Art With A Heart

Art with a Heart’s mission is to enhance the lives of people in need through visual art. Art with a Heart brings its visual art programs to abused, neglected and/or abandoned children and youth; homeless men and women; battered women and their children; pregnant adolescents; mentally and physically disabled adults; low-income senior citizens; elementary, middle and high school students, community youth in after-school programs, and children receiving long-term health care. Founded in March of 2000, Art with a Heart has grown from four small classes a week to approximately 10,000 a year and many community-wide initiatives. HeARTwares is Art with a Heart’s service learning/retail store. Participating youth create marketable works of art that are displayed and sold HeARTwares. Students are expected to work a minimum of two, three-hour shifts in the store. This service-learning opportunity gives students job experience in dealing with the public, handling money, and presenting a professional appearance and manner. As part of Art with a Heart’s community commitment, half of the sale proceeds are shared with the artist and/or community site partner.