by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
There’s a big, pink, industrial, two-story building on the corner of Eighth Street and Myrtle Avenue where children are drawing murals and designing sculptures this summer. It’s called the City Kids Art Factory and because it’s in a neighborhood that is growing increasingly supportive of the arts, art classes taught by real artists are free.
Karen Sadler, president of Artlife Productions, a company that coordinates art training programs for local schools and civic organizations, was hired by the Factory to develop two summer sessions where students will come for five hours a day to paint, draw, mix, match, color and sculpt.
As Jimmy Buffett played on a stereo in the back of the first floor of the studio, about 15 youngsters, including Dominick Brantly, 12, Leroy Wilson, 13 and Shabra Bradford, 13, who is from Mobile, Ala., but is staying with her sister for a month in Jacksonville this summer, are all recreating a picture from an art book as a giant mural.
Local artist and FCCJ student Katharine Metz is working every day as both an art teacher and administrator to help uncover the talent of the young artists and then develop it. Ann Faillace, an art assistant and a painter, who also works at the Carver Center for troubled children in Jacksonville Beach, said that the support the neighborhood has shown for the Art Factory has been staggering.
“This is all completely community driven,” said Faillace. “The women who live around the neighborhood all come to the shows and support the kids. They are very proud of what’s going on here.”
Jean Fraser, a portrait and mural painter who teaches art at Jacksonville University, wants to give back to the community, so she’s teaching art this summer at the Factory. She also just finished writing a book — a mystery novel. She’s leaving soon for the mountains of North Carolina to start research for her second book, which will follow the trail of her family — a roguish collection of prominent potters — throughout the South.
“It keeps you going to be around young people,” said Fraser. “They give you fresh ideas and inspire you.”
Fraser, who was trained at the Art Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, develops lessons around found objects which teaches resourcefulness as much as it practices it.
“We lay out a lot of different ideas and then the kids vote on what they want to do,” said Fraser. “Without this program these kids would never have the opportunity to experience the soft touch of art.”
Interwoven throughout the matrix of Sadler’s company and these summer classes is the theory that art heals.
Fraser said that even 50 years ago Duke University was confirming studies about color therapy and the power of creative energy. The goal of the summer classes are to help children through art.
Sadler, who moved to Jacksonville from New York three years ago and lives in Atlantic Beach, started Artlife Productions because she was volunteering at her children’s school and noticed that there was a need for greater resources to be allocated for art.
Her company now utilizes local grants and other funding sources — like local businesses — to visit schools, community centers and other civic clubs to coordinate art projects.
“We try to take into account the needs of the organization,” said Sadler, noting that they often work closely with school principals and civic leaders to make sure the artistic goals are congruent with the overall goals, which range from environmentalism to education.
“For example, the Factory really wants to foster a sense of community in Springfield,” said Sadler. “So we teach these kids the continuity between art and community. We encourage collaboration and paintings that reflect their family and their community.”
Beyond that, the artists often let the kids be their own artistic directors — letting them decide what they want to make.
In a poignant reflection of the impact art makes, one eight-year-old recently wrote on a painting, “I am really standing out. I am not shy. I’ll talk about anything or about anyone and I’ll sharpen anybody’s pencil or give somebody a pen.”