How Arts For Life empowers kids at Levine Children’s Hospital

The art to start looking out for in the city is created by kids at Levine Children’s Hospital.

Their first art show with Arts For Life is coming down today at Warehouse 242. It debuted during Creative Mornings/Charlotte’s Sept. 2 event, but you can still catch the display of framed pieces and digital art created on iPads from noon-3 p.m.

Can’t make it? No worries. This is just the beginning.

Arts For Life, which provides educational art programs to pediatric patients in four communities in North Carolina (Asheville, Durham, Winston-Salem and now Charlotte) was brought to Levine Children’s Hospital (LCH) in March 2015. At the time, there was a music therapist at the hospital but no visual arts component.

The program’s first year at LCH was about building an art program in the hospital, complete with visual arts opportunities like drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture, as well as creative writing opportunities like poetry writing. This second year of the program is about bridging the gap between the hospital and the community by sharing the work that is done inside the hospital walls.

And the Creative Mornings event — with its September theme of “magic” — is just what Arts For Life was looking for when establishing their first LCH art show.

“There’s definitely an element of magic when it comes to art and it has the power to transform a kid’s day,” said Rachel Zink, executive director of Arts For Life. “…Doctors and nurses are looking to heal kids’ bodies, Arts For Life is there to nurture kids’ minds.”

The program reminds hospitalized children and teens that they’re not just patients — they’re artists with the power to imagine and create and grow. Recently at LCH, kids tackled a printmaking project inspired by the game “I Spy” in which they were prompted to create an art piece based on their surroundings in hallways, playrooms and hospital rooms.

At LCH, there are four playrooms with art tables, which are each open for two hours a day for a total of eight hours. The tables are manned by teachers to facilitate projects that are designed to engage kids of all ages and ability level. The projects stem from monthly themes with a lesson plan designed around them.

Volunteers also host “bedside studios,” going room to room and offering bedside art projects.

Some of the patients’ rooms turn into art galleries of sorts if they have been at the hospital for a while, said Sarah Ness, Arts For Life program director at LCH. “Usually when they finish a piece they are so proud of it,” she said. “…It empowers them to be able to have some control of their health and well-being.”

Zink said, “We love that kids get choices — they don’t get a lot of choices when they are in the hospital for treatment.”

But when it comes to art, they can pick their medium, their content, the color of their paint and beyond.

At this time, the program at LCH is maintained by 11 volunteers, including art students in graduate programs and retired art teachers. They are looking to double that number to reach more children. Teachers go through a training process and are fit into the curriculum with weekly two-hour teaching shifts. And there are only two requirements.

“You have to have a creative spirit … and you have to love kids,” Zink said.

Arts For Life is planning another LCH art show for spring 2017, and a free breakfast in the meantime on Oct. 13.

Photos: Carolinas HealthCare System’s Levine Children’s Hospital, Arts For Life

This story was originally published September 21, 2016 at 11:00 PM with the headline "How Arts For Life empowers kids at Levine Children’s Hospital."