Art Action

Call 215.340.9800 ext 126 or email randerson@michenerartmuseum.org with questions about our Art Action program.

	Students living in the Milford Square Transitional Housing Shelter in Upper Bucks County developed a variety of artistic skills during their weekly after school art program sponsored by the Michener Museum.

It is easy to forget what a luxury it is to wander in a museum, paint a picture, and laugh with your children. Art Action worked with children from the Milford Square Transitional Housing Shelter to create dynamic and original works of art in a variety of media. Art Action also brought children and their parents from the Shelter to the Museum to learn, create, and spend quality time together. The Museum is currently working to expand this program to other shelters in Bucks County.

Michener Museum Supports Art Action

The Michener Museum supported Art Action, an after school creative arts program for families living in the Milford Square Transitional Housing Shelter in Upper Bucks County, PA. This program was initiated in 2001 through the generosity of the Neusch Foundation, and continued until 2006 with support from the Mellon Foundation.

Every year, in the shelter's modest art studio, children ages 2 - 18 worked in the areas of painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, and sculpture during the program. Children also created sketchbooks, and kept these books as personal journals throughout the year. Children wrote poetry during some of the Art Action sessions. Children had their artwork displayed in the Children's Gallery in the month of June, and attended the children's reception in their honor as well. On this day children also had an opportunity to tour the Museum. Their favorite works included the Moon Goddess in the Sculpture Garden, the Garber mural, Over and Above by Clarence Carter and the Nakashima Room.

Through the Art Action program, the participants learned a lot about studio art, developed new skills and worked with a variety of art materials. Most importantly, however, their work in the arts on a weekly basis touched their spirits. The experience was an inspiration to do well, to take pride in the appearance of a creation, to be willing to explore and experiment without the threat of failure. They built relationships, confidence, and an interest in a venue far removed from the challenges they faced in their daily lives. They opened up their eyes to a different world view, and learned that even personal interests like wrestling and dance and rap music and poetry can work their way into the visual arts.

This program was an incredible experience for all shelter families, and above all began to break down unspoken barriers that existed as a result of the cultural contrast between formal institutions such as the Michener Art Museum and social assistance services such at the Milford Square Transitional Housing Shelter.

Today, the theme of Art Action continues in a variety of Michener Education Outreach programs. Art Reach, supported by the Foundations Community Partnership, reaches students in the Palisades School District with a storyteller and poetry artist-in-residence every year. Breaking Boundaries is a teen program in lower Bucks County, focusing on citizenship, leadership, the arts and journal writing as means of self-fulfillment and creative expression. The Education Outreach Department also hosts several community service and community awareness programs, including World Aids Day, the Gift of Giving Children's Gallery exhibition, and community t-shirt painting days. T-shirts are donated to the Bucks County Homeless Children's Initiative and the Bucks County Housing Group.

The Michener believes that art and action go hand in hand in making the world a better place.

Herbert Read once said, "The purpose of art education is not to make more art and better artists; instead, it is to make better people and better communities." This is the goal of the Michener Art Museum, the Milford Square Shelter, generous local supporters, and other arts and social organizations in Bucks County and the Lehigh Valley as they continue to explore community outreach and diversity arts programs at the James A. Michener Art Museum.