What is ART 180?
ART 180 creates and provides art-related programs for young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression. Our group is based in Richmond, Virginia.
Our Mission
ART 180 gives young people the chance to express themselves through art, and to share their stories with others.
Our Vision
Our work with young people will turn lives and communities around 180 degrees.
Our Operating Model
ART 180 partners with other nonprofit organizations to serve children living in challenging circumstances in Richmond, Virginia. Through our programs, youth discover ways they can positively engage in and influence their surroundings.
Professional artists and volunteers work with youth after school for 12 weekly sessions. Each program grows from the needs and interests of the group of young people being served.
The young artists are asked to explore crucial personal statements that reinforce their sense of identity and purpose, such as: What is a hero? What do I want people to know about me? How can I make my community a better place? Programs culminate with some kind of public presentation of artwork. These have included billboards, art exhibits, poetry readings, CDs and DVDs.
By merging the private creative experience with a public showcase, ART 180 offers youth a safe way to talk about what matters most to them, while offering the community a compelling way to hear it.
Our Motivation
To quote Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate, “If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart-and then to discover that one is not alone in one’s feelings.”
How ART 180 got started
It grew out of a belief that young people should have voice, and that adults can learn a lot from what they have to say. We also believe in the importance of creative expression, the therapeutic benefits of art, and the personal and communal growth a program like this can make possible. All that drove the two founders, Kathleen Lane and Marlene Paul, to begin defining and building their dream in 1997. They incoporated ART 180 in November 1998, and received 501(c)3 nonprofit status in June 199.