steelcase Philadelphia: Steelcase GCC, Coalesse, Designtex, Corporate Interiors. Their sponsorship makes it possible for more than 170,000 people a year to have the pleasure of seeing this brilliant children’s artwork by placing “fresh” art into World Cafe and moving the “retired” artwork out  to our community partner, Red Cross House.

Advisory Board President Bob Reid of Elevate Architects + Collaborators with Fresh Artists president, Barbara Chandler Allen

Fresh Artists board member Heather Gibson with Advisory Council’s Jim Pinheiro of Pearl Pressman Liberty

Laresha Williams (CAPA ’14), stopped by with her aunt, and enjoyed seeing the artwork that she donated to Fresh Artists when she was in 7th grade reproduced as large digital prints.  Her interpretations of Matisse’s Red Madras Headdress” and di Chirico’s Portrait of Dr. Barnes, were part of the Fresh Artists-Barnes Foundation Partnership Project.

Laresha‘s artwork was part of a specially designed interactive photo-booth experience called “Silly Salon” created for the party by Seth Shimkonis, Rachael Lufkin of Jihm Booth with design assistance from Fresh Artists co-founder, Roger Allen.  Images on the backdrop were selected from the Fresh Artists collection of mini-masterpieces interpreted from the Barnes Foundation Collection by K through 7th graders under the guidance of art teachers Robyn Miller (Hancock Elementary) and Evelyn Bock (Henry Elementary). Photoshopped into digital reproductions of glorious gold-leafed museum-quality picture frames from Godel & Co. in New York, the pictures recreated a turn of the century French “salon” with heavy currant-colored drapes, and fun props like mustaches, top hats and chalk boards that became customized “speech bubbles” for event guest hilarity.

More than 300 people attended this year’s event, and enjoyed drinksand hors d’oeuvres graciously provided by Lisa Margraff, Food and Beverage Manager of World Cafe Live, and live music donated by the ten-piece hip hop band, Wyld Lyfe (Semaj Worrell and Crew) and Brooklyn’s Double Rainbow (Gardner Allen and Tim Laursen) complete with 5 outrageous automated robotic drummers!

Thank you to the Business Advisory Council, led by architect Bob Reid of Elevate Architects + Collaborators for adopting the Salon as their project: Jennifer Braxton (IKEA), Nicole Carville (Haworth), Rob Diemer (In Posse), Rosemarie Fabien (Fabien Communications), Lauren Fantini (Caroselli, Beachler), Heather Gibson (Sentry Art Advisory Services), Ken Johnson (Glaxo Smith Kline), Valerie Lagauskas (Event Navigators), Lori Morrissey (SAP), Jim Pinheiro (Pearl Pressman Liberty), Suzanne Schwartz (Tasty Baking Company), Suzanne Turk (Goodwin College, Drexel), Jerri Williams (SEPTA), Susan Yeager (Arch Insurance Group).

Fresh Artists co-founder and creative director Roger Allen with Merry Wiggins, Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show project coordinator

Thanks to the to the wonderful board and staff of Fresh Artists: Nancy Wolff, Heather Gibson, Christine James, Laura Bernardo, Roger Allen, Merry Wiggins, Steve Trueman and our amazingly talented and delightful intern from CAPA, Andrew Diemer!  Here are a bunch of terrific photographs courtesy of the following photographers who donated their professional services for the event:  Seth  Shimkonis and Rachael Lufkin of JIHM BOOTH and Viviana Pernot.

Suzanne Schwartz (Tasty Baking), Susan Yeager (Arch Insurance)

DiD Marketing

Maya Glavin, Liz Trost and Tim Laursen

Hancock Art teacher, Robyn Miller and B. Allen

Janine, Jason and Fresh Artists board member Christine James

Fresh Artists Project Assistant Laura Bernardo and author of Pablo, the Philly Philanthropist Steve Trueman

Clothesline Coordinator Merry Wiggins with CAPA intern Andrew Diemer

The Neiman Group, Fresh Artists Media partner

Double Rainbow (Tim Laursen, Gardner Allen and The Robot Drummers)

Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council members Jim Pinheiro (Pearl Pressmen) and Jennifer Braxton (IKEA)

Kindergarten artist-philantropist Kaitlyn Deng's artwork

Helen Diemer (The Lighting Practice) and Tom Normile (Keast and Hood Engineers)

Florcy Morrisett and friends with third grader Akayla Denmark-Howard's Sunflowers

Laresha's aunt, Laresha, and Barbara Allen

At the request of many Fresh Artists friends, we are introducing several exciting new art-embellished products featuring the children’s artwork at our annual funds & friendraising event at the World Cafe Live Friday, October 22.

