Art can be healing and life enhancing. Have you ever noticed that while you are focused on a brush stroke or mixing the right color, your mind temporarily forgets about stresses you were previously consumed with?
The therapeutic side of painting and creating is why Jenna reached out to Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Honolulu and the Next Step Shelter in Kaka’ako. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of experiences children are enduring while healing in a hospital or sleeping in a warehouse filled with strangers.
Thanks to the Outreach Program at the Honolulu Museum of Art School, she was able to instruct art lessons to the children who resided in these places for 3 years. They were provided clay, printing materials, paper mache, plaster, and of course paint. She says,”At Shriners, children would be wheeled in with pale faces, looking drained from their surgery. When they saw that an art class was being offered, their eyes would light up, they would sit up straight and you could see life flowing through them once again. I teared up with happiness, knowing that art was really making a difference for these kids.” Happy Canvas is always looking for ways to give back. Let us know how else we can help!