http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/28/v-fullstory/1550185/art-studio-miami-on-verge-of-closing.html
LITTLE HAITI – Art Studio Miami.org on verge of closing
An arts organization that helps at-risk youth needs help from the community to keep its doors open.
BY TANIA VALDEMORO tvaldemoro@MiamiHerald.com
Watching his teacher carefully, Roland Merant finished creasing the bright yellow paper in his hands. A wing emerged and after a few minutes, the full bird.
For the past few months, he and his sister Jamillah, 11, have been coming to Art Studio Miami in Little Haiti where they have been learning how to fold origami animals and shape clay figurines, which are being filmed in a forthcoming movie.
“I like to draw and make animation and work with my teachers,” said Roland, 8, a student at Jesse J. McCrary Elementary School in Little River.
Art Studio Miami, a fledging nonprofit established in 2007, finds itself at a crossroads. If it is not able to raise money in the next few weeks, it will close this summer, said Beth Degi, Art Studio’s executive director.
Blame it on the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti.
The nonprofit has burned through most of its operating budget for this year because after the earthquake, it began providing more after-school art classes and other services to youth in Little Haiti and Overtown. The programs are free.
Added expenses — background checks, staff, security and insurance costs — have consumed this year’s $50,000 budget down to $2,000. Degi and Soralee Ayvar, the director of operations, have given up their salaries this month.
Little Haiti and Overtown are some of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, where the per capita income is $10,920, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, the most recent figure available.
“We were offering one workshop a week and then in February, we started offering the workshop three times a week,” Degi said. “We have kids showing up at our door six times a week. We’d like to be open seven days a week.”
Art Studio Miami will hold a major fundraiser, “Art of the Palate” May 1, she said.
The financial crunch could not have come at a worse time — as the earthquake’s aftermath exacerbates troublesome conditions that local Haitian families have been struggling with long before the quake: poverty, hunger, language barriers and the separation of children and parents.
“Kids are stressed out. They don’t know how their family is doing. We are seeing extremes — crying and angry outbursts as well as blank faces and children going into a cormer to be alone,” Degi said.
At its heart, Art Studio Miami trains youth in drawing, painting, film, photography, theater, creative writing and spoken word. Most students have not had the opportunity to express themselves creatively.
The nonprofit brings artists and volunteers together with youth ages 8 to 18. There’s a mentor for every two to three students. Students usually work together in small groups on art and environmental projects.
The nonprofit is the brainchild of Rachel Hughes, an artist, who was an at-risk teen in upstate New York nearly three decades ago. She gave the nonprofit $150,000 for its first three years of operation.
“I had dropped out of school but then I got into a similar art program, which motivated me to get back into high school and go to college,” Hughes said.
As local schools, families and its partner organizations know, Art Studio Miami goes beyond art to help those who walk through its purple door.
“Imagine you are a 13-year-old girl from Little Haiti,” Degi began. “When you come in, we give you a snack. Chances are you are hungry. A friendly adult asks you, `How was your day?’ She gives you a hug. We’re interested in building your self-esteem and job skills. Chances are you’ll start with some journaling or sketching.”
She continued: “After a few visits, we’re going to get you excited about writing a script for a film and animation program. We’ll ask you to read your script in front of a camera. There will be someone there who listens and cares about what you wrote. Later, we’re going to put you on a Mac computer, where you’ll learn to edit the film in Final Cut.
“You don’t know it, but we are teaching you presentation skills. We are giving you other options than working at Wendy’s,” Degi said.
Debbie Rubin, a counselor at Jesse J. McCrary Elementary School, said she has seen a difference in her students, who are enrolled in Art Studio Miami.
“This experience has lifted their self-esteem. Students come in with big smiles. They tell me what they’ve done and say they can’t wait to return the next day,” Rubin said.
Eddy Amin, executive director of StandUp For Kids Miami, said the youth his organization helps — orphans, foster kids, juvenile offenders from Miami — feel good because of their time at the studio.
“They are able to get their hands dirty and create something,” Amin said. “They haven’t necessarily been able to express verbally what they’ve been through. Some have been physically abused, witnessed domestic violence, moved around from place to place or struggled with poverty.”
He added: “It’s a stable place. They can leave the streets behind when they’re there.”
If Art Studio Miami’s fundraising is successful, Degi said the nonprofit will move ahead with its plans to establish two programs this summer, each one serving 40 kids.
“Haiti is Home” is a theater production with the Miami Children’s Theater, where kids will write about their experiences living in Little Haiti. “Hope for a New Haiti” is a collaboration with Fairchild Tropical Garden. Kids and teens will learn about ecology and sustainable rebuilding from conservationists and will visit the Garden three times this summer.
Art Studio Inc. 501c3 non-profit – 7230 NW Miami Ct. Studio #5, Purple Door, Miami, FL 33150 – p.786. 250.ART1 (2781)
