‘Me, Myself & Art’ at The Prescott Center, Groton
By Kathy Register
Artist Andrea Wilson welcomed the chance to make art with young teenagers at Groton’s Prescott Center – especially with the goal of improving youth wellness through creative engagement.
“I just love middle school, it’s this unique little moment in time with big changes,” said Wilson. “Lots of people say it’s a hard age group to work with, and it can be. But in general, these are just kids who are becoming themselves. It’s so nice to be part of that process – to witness and help nurture them along in finding themselves and their voices.”
Wilson designed and leads “Me, Myself & Art,” a 12-week, after-school program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, focusing on journaling and self-portraiture. “The focus is on self-portraiture, but with an evolution from strict portraiture into more abstract art, as the kids continue to express themselves,” she explained.
Her class was created around the idea that making art can have a positive impact on the health and wellness of Wilson’s 12- to 14-year-old students. This program is part of Arts Elevate, a pilot project supported by the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF).
“I think art works well with middle-schoolers because it’s unstructured,” explained Wilson. “There’s no right or wrong. Sometimes, teens are used to having to do things in a certain way. They feel like they have to act a certain way, or look a certain way. This art class is a chance to just exist. Students can come as they are and feel like that’s good enough.”
Launched this fall, GLCF’s pilot project, titled Arts Elevate: Embedded Community Artists for Youth Wellness in Greater Lowell, is a program that incorporates four artists embedded in four nonprofit organizations in Acton, Concord, Lowell and Groton (at The Prescott Center), explained Jennifer Aradhya, GLCF’s Vice President of Marketing, Programs & Strategy. The Arts Elevate initiative was developed for Greater Lowell with lead funding from the Barr Foundation through its Creative Commonwealth Initiative.
“As adolescents report rising levels of stress and isolation, we needed to create timely and accessible pathways to wellness,” said Aradhya. “Arts Elevate recognizes that when young people engage in creative expression, they discover who they are and how they belong.
“Andrea’s work at The Prescott Center shows exactly how powerful that can be for middle schoolers navigating such a critical developmental period,” she said.
“Me, Myself & Art” is an innovation for The Prescott Center, according to Executive Director Megan Donovan. “This program is new for us. It’s serving up art in a way that can address youth wellness,” she said.
Plus, the middle-school years are considered one of the most important periods in a child’s social development, she added. “So, we really want to develop more programming for this age group – which is typically going through a lot of ups and downs, with lots of changes in their bodies and lives.”
GLCF seeks to raise funds to enable Arts Elevate to be scaled and shared with more nonprofits and artists in the future – and, ideally, reach more and more adolescents, stressed Aradhya.
“This Arts Elevate pilot is about more than just four embedded-artist programs. We’re documenting everything – what works, what challenges arise, what outcomes we’re seeing – so we can create a toolkit that will help other organizations replicate this model,” she explained. “Andrea’s journey with these students will inform how arts-based wellness programs can be implemented in nonprofits across the region and beyond.”
For Wilson, who also teaches art at Groton’s middle school, the idea of centering her weekly Arts Elevate project around journaling and self-portraiture made perfect sense.
“We knew that GLCF’s goal was to use the arts as a vehicle to allow these kids to express their emotions in a positive way,” explained Wilson. “So, I thought, ‘What better way to see yourself than through a self-portrait?’ ”
Her class began in September with students making accordion-folded journals. “They’re sketchbooks really,” Wilson said. “We start every class with 15 to 20 minutes of painting an ‘emotional landscape’ of how the kids are feeling at that moment in time.
“This doesn’t need to be a literal landscape,” she added. “It can also be a quick show of color, based on how they’re feeling. It’s a nice documentation of where they are, emotionally, when they start class that day.”
As the students have continued expressing themselves over the weeks, their artwork has gradually evolved from traditional portraits into more abstraction. “These kids are artists. They’re doing all sorts of different things to communicate back, and share their emotional layers with others.
“My overall goal is that they look to art as a way to fill an emotional need,” said Wilson. “And that can be because maybe they’re happy, so they’ll paint. Or, maybe if they’re angry they will paint. I think all art is expressing yourself.”
“Me, Myself & Art” will conclude with a student-curated Art Show on Dec. 12. “I knew that I’d like these journals to be in the art show,” Wilson explained, “so we intentionally made them accordion-folded, like Japanese books, so they could be displayed as a piece.”
The journals continue to impress Presscott’s executive director. “The quality of work I’ve seen so far in their accordion journals is really fantastic,” said Donovan. “This could be an adult class I’m looking at.”
And the timing couldn’t be better, she added. “I feel this is such an important program to be offering right now. It’s not just unique and interesting for the kids. But, it’s also really important for them to be exploring these emotions, right now, at this age,” said Donovan.
“This final Student Art Show will be much more than an art exhibition. It will be a look into their emotional journey.”
For further information about The Prescott Center, visit:https://prescottscc.reg.eleyo.com
For further information about the Greater Lowell Community Foundation Arts Elevate program, or to support this initiative, visit: https://www.glcfoundation.org/arts-elevate/.
###
About Greater Lowell Community Foundation
Established in 1997, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) is a philanthropic organization comprised of more than 450 funds dedicated to improving the quality of life in 21 neighboring cities and towns. With financial assets of over $70 million, GLCF annually awards grants and scholarships to hundreds of worthy nonprofits and students. It is powered by the winning combination of donor-directed giving, personal attention from Foundation staff, and an in-depth understanding of local needs. The generosity of our donors has enabled the Community Foundation to award more than $40 million to the Greater Lowell community.
CAPTION: The Groton Prescott Center is a pilot site for GLCF’s Arts Elevate: Embedded Community Artists for Youth Wellness in Greater Lowell.
CAPTION: From left, artist Andrea Wilson with Prescott Center executive director Megan Donovan participating in a full day Arts Elevate training program in August.
CAPTION: The Groton Prescott Center is a pilot site for GLCF’s Arts Elevate: Embedded Community Artists for Youth Wellness in Greater Lowell.