We have put a new spin on the classic “memory” game by designing three signature sets using artwork from our collection. . The heirloom sets of brightly colored artwork decoupaged by hand onto 2″ polished hardwood tiles and glazed with a high-gloss acrylic are packaged in a recycled paper box and include the mission of Fresh Artists and a list of the young artist-philanthropists who donated their artwork to help other children. These charming handmade game sets are crafted by a volunteer cadre of dedicated retired art teachers who are committed to supporting Fresh Artist by making art, staying in touch with each other and mentoring new teachers!

Fresh Faces Memory Game

Fresh Faces features 16 bright faces in mosaic, oil crayon, watercolor and block printing from Lady Liberty done by a seventh grade Masterman School student to a vibrant self-portrait oil pastel by a graduating senior from the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA). For an additional donation, we will customize your game set by inserting two photograph faces of your own choice…your children, parents or favorite animals!

Fresh Food is a tribute to healthy eating featuring the new Sign Studio Collection of paper mosaic fruits and veggies designed for interior signage in local organic food cooperatives.  Blueberries, peppers, a club sandwich and trout tiles in jewel tones make playing this game both fun and educational for youngsters learning to make healthy eating choices.

Fresh Food Memory Game - luscious images of healthy choices

Fresh Art is the set of tiles highlighting the favorite pieces from our collection like Penguins, Dancing Koi, City Blocks (a Cubist take on Philadelphia’s “Old City” with the Ben Franklin bridge in the background), a star “mini-Matisse” from our Barnes Foundation partnership, and the now-famous kindergarten piece, “Seven Ants on My Pizza”!

Fresh Art - favorites from our Collection

The Fresh Artists Memory Games are the perfect inter-generational activity…a charming activity for the upcoming holidays. As engaging to grandparents as it is to very young children, these sets are magnets bringing all ages together at your holiday table.

We are offering four exquisitely matted and framed reproductions, printed on rag paper by Silicon Graphics Fine Art Prints for the first time. Alexandra Valles‘ popular drawing of the city skyline, City Crane, and Sara Hendrix’ moving self portrait of her grandmother holding Sara as an infant will be available at the event as special orders for holiday gifts.  Fifth grader Matthew Ryncyzk’s brilliant interpretation of Soutine’s 1919 masterpiece from the Barnes Foundation, The Little Pastry Cook, is breathtaking and would make any a fascinating gift for any art lover or passionate “foodie”.  Rounding out our first framed collection is a group of four luscious fruits and vegetables from the Sign Studio Collection, “The Fresher the Better”, by 3rd and 4th grade artist-philanthropists…perfect for a kitchen or breakfast room wall.

Offered as matted and framed print on rag paper, classic black wooden frame, for special order at Salon event

Our first children’s book, Pablo the Philly Philanthropist, will also be available, with the author, Steve Trueman, and the illustrator, Gardner Allen, present at the World Cafe Live to personalize and autograph your purchases for a special child.  Two special edition t-shirts have been commissioned for the event, the healthy food “Fresher the Better” graphic and a handsome dark gray Fresh Artists logo tee.

Thanks to our generous friends at Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group, the 2011 Fresh Artists Executive Desk Calendar will again be available at our Salon event.  A personal miniature art-gallery-on your-desk, this beautifully printed, sophisticated 12-month calendar shows off the artwork of exceptionally talents kids from kindergarden through 12th grade. A great gift for anyone, make sure to get one for yourself!

One stop shopping for innovative and meaningful gifts for your holiday gift-giving! Some quantities are limited. Come early for the best selection.

from a tiny backyard birthday "Clothesline"...

to a huge community “Clothesline” at the Chestnut Hill “Fall for the Arts” street festival

we’re off and running with our new grassroots initiative in children’s philanthropy!

When Juliana turned 9, she asked for an “art” birthday party and wanted to help other children less fortunate than she. Fresh Artists provided a template for a small, simple art activity for 8 young girls to do at the sleep-over, and was such a success the girls went right back to making the bright paper mosaics as soon as they awoke the next morning. After pinning their artwork up on the clothesline, they invited their parents to view their show, and make donations for art supplies for children in severely under-resourced public schools in the inner city. Proud to send in their donation, the girls had fun and were thrilled to know they provided watercolor sets for a whole class of elementary school children through their generosity.

