Rachel and Joshua Goldstein recently launched Artists Helping Children Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing comfort to children in hospitals, clinics, and shelters by brightening their environment with murals and other art. By painting murals and creating other art for and with the children, we create enriching and happy places to ease the children's fear and pain, to take their minds and their hearts out of the cold and into warm and wonderful places. It is amazing how a piece of paper and crayons can divert his attention away from pain. This is because children respond to and use artwork as tools for coping.
Remember when you were a kid and you had to go to the hospital? Remember the strange sights, the sounds, unpleasant smells, and strangers entering your hospital room? You had no idea what was happening to you and no one could explain in a way you understood. You waited a lot with nothing to do except worry about what was going to happen next.
The people who work with Artists Helping Children provide art that brings joy and happiness to the lives of ill, mistreated, and needy children in communities everywhere. Through the generosity of artists, patients and community members, Artists Helping Children helps create murals, pieces of art, and provides arts and crafts supplies for the kids they serve.
HERE ARE A FEW WAYS THEY BRING JOY TO ILL AND NEEDY CHILDREN
(1) Professional Muralists - Muralists change the look of hospitals for the better. A team will visit a site to meet with the facilities' staff. With their help, the artists plan out a theme, the colors, and images that we will use within the mural. Then, they present sketches of designs appropriate to the space. Once the designs are approved, the artists begin recruiting volunteers and budgeting for the project.
(2) Paint-A-Mural Community Events - Community organizations are instrumental in helping the artists bring beautiful murals in to as many institutions as they can. Paint-a-Mural events are entertaining, stress-relieving, and a great way to bond with your community members. They provide a color-coded canvas with the mural drawn in, almost like a big coloring book. The volunteer's job is to paint, paint, and paint.
(3) Local Stores are Getting Involved - Stores are even getting involved. Some stores have decided to
Display our pre-drawn canvas murals, cut in to smaller pieces for easier handling. These stores are able to show the local community that their store is a charitable organization and at the same time get eager children into their store to help paint the murals. After completion, they clean up the mural and donate it to an organization of their choice.
(4) Patients Can Join In - Patients enjoy the chance to get out of their rooms and do something uplifting and entertaining. Their minds are focused on happiness and they forget about their pain, if only for a short while. And even when they can't participate first hand, the artists try to get them involved in the experience by providing outlets such as coloring and watercolor paint-by-number books that they can enjoy in their beds.
Artists Helping Children is looking for volunteers, monetary donations, donations of art supplies, toys, coloring books, and also children’s institutions to donate their artwork to.
Artists Helping Children Foundation seeks to enhance the quality of life for sick, abused, or neglected children. These children, burdened by circumstances outside their control, often live in the most sterile and uninviting environments. By painting murals and creating other art for and with the children, they create an enriching and happy atmosphere to encourage their emotional and physical healing and well-being.
If you would ike more information on either volunteering or supporting this project go to:
www.artistshelpingchildren.org
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