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MILK (Mainly I Love Kids) Art From the HeART The concept of the HeART Fair is to use art as a medium to bring people with disabilities together with the general non-disabled public. The term 'art' is to be understood in a larger context of all creative arts, to include drama, movement and dance, music, painting and sculpture. Creativity provides much scope for interaction and learning about each other by working together. What is really special about Art From The HeART is that children with various disabilities are able to come together with able-bodied volunteers to do something for someone else. Special Event: Five children with special needs from Jervois School and 10 student volunteers from St Joseph’s Institution (SJI) came together on Wednesday 29th June 2005 for a special mural painting session. The students from SJI patiently guided the Jervois students in completing the mural throughout the 2-hour session. The design of the mural focused on the support provided by the people in the MILK Fund to the children with special needs. The artwork will be exhibited at PSA’s corporate office in PSA building, and the unveiling of the mural-cum-appreciation session for the students from both schools has been scheduled for 21st September 2005 at PSA.  Past Art from the HeART Events 31 August 2003 200 children and youths with special needs had the opportunity to volunteer for a cause. These special volunteers came together on 31 August at Cairnhill Community Club to participate in one of four workshops to produce art pieces that was featured on the art plaques to be 'sold' to raise funds for MILK. They participated in Pulled String Printing, Paper Layering, Fingerprint Caricatures and Salted Painting Workshops. 31 July 2004 Once again 200 special needs children and our volunteers were invited by Alexandra Hospital to create art on their walls, pillars, pebbles and to help capture the beautiful gardens within their grounds. This exciting event was led by a group of volunteers including artists and students from Christchurch Secondary. Some of the artworks will be featured on Alexandra Hospital's mementos, mugs and T-shirts which in turn will be sold to raise funds for their needy elderly.  New Concepts for 2005 A Friends' Club A meeting ground for young people with special needs and students from mainstream schools. This translates into structured social interaction using recreational activities of art, music, dance, drama, sport (indoor/outdoor). Since the activities are recreational, forming a club around these activities is ideal. A club would mean sustained interaction over time, which is the feedback MILK received regarding the reactions and desires of the participants of the last art fair. The club will be created on the premises of a school (special or mainstream), with involvement of school- teachers, especially special school teachers/management and will meet once a month or once a fortnight. The student volunteers are encouraged to learn to run the club themselves, thus motivating them to keep it going. (This is based on an existing model). This is now in the pipeline. Drama-Movement Therapy Workshop Drama-movement therapy has been used very effectively as teaching strategy and methodology for teaching and shaping the lives of children and adults with special needs the world over. It is not an end in itself but a means to reach people with special needs. This project entails two phases. The first is conducting a 3-4 full day workshop for teachers and parents of children with special needs (the type of special need may be discussed at a later time) by professional trainers. The workshop involves each participant adult bringing a special needs child with them so that they can learn how to work with that child with the trainer in group sessions. After the workshop the participants will take this knowledge back to their schools and share it with other teachers and work with groups of children in their school. The second phase of this project would be the work of the participants in coming together and creating a drama production at the end of the school year. This part of the project is useful in that (a) it ensures that the participating teachers use their learnt skills and (b) teachers and student of different special schools meet and share over a period of time. If you are interested to be one of our volunteers and for schools who are interested to participate, please contact Eeling at 62224123 . Back to the top |
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