Inner-city children get exposure
Published:Tuesday | August 17, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Some 65 young people from underserved communities in east, west and central Kingston, concluded a three-week MultiCare-sponsored summer workshop of creative artistic expression, which featured a range of media, including papier mache, recycled materials and jewellery making, as well as the more traditional methods of drawing and painting, recently.
The annual MultiCare Foundation summer visual-arts workshop, dubbed "Summer Art On The Waterfront", which is staged in collaboration with the National Gallery of Jamaica, was hosted for young art enthusiasts from the 31 MultiCare-assisted schools, at Studio 174 downtown Kingston.
Youngsters facilitated
The programme facilitated the youngsters - aged eight to 18 - in developing their aesthetic sensitivity, as well as an awareness and appreciation for different art forms, while introducing them to possible career options.
Using the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Jamaica as reference, the workshop exposed students to the work of both the early and contemporary Jamaican masters, as both a reference resource and as inspiration for their own work.
Two particularly exciting aspects of the programme were a kite 'fest' at Breezy Castle where the children were given opportunities to design, create, decorate and fly their own kites, and the staging of an exhibition of the various artwork produced for the duration of the progamme.
The Summer Art On the Waterfront is part of the annual MultiCare summer programme of activities, which benefit approximately 380 boys and girls from mainly inner-city communities.
According to Standford Watson, visual-arts coordinator at the MultiCare Foundation: "The art workshop is an extension of the MultiCare Foundation's core programmes, which use sports and the visual and performing arts to create a culture of peaceful coexistence, tolerance and understanding among young people from diverse communities, while offering them an opportunity to shine and achieve, building confidence and self-esteem and teaching softer, gentler lifestyles to those of crime and violence."