Interfaith Health Service now offering Youth Art Program

In February, Interfaith began a Pilot Art Program, Artists in Action, for the children of Latinas In Action participants. The Artists in Action project is funded by Thrivent for Lutherans and Arts for All and utilizes the talents of Maria Palma, a certified art instructor with the Omaha Public School System. Maria’s work as an artist is impressive. Her mediums include murals, oil paintings, watercolors, and ceramics. She also is certified as a dual language instructor within OPS.

Since Maria’s talents are so artistically diverse, I held several focus groups with our participants and their children to determine the type of art participants wanted incorporate into our pilot program. Requests centered on offering an opportunity to make crafts, paint, and make ceramics. Thus far, Maria’s classes have been designed to focus on each of these topics for several weeks. The remaining structure of the program will be reviewed and adjusted to accommodate the broad age range of youth that attend class each week. Classes have averaged 15 students, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years old.

So much hinges on any pilot program, it seems. Before Interfaith moves forward with any program, we attempt to “set ourselves up for success” in finding the right class to offer, the right teacher, and introducing something that will meet the needs of our participants. The foundation developed in a pilot program can influence the word of mouth about the program, enthusiasm for continuing it, program demand, grant funder review and satisfaction, and participant attendance. Maria has proved to be an outstanding leader who brings many gifts to Interfaith in helping us organize this type of program.

It has been so exciting to see our youth responsive and excited in making art and designing their very own creations! It is my goal to have a simple exhibit of all of their artwork set up for display at a few different sites in Omaha. In the meantime, please feel free to check out a couple of pictures of the students and their completed work at our website: “http://www.interfaithhealth.org”

Many thanks for your prayers and support as we move forward with Artists in Action.

Virginia McGill, Interfaith