A reflection from Ifé Williams, who led the Art Forward mural activity (summarized on our blog and pictured below) over the April spring break at Lena Washington Food and Shelter.  

She says... We are not all poets, athletes, inventors, or artist, but the willingness and more importantly the energy that people put into areas we may not normally is a beautiful thing. It’s something we find often in children, and I found this energy and open-mindedness in the children at Lena.

Considering our time together was short, it’s incredible that in 3 sessions we were able to create the skeleton and muscles of a collaborative mural. We spoke about community, what we love about our community and neighborhood, what we thought could use a little extra loving, and we moved forward from there. Agreeing on “non-violence and peace+love” as the mural’s theme. Holding onto that theme, we indulged in several individual projects in collage/water color and painting. Then, a final mural design was created incorporating all of the children’s ideas and images in one way or another. The end result is 12 2x2 wood panels, that will be connected when the mural is complete.

The children at Lena painted the first four panels, and the remaining eight will be completed by two different sites. Making the mural not only a community of ideas from several individuals, but a collaboration of creativity and artistic talent from several groups.

Working with Lena was refreshing and a motivation for me personally, to get involved in something new, something different.

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Thanks Ifé! Readers, become an enrichment volunteer! This summer we have numerous Around the World enrichment opportunities available!  

If you like spotlights, or simply enjoy learning about the wonderful work of volunteers, we have more over on the volunteer spotlight page.