Nathan’s Story Color Me Orange—Color Me Kind shines a spotlight on bullying. The installation is specifically tailored toward middle school students—often the most vulnerable. Sadly, some of these students suffer so intensely from bullying that they believe suicide is the only way to end it all. Our intentional kindness has the potential to brighten someone’s…
Excerpts from Walker’s Story Participatory art has a subtle power to serve as a healing catalyst. Visitors often experience new insight through connecting with the work. As the artwork begins to unlock the soul, it becomes a place of hope and healing. Walker’s autism story inspired an avalanche of hope, with more than twenty thousand…
Wow! It’s been an exciting year! Following ArtPrize, I had the privilege to work with incarcerated teens and their probation officers with the 17th Circuit Court in Kent County, Michigan. Throughout December, I guided this special group through a hands-on project where the girls created a 3×3 foot Broken Wings butterfly made of almost 600…
The Breton Woods and Raybrook Assisted Living Facilities commissioned ArtPrize Top 20 artist Pamela Alderman to help guide residents through art engagement projects. For seven weeks under the direction Pamela, residents from all levels of care created six interactive healing pieces. The final work will be showcased during Holland Home’s Long-Term Care Week. One resident’s…
Over the last decade after creating large healing art installations for ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, serving tens of thousands of visitors, managing around fifty volunteers a year, figuring out how to financially sustain my art business, struggling to secure a venue to host my work, and buying over 335,000 interactive supplies for the ArtPrize…
As an artist, I usually think B•I•G. If my sex-trafficking exhibit requires a forty-foot storage container, I figured out how to rent one or borrow one. If my mental health exhibit requires 5,000 golf pencils, so that 70,000 people can write notes, I figure out how to buy 5,000 pencils (for only $200!). But while…