The First Annual Chestnut Hill Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show and Sale was also a smash success. More than 400 children donated their artwork for the benefit of under resourced public schools and generated over $800 in donations.  26 private and public schools answered the “call for donations” as well as many home-schooled children throughout the area. Weavers Way Coop sponsored the event, and provided refreshments for the Sign Studio children who made the artwork decorating their new grocery store.

Sign Studio artists with their artwork installation in the produce department of Weavers Way Food Coop

Patrons from Rotary and Electrical Wizardry honor the generous children

young artist-philanthropist hanging her art

Our message to the world is clear and unequivocal!

Kids were our biggest customers for art!

Volunteers Sue Davis and Ken Johnson with Fresh Artists founder Barbara Chandler Allen

Thanks go to our generous patrons of Sign Studio: The Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill, Electrical Wizardry, Inc, and Carol Tyler for making this innovative pilot project possible.  Also thanks are due to the Terrific Clothesline Team, Merry Wiggins, Andrew Diemer, Evelyn and Hoagie Bock, Sue Davis, Ken Johnson, Anne Galbally, Lucretia Robbins, Roger Allen, Robyn Miller, Eileen Rudnick, Valerie van Pham, Dylan Spellman-Hall, and the Weavers Way team led by Glenn Bergman, Annette Aloe, Pat Evans, and Kim Spellman-Hall.

Any child, family, scout group or school interested in holding their own Clothesline Art Show and Sale, please call us at 215-920-3317 and we will provide all kinds of help to you.

Come celebrate the fresh children’s artwork installed throughout the World Cafe Live on Friday, October 22nd. With the support of generous corporate sponsors, we are refreshing the public spaces of the hottest music venue on the East Coast with brilliant artwork made and donated by K-12 Philadelphia school children.  Each sponsor is adopting a work of art that was installed last fall, and recycling it out into the community to freshen up a nonprofit community partner’s facilities. The sponsor’s name and logo will accompany the permanently-installed recycled artwork panels.  The sponsorship includes the new, fresh large-scale digital artwork that will be installed in its place for the next 12 months. To see details of this innovative sponsorship opportunity, click here freshartists_salon.

Our innovative partnership with World Cafe Live began last year, with their employees (wait-staff, bartenders, dishwashers and cooks) choosing 15 large-scale reproductions of artwork from the Fresh Artists collection to decorate the walls of their hip music cabaret. The response was so positive that they offered to host this fun party for Fresh Artists as an annual fundraising event to support artmaking and philanthropy among city kids. Most of the staff of the World Cafe Live are accomplished artists and musicians who care about keeping art alive in our public schools so it was a great fit. World Cafe Live founder Hal Real is an enthusiastic and generous supporter of Fresh Artists.

Jim Pinheiro of Pearl Pressman with artwork donated by Alex Valles CAPA '10

Art teacher Linda Heeg of MLK High School admiring the work of her student, Fresh Artists philanthropist, Angelina Hinson, installed at the World Cafe Live

In addition to viewing the freshest artwork in town, sponsors and guests will enjoy live music donated by our friends, Wyld Lyfe, plenty of beer, wine, soft drinks and a delicious Mediterreanean buffet for heavy grazing. A “merch” table will be front and center, filled with cool Fresh Artists stuff…t-shirts, posters, calendars and children’s box games, featuring the artwork donated by some of the 510 young artist-philanthropists that comprise Fresh Artists. Great place for unusual and meaningful holiday gifts!

Whether you sponsor (adopt) a work of art (hurry, they’re going fast!) or buy a handful of tickets ($15 each)…call up your pals, that bunch of special clients or someone you wish was a client…and make a date to meet after work on Friday, October 22nd, from 5:00 pm to 9:00.  Bask in the wonderful, inspirational artwork made by these generous K-12 kids, listen to great live music, have a drink and delicious food donated by the World Cafe Live, served by young artists and musicians who care deeply about nurturing and equipping the next generation of our creative economy. We promise you will be uplifted, engaged and inspired. Pretty cool for a Friday night on the way home from work!

Salon on the Schuylkill is an annual event organized by the Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council. The Council is led by Bob Reid AIA, Elevate Architects + Collaborators and includes the following wonderful team:

Jennifer Braxton (IKEA), Nicole Carville (Haworth), Rob Diemer (In Posse), Rosemarie Fabien (Fabien Communications), Lauren Fantini, Esq. (Caroselli, Beachler, McTIerney Conboy), Shawn Gibbons (CI Solutions LLC), Heather Gibson (Sentry Art Advisors), Jennifer Heller (Comcast Corporation), Valerie Lagauskas (Event Navigators), Lori Morrissey (SAP), Jim Pinheiro (Pearl Pressman Liberty Communications Group), Jeffrey Totaro (Jeffrey Totaro Photographer), Suzanne Turk (Goodwin College, Drexel University), Jerria Williams (SEPTA), Susan Yeager (Arch Insurance). If you are interested in getting involved, please call Barbara Chandler Allen, 215-920-3317.

