I also wanted to give a shoutout, because today I watched one of our folks really make some strides in working towards one of their goals that they wrote on their card. Katie Felgar teaches a watercolor class for us every other week. She comes up with the ideas for the project, but often has needed staff help to guide everyone else in the class through the project. One of Katie's goals that she set for the new year is to become more independent at teaching her class, and to help the other individuals in the class more when showing them how to do the project. In today's class, Katie rocked it!!!
Well, we made it to see 2021, and so far, so good! Our January was a little hectic as we settled into 2021. I'm stoked because we started a new tradition to do regarding resolutions each year! This is our first year doing it, so hopefully it pans out like I'm envisioning it. For those that wanted to participate, they wrote down their resolutions on a small card that has their name on the outside. We put the card on the tree until everyone who wanted to do one had put one on the tree. When we took the tree down, we put all of the cards in a special envelope, and packed them away with our Christmas tree. The idea is, when we get the tree out again after Thanksgiving, we'll pass all the cards out, and people can check in on how they've been doing with their resolutions- plus they have a month left to finish some of the resolutions if they've procrastinated. Well, I think this is a fun new tradition, and hopefully we do it for many years to come! I also wanted to give a shoutout, because today I watched one of our folks really make some strides in working towards one of their goals that they wrote on their card. Katie Felgar teaches a watercolor class for us every other week. She comes up with the ideas for the project, but often has needed staff help to guide everyone else in the class through the project. One of Katie's goals that she set for the new year is to become more independent at teaching her class, and to help the other individuals in the class more when showing them how to do the project. In today's class, Katie rocked it!!! Katie was such a great teacher today- she walked around to check on how each individual was doing, she talked them through any steps that they found tricky, and she only started her own piece once she was sure that everyone understood the project from start to finish. Way to go, Katie!!!
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We received some sad news here last week. Earl, who had been one of our artists, and a client of TURN for several years, passed away. We used our classes last week to help us remember and grieve him, and that has helped. In our drawing technique class last week, we learned how to draw temples, which was a favorite subject of Earl. And I gotta tell you, as we were drawing them, we gained a new respect for Earl's art skills, because drawing temples is HARD! We also used our creative writing class to write memories we have of him- focusing on the happy memories we have of him has helped us all to remember him for the positivity with which he lived his life. Again, drawing temples is hard- they're so intricate! In remembering him, we dug up some old pictures of Earl, and I thought I'd share some of the fun ones with you! We'll miss you Earl!
Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but I am very ready for the weekend- and it seemed like everyone shared my opinion at the program today. But, as ready as we were for the weekend, we still managed to cram some more fun creativity into our week! Our folks are always willing to try some new kind of project or art technique, and today was no exception. In our experimental art class today, we tried a tape relief project with a bit of a twist. Everyone drew stripes in whatever direction they wanted, then chose a variety of colors to paint different colored stripes with, giving it a quasi-rainbow effect. Next came the tape! Using long pieces of masking tape, they put the tape down in whatever configuration or design they wanted to. After that, we painted everything black! Then, the fun and final step- peeling all of the tape off! Walter was amazed at the cool, colorful pattern that emerged, and Joe really enjoyed the process of peeling the tape. Maybe with all of the extra shipping boxes laying around this Holiday season, you guys can try it yourself- all you need is cardboard, paint, a paintbrush, and masking tape!
I feel like every new blog post, I need to apologize for how long it's been since the last one, because I am horrible at this! Sorry it's been so long since our last post! Today, we had an ornament making class. We put up our tree earlier this week, and it looks great, but we wanted to add some extra pizzazz to it! We had two basic types of ornaments we were making- one with ribbon, and the other with decorative paper. They all turned out great, and now we have quite the looker of a tree! Hopefully we'll keep making more, and pretty soon our tree will be busting with fancy artist-made ornaments!
Hey guys! How is everyone doing? I hope you are all staying well and healthy! We've got just a handhold of people back right now, and so far, we've been able to figure out how to still do cool art things while keeping everybody safe (safety is our biggest priority!). This morning, Cesar mentioned that today was the International Day of Peace. Well, we're just a hop and a skip away from the International Peace Gardens, so we decided we had to make that happen, and made an afternoon of it!
