![]() After the completion of year two, the staff was so confident and comfortable, they decided to take it over and open it up to students anywhere on the spectrum. The second year, they added more students, but still hand-selected them. ![]() After the first year, the staff –who had never worked with kids on the spectrum –felt competent with their efforts and was ready to continue another year of art camps. The artist moms continued to volunteer their time and worked at the camps to ensure the museum staff was prepared and supported. By limiting the number, and selecting students who showed an obvious interest, we were setting up the program for success. The camp was free, and we limited it to eight students so as not to overwhelm the museum staff. In the spring of 2007, The HEAL Foundation awarded its first grant to MOCA to begin a “Spring Break Art Camp.” The students were selected the first year by Carol Lombardo, who contacted the public schools/autism coordinators to get recommendations of kids who had an interest in art who would also be good candidates. It was the perfect opportunity to begin a unique partnership between The HEAL Foundation and MOCA to begin an autism art program from scratch. Debbie asked Carol to assist her art educators on staff in developing a special art program specifically designed to meet the needs of those with autism. I was thrilled with the prospect and as luck would have it, the director of MOCA at that time, Debbie Broder, was interested in hosting an art program for kids on the autism spectrum. Carol approached me to see if The HEAL Foundation could provide a grant to begin art classes for autism at MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville). The HEAL foundation was at the time in its infancy and was providing grants for autism camps and educational programs throughout the greater Jacksonville Area in northeast Florida. Carol knew art could make a difference and would open up a new world for those who had never been properly exposed to painting and drawing. Carol saw how therapeutic it was for Lara to paint and draw and felt this could inspire so many children like her daughter. Carol’s daughter Lara, an artist, had become somewhat of a local celebrity in her own right by illustrating several children’s books. I had co-founded a local non-profit foundation, The HEAL Foundation ( HEALing Every Autistic Life) with my husband Bobby Weed and Dr. The artists were Carol Lombardo, Cynthia Walburn, and Holly Green who were also mothers of children with autism.Ĭarol Lombardo and I became friends through our daughters who were both on the autism spectrum. This was the case when a group of local, noted artists had the desire to begin an autism art program for children. Mothers of children with autism are legendary for banding together and pioneering new opportunities where a void exists. He collects objects based off of his love and experience with each individual piece, taking into account his experience with the culture, the artist, and the very context in which he first discovered it.ĭespite skyrocketing rates of autism over the past two decades, few opportunities and activities exist outside of the school setting for this growing group of students. His sizeable collection ranges from the old masters to contemporary artists, abstract expressionists to ethnographic material. ![]() Art expands the mind in a way other studies can’t.”įor Choy, art is a gateway for understanding the world around him, for learning and experiencing other cultures, lifestyles, and people. You learn about the artists and their cultures and about a specific place in time. He states, “When you collect something you love, you remember where you saw it, the day you bought, or when you saw something like it and searched for it. Each piece in his collection has made an impression on him, branding the moment of first time he saw it into his memory. This moment and experience is what art collector Brandon Choy bases his selections off of. The physical experience is often intoxicating, almost disorienting, walking through a space and seeing a piece that seems to hold its own magnetic charge pulling the viewer towards it. The process of viewing and falling in love with an art piece is an experience that one rarely forgets. ![]() Nigeria, Set of Three Spiral Snake Currency, c.
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