Art With A Mission
Youth-Headed Households
Art can play a very important role in the lives of children, making a difference in their quality of life. As children create art, the process empowers them to explore their thoughts and feelings and contributes to their well being through self-expression.
Art With A Mission is a small organization dedicated to providing opportunities and support, through the arts, to children in need.
Recognizing the need to support the financial, mental and emotional health of vulnerable children, Art With A Mission has been working to establish sustainable arts programming for children in Rwanda.
In May of 2012 Renee Balfour, director of Art With A Mission-US, traveled to Rwanda to collaborate with Emmanuel Nkuranga, director of Art With A Mission-Rwanda and the Inema Art Center. Together they hosted art workshops for over 125 children. In September Renee will return to Rwanda to continue working directly with children , assisting and supporting the children with the creation of paintings. She will return in October with an estimated 100 paintings by the children for an exhibition of their art. The exhibition "Gukiza" will open on October 1 at the McGuffey Art Center. The exhibition will include paintings, photographs and statements from the children documenting the process of creating their work. The childrens' artwork will be for sale, with proceeds returning directly to the children in the youth-headed households who produced them. The support the children receive through the sale of their work assists them with school fees and their basic needs.
The creation and exhibition of the childrens' art allows the children to freely express themselves and provides a sense of accomplishment and means of support. Working together, the children establish a bond and a strong sense sense of community through the creative process.
As a way to share the diverse culture of Rwanda and its children and to engage children in our own community, a variety of children's events are scheduled at different locations around Charlottesville. In Support of Art With A Mission, the McGuffey Art Center, the University of Virginia Center for Global Health, the UVa Global Surgery Initiative, and the African American Heritage Center, will host a series of month-long free events and classes. Events will include free dance, music and poetry performances. Children's classes in painting, clay, poetry, dance and music will be taught by local artists and visiting artists from Rwanda and are free to children in the community. The classes will allow children to learn about the culture of children in Rwanda and provide them with the joy of creative self-expression shared by children everywhere.