An Alliance For Art
Source: South End News, Scott Kearnan
Date: 2008/04/17
Link to Full Text: http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc3=&id=73138&pf=1
At 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning, most teenagers are still asleep. But at the People’s Baptist Church in the South End, five Boston teens were hard at work (and play) on the morning of April 12. Armed with wire cutters, colorful paints and a Tupperware container full of assorted, decorative beads, they traded extra shuteye for the rare opportunity to create an individualized piece of art under the tutelage of a South End artist - and so that their work can raise money for services aimed at teens like them.
But it’s not always easy.
"This is really difficult!" laughed Mikayla Kinds, tossing her piece to the side with feigned exasperation. But after a few seconds’ breather, and a few minutes’ help from Brian Murphy, the professional artist leading the workshop, Kinds is back at work.
"It’s very important for us to reach out to the community, and to others who are doing youth work," explained Myra Kind, Mikayla’s mother and Minister to Youth and Families at the Church, of hosting the art workshop. The workshop is one of several that will help area teens prepare for the 2008 YouthShines Art Auction, the sixth annual fundraiser for the South End/Lower Roxbury Youth Workers’ Alliance (YWA). Held at the Boston Center for the Arts on May 20, the auction allows area youth to submit artwork in a range of mediums. Money raised by their contributions will benefit the YWA, an organization that promotes collaboration, interactivity, and leadership skills among more than 40 youth-serving organizations in the South End and Lower Roxbury neighborhoods.
As this Saturday workshop draws to a close for the kids, the final fruits of their artistic labor - meticulously contorted wire sculptures mounted on colorfully painted wood - bear names as personal and unique as the teens themselves:
"The Karaoke Cook," a representation of his father singing into a spatula, gets a finishing touch from Herman Kinds, Myra’s 10-year-old son.
Across the table, "Mom on Mobile" is the contribution from Mallory Samuel, a 15-year-old Dorchester girl who has created a wire image of her busy, on-the-go mother clutching a cell phone. "It’s cool to know that someone will actually be buying this," said Samuel of her nearly finished work.
"It’s not like selling chocolates," agreed Murphy. Murphy, a Brookline resident who runs gallery and art therapy center, New Start Counseling, at the 450 Harrison art studios, believes that the hands-on involvement is far more enriching than the traditional candy drives or magazine sales.
"They’re creating a work of art that gets sold, which is much more empowering," said Murphy.
"It’s a wonderful, self-esteem building experience," agreed Sandy Martin, YWA coordinator. "For the kids to see their art on the wall and adults paying for it is very empowering. And it’s a great opportunity for the kids and adults to meet, and build connections."
Building connections is at the heart of the YWA, whose primary mission is to help educate, train and direct youth-serving organizations in sharing staff, resources and developing collaborative practices to best serve the youth community in the South End and Lower Roxbury. By doing so, YWA hopes to combat the sense of isolation experienced by some local youth.
"There are parallel universes existing within these [South End] neighborhoods," explained Martin. "On one hand, there are plenty of blocks of well-to-do homeowners... but there are also dense concentrations of housing developments in these neighborhoods. For kids, it’s hard to feel like you’re part of a [larger] community if you’re surrounded by businesses or restaurants you can’t afford to go to. So we find there’s a sense [among youth] that they identify with living in a specific housing development, not in the South End, and not even in Boston."
Besides the obvious sense of disenfranchisement that comes with feeling isolated by the greater community, Martin says turf conflicts can be among the more destructive results. YWA’s function as an intermediary network between youth organizations and their staff is intended to combat such negative consequences.
It’s a mission that Kinds, of People’s Baptist Church, can relate to well. Her ministry is proactive in offering free, fun participatory activities to area youth - including those who are not church members - like deep sea fishing excursions, basketball tournaments, and other opportunities for spiritual, personal and social growth.
"We all want the same thing for kids and families," said Kinds of partnering with the YWA.
At the far end of the workshop table, her daughter Mikayla is finally finished with her sculpture. It’s a representation of her mother Myra gazing at a flower, and she considers an appropriate name for the final piece: "She Sees God in the Smallest Things."
The 2008 YouthShines Art Auction will be held on May 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Boston Center for the Arts on Tremont Street. For more info, visit www.youthworkersalliance.org.
