The kits included a color pencil set, drawing pencils and a sharpener purchased at RileyStreet Art Supply, plus beautiful paper donated by WIGT Printing. Children also received coloring pages made from kindergarten and first grade self portraits from Laurel Dell Elementary School in San Rafael featured in our online show, “Imagining Friendship,” our annual Walker Rezaian Creative HeArts exhibition. There were bilingual art lessons to do at home, too!
Special thanks to Youth in Arts’ Board Member Suzanne Reich Gibson, who helped lead this effort to organize and distribute art kits. Suzanne said that when she heard about the food bank, she offered to fundraise so that Youth in Arts could support Venetia Valley (Venetia Valley Elementary School is one of our partners). Wearing masks and practicing social distancing, she and Youth in Arts Development Associate Morgan Schauffler prepared the kits for distribution. Visual Arts Director Suzanne Joyal also pitched in by choosing and ordering supplies.
“To me, the great part of this is getting the artwork of Laurel Dell students into the hands of Venetia Valley students and their families,” our board member Suzanne said. “It shows how much we’re all a community and how much art connects us.”
Youth in Arts had set a goal of raising $10,000 for its Covid Relief Fund, with sponsor Troutman Sanders and Youth in Arts board members promising a 100 percent match up to $10,000. We exceeded our goal, and have raised more than $22,000 to sustain our organization and assist us with moving our educational programming online (including the generous $2,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Mission San Rafael). The fund will help teaching artists get more technical support for visual and performing arts residencies this Fall.
Thank you to all of our community partners. We could not do our wonderful, innovative programs without your support. With so many families are homeschooling and sheltering in place, partnerships between nonprofits and local businesses are more important than ever.
So far, more than 500 sanitized art kits have been created. We hope to continue providing them to students in our programs, so please consider supporting Youth in Arts as we continue to bring creativity to students of ALL backgrounds and abilities!