Sorry we've gone dark on here for a bit! We've been taking our time figuring out the best way to keep everyone safe while having a few individuals back at the program doing some art classes. We've definitely had to adjust a lot, and with our small space, we've had to adjust how we do things to ensure everybody is spaced out- but things seem to be going fairly well! Today for example: we just have a few people here today, but everyone is busy working on a different project at different tables, and everyone is hard at work making cool art! We've also gotten in the habit of going for lots of walks to nearby places out of the center so that we get some airflow going, we get to see cool stuff nearby, and we get a bit of exercise in the process! Today we went two different places: The Hub to look at some trains, and the Olympic Plaza over at the Gateway Mall. Also this week, Jon got an upgrade to his art setup, courtesy of Art Access! Art Access has been downsizing a lot, and in the process, they have been kind enough to donate to us some of their supplies they won't need anymore! One of those things they gave us was a brand new, very nice table easel. Once we got it out of the box, we realized it would be perfect for Jon! For years, we've used a simpler table easel attached to a box to get it high enough for Jon to comfortably use, and it's been slowly breaking down over that time. This new easel also has a small drawer that we can keep all of Jon's supplies in! He and I are both super stoked about how perfect this easel is for him- thanks Art Access!!! Although we've had to make a lot of changes in how we function day to day, and we're constantly spraying things down with sanitizer and washing our hands, we're finding our groove of how to make this work :) We're hopefully going to start inviting a few more individuals back, and let's all keep our fingers crossed that everyone makes smart, cautious choices so that COVID-19 cases don't continue to go up- we sure don't want to get shut down again! Stay safe everybody!
Hello all! TURN has been working on figuring out how best to reopen our programs as the community and the world settle into the "new normal." We know that many people are desperate to return, and we understand how difficult this prolonged closure has been for some. Here is a letter from TURN's Executive Director, Dave Hennessey, regarding the situation: The safety of the individuals we serve and our staff come first, and although we are trying out a very small scale soft opening of our program with just a handful of individuals, if we do not think we can keep everyone safe through social distancing, masks, and frequent sanitation, or if the trajectory of the virus in our community changes in a worrying way, we may very well close again and just wait it out. For those of you that have not been contacted yet about returning, know that we are aware of you, and that when we feel the program can safely have you return, we will reach out directly to see how we can make that happen. We are saddened that we can't ask more individuals to return at this time, but with the spacial requirements in the space we operate out of, we are very limited as to how many people we can safely serve right now. Hopefully things will go well and we will be able to see more of you soon. In the meantime, stay safe, stay happy, and take care of yourselves!
Hey all! I hope everyone is doing well, and is staying safe and healthy! Since we've been closed and it looks like we might be for awhile, I've decided to tackle a few projects that I just never have had the time for. The project today, is sorting out our art storage room. I have a feeling this one might take me a few days-we have so much stuff! We've been missing everyone, and I'm sure a few of you have been missing classes as much as we've been missing leading them! As a result, we plan on uploading a few virtual classes to our YouTube channel, so that some of you can join us in learning, creating, and expressing. It probably won't be frequent that we upload the videos, but we figure some is better than none, right? Look for the first one, Music with Katie, within the next few days! Also, here's the link to our YouTube channel if you haven't already subscribed- in the meantime you can watch some of our shorts!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVa9abg-_KEU1W_lR8diGXw It's been a crazy week, right? TURN is closely monitoring the situation, and as of right now, our day programs are remaining open. We are disinfecting around the program multiple times a day and passing out sanitizer before lunch and when people make contact with each other. We are also encouraging everyone to use the "elbow bump" as a way of greeting each other, so that we do not spread germs through high fives and fist bumps. If the status of our program changes, I will be reaching out to all the affected people personally so everyone is aware of what is going on.
Amid all the craziness this week, several galleries around the valley have elected not to participate in the gallery stroll next Friday. TURN has decided that we will not be participating in the March Gallery Stroll. We will be displaying beautiful new artwork in April however, and look forward to seeing you all then on April 17th! We've been keeping pretty busy here doing awesome things! A few weeks ago we had our official open house for our new gallery space! I twas quite the day and quite the shindig, and we're thankful to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen! During the day portion of the open house, Philip's band, The Iternal Roots, played for us, and they were amazing! We had a giant collaborative collage project going throughout the day, and once people started adding to it, it began to look really cool! In the evening, The Disgusting Brothers played our event, and they rocked it, as always. We had a great turn out, and everyone had a ball! Again, thank you to the bands, the people from TURN who helped, and all of the people who came- you made the day a hit! We've been keeping busy since the open house, creating some awesome artwork! In our group art class, we put the finishing touches on a collaborative mosaic piece we had been working on for a month. There was a lot of work that went into it, and we finally finished it! As if we weren't busy enough, we're starting to prepare for the performance showcase! We're still working on finalizing a date for it, so stay tuned for that. It's looking like the showcase will most likely be the end of April or early May- we'll post the date here and send out emails as soon as we know!
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TURN City Center for the Arts
Helping adults with disabilities to enrich their lives through the arts! Archives
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