This
article is taken from our March 2007 newsletter. To subscribe
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The
Healing Power of Art
Operation
Shoestring is continuing its partnership with the Mississippi
Museum of Art by playing temporary host to an exciting
and incredibly rewarding community arts initiative. The
LifeShards 1st Saturdays
Program is a community project
of the MMA and Ask4MoreArts, in partnership with Jackson
Public Schools and Parents for Public Schools, and is funded
by the Ford Foundation. The program meets the first Saturday
of every month, and recently began holding those meetings
at Shoestring’s Bailey Avenue headquarters.
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"The
program began as a way to welcome Katrina refugees to Jackson
and help them integrate into the community," says
LifeShards project coordinator Stephenie Morrisey. "We’ve
been meeting at the MMA since January of 2006, but they are in
the middle of expansion. Some people had mentioned Operation
Shoestring and their wonderful, relatively new art space as a
good place for us to meet.
"We
called Robert [Langford] and he gave us a tour. It seemed like
a good fit for us and for them."
"It’s so great to have kids from Shoestring’s
neighborhood and programs working side by side with kids from
different neighborhoods," says Langford. "They’re
all just being kids learning about and doing great art. This
is great quality instruction for kids from all walks of life.
What better way to spend your Saturday morning? We’re kind
of hoping the Museum will let us keep the program here at Shoestring.
We’d love that!"
LifeShards
gives its participants an opportunity to be creative in a collaborative,
mutually supportive environment. The group
is open to everyone (not only Katrina refugees) at no charge
and averages about 31 attendees per session, and participants
range from age 3 to “grandparent” age, says Morrisey.
The program has created a number of interesting works, including
several large group mosaic pieces that are or will be publicly
displayed at the Mississippi Department of Education and, soon,
at the newly expanded MMA.
LifeShards
was conceived by well-known local glass artist Elizabeth Robinson,
who serves as the program’s artistic director.
She sees the group’s early mosaics – which were constructed
from broken glass and ceramic pieces from the Gulf Coast post-Katrina – as
a metaphor for a larger purpose.
"We
set out to help these people take things that have fallen apart
and give them new life," Robinson says. "The
families were able to see something beautiful come from those
pieces."
The
LifeShards program is infectious to all who take part in it.
"A lot of parents think that they’re coming just
to bring their kids," laughs Morrisey. "The ones
who stay and take part end up enjoying it just as much as their
children, if not more."
For more information on LifeShards 1st Saturdays, go to www.LifeShards.org or call Stephenie Morrisey at (601) 713-3464.
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