News
Jan
05
2011
Next Act Supports The Next Artists
Non-profit and children artists supply school art programs
(artist, Juania Velazguez, grade 6)
by Mike Kravinsky
It took me a while to get Barbara Chandler Allen to open up about her background. She believes that what she does with Fresh Artists, an organization she founded, shouldn't be about her. Rather, our interview should center around the children in the Philadelphia school system who are in need of art supplies. Eventually, I was able to get her to talk about what led her to form the non-profit that recently won b
oth the Purpose Prize and the Adobe "Show Your Impact" prize.
Allen founded Fresh Artists in late 2008 in response to the practically non existent budget of eighty-three cents per child per year for art supplies in the Philadelphia public school system. Fresh Artists doesn't just help the children. "It celebrates and supports art teachers as well," Allen notes, "It's not just the children, but the people who teach them."
oth the Purpose Prize and the Adobe "Show Your Impact" prize. Allen founded Fresh Artists in late 2008 in response to the practically non existent budget of eighty-three cents per child per year for art supplies in the Philadelphia public school system. Fresh Artists doesn't just help the children. "It celebrates and supports art teachers as well," Allen notes, "It's not just the children, but the people who teach them."
The organization has done a solid job of helping art programs in Philadelphia. Along with having donated an estimated several hundred thousand dollars in art supplies to the school system, the program creates a sense of philanthropy in the children who participate in it.
Here's how Fresh Artists works. Children in the Philadelphia school system are invited to donate their artwork to Fresh Artists. Fresh Artists signs a licensing agreement on the art with the artists' parents or guardians. The organization then creates large format reproductions for corporate use. The children keep the original artwork. When a local business or corporation makes a donation to Fresh Artists, the business may choose o
ne of the pieces of art for display in their buildings. It's a system similar to getting a tote bag for a donation to PBS.
Here's how Fresh Artists works. Children in the Philadelphia school system are invited to donate their artwork to Fresh Artists. Fresh Artists signs a licensing agreement on the art with the artists' parents or guardians. The organization then creates large format reproductions for corporate use. The children keep the original artwork. When a local business or corporation makes a donation to Fresh Artists, the business may choose o
ne of the pieces of art for display in their buildings. It's a system similar to getting a tote bag for a donation to PBS. Although the children don't get any money for their art, they do get their names displayed on a plaque next to their artwork, along with Fresh Artists' mission statement. All the money received goes back into purchasing more art supplies, creating a circle of benefits where children help children. In effect, the child artist becomes a philanthropist.
One of the child artists in the program is Michael Clarkson. Both of his parents are in jail, and he thought he would end up there too. When he saw his art enlarged and displayed in the corporate offices of local health maintenance organization Health Partners, he told Allen, "When Fresh Artists discovered me, I realized that I was somebody and I didn't have to follow the path of my parents." He is now in school learning contracting and carpentry.
What led Allen to start Fresh Artists? Early on, she studied art history and fine art, and got her first job at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a secretary. From there she moved to a position in Boston at the Peabody Museum of Archeology. What she learned in these jobs was that there is a business side to running museums, and that she had talent in the business of art. After three years working in Boston, she caught the attention of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At age twenty-three, she was offered the job of registrar. She worked there for ten years, got married, had kids, and retired to raise the children. For the next twenty-one years, she was a stay at home mom. Becoming an uber volunteer and horticulturalist, she basically left the art world.
Her son Roger discovered The Charter High School of Architecture and Design in center city Philadelphia; which inspired the private school sophomore to return to the public school system." At that point," Allen says, "my marriage was ending and I needed a job." Therefore, she approached the school to see if they could use a fundraiser. They hired her, and she proceeded to raise more money for the charter school than they had ever raised before. That's when she realized where her talent lay.
Allen left the charter school after seven years and was approached by the Superintendent of the Philadelphia school system to help decorate the new board of education building, a former industrial space. She and her son Roger thought of using art made by kids in all grades in the school system. "It made me realize there was gorgeous stuff being made by K-12 kids, and it was desirable when it was blown up big," she said, "When it was enlarged something happens. I mean it can be a very pretty little piece, but when you blow that puppy up... it becomes breathtaking."
Since it's founding in 2008, Fresh Artists has installed almost six hundred large format reproductions of children's artwork in the lobbies and boardrooms of some of Philadelphia's most prominent corporations. "By putting these pieces in the boardrooms of Comcast Corp, Shire Pharmaceutical, SAP; very powerful global organizations; we believe that the voice of the children is going with this artwork." Her goal is to make sure that the art influences decision makers. "When people make decisions, they will remember these children."
There are other ideas that Allen brings to Fresh Artists as well, like the after school art club called Sign Studio. In this program, third to fifth graders work on commission to create signs for local businesses to help liven up store spaces. One example can be found at Weavers Way cooperative grocery. Students used color paint samples to create mosaics of fruits and vegetables to hang inside the market.
Fresh Artists is currently run out of Allen's home with the help of her sons Roger and Gardner, and some "very part time people". She doesn't see her non-profit as a job. "This is not work; this is mission." Allen's goal is to make this a nationwide organization for school systems in need of supplies. “We are going sneaky-smart under the tent of corporate America,” she says. “After a number of years when we have Fresh Artists’ work throughout corporate America, it will begin to change the way we fund public education, the way we regard the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Allen left the charter school after seven years and was approached by the Superintendent of the Philadelphia school system to help decorate the new board of education building, a former industrial space. She and her son Roger thought of using art made by kids in all grades in the school system. "It made me realize there was gorgeous stuff being made by K-12 kids, and it was desirable when it was blown up big," she said, "When it was enlarged something happens. I mean it can be a very pretty little piece, but when you blow that puppy up... it becomes breathtaking."
Since it's founding in 2008, Fresh Artists has installed almost six hundred large format reproductions of children's artwork in the lobbies and boardrooms of some of Philadelphia's most prominent corporations. "By putting these pieces in the boardrooms of Comcast Corp, Shire Pharmaceutical, SAP; very powerful global organizations; we believe that the voice of the children is going with this artwork." Her goal is to make sure that the art influences decision makers. "When people make decisions, they will remember these children."
There are other ideas that Allen brings to Fresh Artists as well, like the after school art club called Sign Studio. In this program, third to fifth graders work on commission to create signs for local businesses to help liven up store spaces. One example can be found at Weavers Way cooperative grocery. Students used color paint samples to create mosaics of fruits and vegetables to hang inside the market.Fresh Artists is currently run out of Allen's home with the help of her sons Roger and Gardner, and some "very part time people". She doesn't see her non-profit as a job. "This is not work; this is mission." Allen's goal is to make this a nationwide organization for school systems in need of supplies. “We are going sneaky-smart under the tent of corporate America,” she says. “After a number of years when we have Fresh Artists’ work throughout corporate America, it will begin to change the way we fund public education, the way we regard the most vulnerable members of our society.”
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