By Jamie Kania
In the ongoing efforts to aid the people affected by Hurricane Katrina, Stewart Barron, Louisiana State School of Art director, put out a national call for helpfor art supplies and Buffalo State College is responding.
Barron’s appeal is specifically for art supplies for displaced art students, children in shelters and professional artists who have lost everything, including their life’s work.
“Art is such a powerful means of achieving those true expressions of loss, fear, confusion, grief and, most importantly, hope, which words alone can not convey,” he said in a release.
Tullis Johnson, president of the student chapter of the National Art Education Association, immediately responded to Barron’s plea for help. Johnson, along with the NAEA and the New York State Art Teachers Association, is putting together an art supply drive for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“An art supply drive would be a unique opportunity for artists to truly stand up for the arts, to stand behind its ability to heal and revitalize a devastated community and to support those in need whom might otherwise be forgotten,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the children in these shelters have been through a traumatic experience and there are therapeutic implications of art.
“Art has the ability to revitalize a community,” he said.
Shirley Hayes, BSC art professor, agrees the art supplies will provide a means for satisfaction and healing that many find both comforting and necessary in times of crisis.
The hope is that students, faculty, staff and community members will contribute whatever they can to make a difference. The art supply drive will run through Oct. 22. There is a bin located in Upton Hall where donations and contributions can be made.
List of supplies needed
- drawing pads
- sketchbooks
- crayons
- rulers
- watercolor sets
- pencils
- markers
- charcoal
- paper
- t-squares
- printmaking supplies
- sculpture tools
LSU is working with the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge which is coordinating the disparate efforts in the arts. All donations collected will be sent directly to them and they will disperse the supplies.
For more information contact artsupplydrive@yahoo.com
Jamie Kania can be reached at kanijm00@buffalostate.edu
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