In my first blog I briefly mentioned how art education saves my life. I have always said that art can save lives, but in 2008, art saved my life, literally, and it still does. My beautiful son, Croy, was born with a Urea Cycle Disorder and on July 14th, 2008 he died. A part of me died with him that day. I didn’t want to move forward, I wanted to stop. Just stop. I found it hard to breathe. I found it hard to think of anything other than how awful my life would be without my Croy in it. But then I received a phone call from the executive director of the National Urea Cycle Disorder Foundation (NUCDF), Cindy LeMons. She told me about how her mother did stop the day her sister died. She was no longer a mother, a wife, a friend. That woke me up a bit. I looked at my daughter and I looked at my husband. I looked at my friends, my colleagues. And finally, I took a long, hard look at my students. Hundreds of students. Some I had taught when they were in elementary school. Some I taught at the high school level, and many I was supposed to be teaching by mid August. They came to the hospital, they texted me, they came to my house. They all knew and loved Croy and they all said the same thing… “we need you.” Through my faith, my family and my beautiful art students, I moved forward. I went back to school several weeks later and took baby steps. I set up my art room. I wrote new curricula. I leaned on my amazing art team to hold me up. But art and my students literally saved my life, and they still do! Several weeks into my first few weeks back at school, Cindy from the NUCDF called me to tell me that they were receiving more donations on their website then they ever had…all to honor my son’s memory and to raise money so that no other mother would have to lose her child due to a lack of knowledge about this disease!
So I began to think about this and how it could all tie together in my “ART with a PURPOSE” plans. I began to think of ways that I could take the 2 things I was most passionate about, my family/Croy and my students/art education and raise awareness for both Croy’s Cause: Urea Cycle Disorder Awareness and the power of the ARTS! The three C’s were born! Caring and Creating in the Community!
Community art exhibits are always so important, but I usually invited the community to come to my school. If I did an exhibit outside of the school, it was small and intimate. This began to change. The first event we held was at “Firenze Coffee House and Gallery” in Suwanee, GA. My advanced Draw/Paint students created wonderful Collage to Canvas art works and if the student chose to have their art for sale, they were sold at the event. Any money made would be divided 50%, half to the student artist, half to Croy’s Cause. The next event was held at “Chocolatte Café” in Suwanee, GA and this time we took our Picasso color studies, mounted them and hung them in an impressive display. All of the art was for sale for $30, again, 50% going to the student artist, 50% going to Croy’s Cause. The next event was held in Atlanta, at the “WonderRoot” Gallery! They had seen an article in the local newspaper about what my students were doing and asked if we would consider going to Atlanta! My students were thrilled! These community exhibits began to grow as the word spread! Next we went to “Smitten Boutique”, again in Suwanee and we just held our 2nd exhibit at “Peace, Love and Pottery” in Suwanee Town Center. This last event was titled “Not Your Mama’a Fruitcake” and it was an awesome showing of my Draw/Paint student’s fruit studies in acrylic. Again, we usually keep the cost of the art at about $30 and we are seeing that approximately 40% of the art sells at the opening reception! My students are so excited to not only be considered exhibiting artists in the community, they are helping to raise money for a great cause. During our last show, I asked them if they would like to do some research about other charities that we could perhaps donate too, but they were adamant that the money should continue to go to Croy’s Cause. I look forward to putting these exhibits together and my students enjoy researching new locations for the exhibits, coming up with titles for the shows, creating the invitations, advertising and marketing ways to get media coverage and participation and it is truly making them better, kinder citizens in the community and teaching them important art skills! I remember a few years ago when Bonnie Rushlow mentioned “using the community as a museum”. I was inspired by those words. I now use the community as my student’s museum and as a means to bring awareness to the importance of caring and giving back to charities that are important to us! Art saves lives…and it saves mine daily!
Images from the Picasso study as well as the collage to canvas lesson (for a copy of this lesson, go to my e-portfolio :
http://naea.digication.com/artstuff/Welcome/published
I would love to hear about how art saves your student’s lives…your lives…ways in which you can take this idea to a new level…let’s work together and share ideas!
I will be presenting this in more detail at the upcoming NAEA convention in Baltimore…Come and See Me!
3C’s: Caring and Creating in the Community
www.nucdf.org
www.carepages.com log in with your name and password, then type croywest for your password.
Debi West, Ed.S, NBCT
North Gwinnett High School
Suwanee, GA
GAEA Past President (2001-2007)
[email protected]
http://naea.digication.com/artstuff/Welcome/published