Natural Occurrence - New Paintings by Barry Masteller
Student Film Night
Thursday, May 18, 6 PM
(Closed Tuesdays)
Special Performance
Closing Night, May 22, 6 PM
Artist Harvey Brody was content to stay in his studio and create art but an opportunity to help create art classes, especially for the underserved children of Healdsburg, got him out into the community as the director of education for the Healdsburg Center for the Arts.
At the request of a friend he made a presentation to the Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary about the importance of art programs for children. It was there that he met Colleen Carmichael, the executive director for Reach for Home. Later that week she showed him the artwork of third graders from The Healdsburg School reflecting their responses to a presentation on homelessness. He was overwhelmed by the emotion expressed and the insight these children had into a plight few of them had ever seen and never known.
Harvey realized this should not be the end of the road for these artworks as they were a route to knowledge and understanding for the children, their parents and anyone who viewed them. Together, Harvey and Colleen, formulated a program to go into the Healdsburg schools and talk about homelessness and encourage the students to respond with any form of artistic expression they chose.
This is the basis for the second annual exhibit of students’ artwork on homelessness. This exhibit is sponsored by Reach for Home and will be held at the Paul Mahder Gallery May 13-22.
Reach for Home partners with people in North Sonoma County who are struggling with or at risk of losing housing. The organization transforms lives by engaging clients in an action plan for their success and provides them with the skills needed to attain permanent housing. Reach for Home provides services to the homeless and those threatened with homelessness by offering temporary housing, shower services, interim apartment units, food assistance in conjunction with the Food Pantry and Farm to Pantry, medical assistance in conjunction with Alliance Medical Center and Alexander Valley Healthcare and temporary financial relief. The goal of Reach for Home is to increase sobriety, income and independence and reduce homelessness in our communities.
As an extension of the art for students program, Harvey now does art with the homeless one day a week. Many of these works will be part of the exhibit May 13-22 and help to individualize and personalize these clients, make them real people. In addition, professional artists have been asked to be part of the Paul Mahder Gallery display. All of the artwork will be for sale and all proceeds from work of the homeless goes directly to them. Professional artists will donate a portion of their sales to Reach for Home while the sales of art created by the students benefits Reach for Home.
A new focal point of this year’s exhibit is prototypes of mobile pods: one is being created by Healdsburg High School students under the direction of art teacher Linus Lancaster and another by Sebastopol artist Ken Berman. These pods, designed to provide housing and storage to those without permanent housing can be towed by bicycle and parked anywhere for instant shelter.
Another highlight of this year’s exhibit will be a short film on local homelessness by recent Healdsburg High School graduate Marcus Cano, who created his first film on homelessness as his senior project. He has since revised it and become a full-time filmmaker heading to film school shortly. We will have the opportunity to see Marcus’ revised film on the evening of Thursday, May 18th at the Paul Mahder Gallery.