Fresh Artists Business Advisory Council

Pablo's Clothesline Art Show Design Team: From rear left: Andrew Diemer, Class of '12 Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), Evelyn Bock, freshly retired art teacher from Henry Elementary, Hilary Merzbacher, Fresh Artist program assistant, painter and recent graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. Front left to right: Janet Carey, artist and junior at Montgomery Community College, Meredith Wiggins, family therapist, artist and Fresh Artists Clothesline Program Coordinator. (Not present at this meeting, but part of the team are Sue Davis, social worker and community activist, and Lucretia Robbins, painter, retired art teacher and private art instructor of plein aire painting for children)

Remember the idea we were cooking in the spring…a way for ALL kids to play an active role as philanthropists by hosting a Clothesline Art Show in their own community? Well…we have been working on this all summer! The first thing we did was to bring together a really smart and energetic group of people to brainstorm. See this bright group above.

THE TEAM

We met, made a plan and fanned out to contact schools, church groups, summer camps, a private art instructor, several retired and retiring art teachers, our local healthy food cooperative, and several families of Fresh Artists kids around the region to get their input.  A member of our Business Advisory Council, Rosemarie Fabien, introduced us to Liz Scott, the mother of Alex of Alex’s Lemonade Stand. We figured she could give us some advice on how to start a really successful grassroots initiative for young children. Alex’s Lemonade Stand is 10 years old, and has raised more than $35 million. Kids love to be involved with this wonderful organization and we sure could use their tips on how build this program…and do lots of good things for kids.  Liz told us about their history, gave us tons of ideas, and was very encouraging.

KIDS CAN START NOW AND HOLD A FRESH ARTISTS CLOTHESLINE ART SHOW

Click here to download complete instructions on how to organize a Clothesline Art Show.

freshartists-clotheslineartshow3

CLOTHESLINE KITS FREE TO THE CHILDREN!

By Thanksgiving, we plan to have an entire website page devoted to Clothesline. Then, when a youngster wants to do a Fresh Artists Clothesline Art Show, he or she, with the help of a trusted grownup, register on our website.  Registration will provide them with a kit of materials (name badges, art price tags, certificates of philanthropy, sample flyers, tips for making art projects and perhaps a coupon for a free clothesline!)  Also, a trained volunteer coach will call or email them to give some pointers on how to have a successful event.  We are harnessing the army of retiring art teachers and inviting them to help us as volunteer coaches!  Evelyn Bock, 37-year veteran elementary school art teacher has agreed to be the leader of the coaches, and she and Robyn Miller are helping Meredith Wiggins develop some easy, fun art projects that non-art people can do with their kids.

PABLO: THE SEQUEL (next the movie?)

As is our habit, we have written a second children’s story, Pablo’s Big Idea!, to explain the purpose and process of Clothesline Art Shows to young children. We asked Steve Trueman, author of our first story, Pablo the Philly Philanthropist, to help us tell the story and Gardner Allen, illustrator of Pablo, eagerly agreed to make drawings to accompany the story.  We asked two terrific young ladies to help us with the story, Molly (3rd grade) and Hope (4th grade). Both girls are extremely creative young artist-philanthropists who have together given eleven works of art to Fresh Artists!  They jumped right in and created Pablo’s dog’s personality and the perfect name, “Luna”.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY!  Pablo Story #2

We thought it would be fun to ask kids how the Clothesline story should develop…so we are inviting anyone to give us suggestions about the plot, the characters and the illustrations.  Here is what we have so far with about 12 people weighing in on all aspects!  The drawings are in a preliminary state, so kids can see how an illustrator works.  Very sketch sketches first, then solid line drawings, then color is applied.  In this case, the illustrator is using Photoshop to apply the colors.  Many more drawings are needed, and are being worked upon as I write.  We will post the finished product here and it will be part of the Kit that all children receive when they register to hold a Clothesline Art Show.

We welcome any child or groups of children to hold a Clothesline Art Show to benefit schools in need. Please contact Barbara Chandler Allen, at 215-920-3317 for more information.