Community Partner : Art with a Heart Intern : Allison Schingel Site Supervisor : Christina Ralls
What is Art with a Heart ? Art with a Heart ’ s mission is to enhance the live of people in need through visual art .
My favorite experiences at Art with a Heart all came from teaching and working with the students in the summer job program . The first few days were somewhat daunting , but the teens and young adults I helped teach were engaging and interesting . I liked working with them . I ' m very interested in education , but much of my past work in the subject has been based in theory . In the past , I had never really been able to put to practice my teaching skills on the regular basis . AWAH needed me to do so , though , and I surprised myself with how much invested I got . I really cared about all of my students , and it gave me so much joy to just sit and talk with them and learn about their lives . It turned out to be very easy to dismiss any preconceived idea about their lives ‐ in most ways , I think , we related to one another as peers , and I saw them less as students and more as friends I happened to work with or teach .
It ' s been this kind of shift in my general attitude that has made me look at Baltimore in new ways . A major strength of CIIP is its emphasis on Baltimore ‐ all of the city ' s problems , changes , and charms . Interning at Art with a Heart has made me more aware of the nonprofit sector in Baltimore , as well as the importance of artistic expression in this city and by its residents , but interning through CIIP has made me look at the work I ' m doing through a much wider lens . I feel more aware of the role I play in Baltimore , and that makes me feel even more grateful to be around people at work who are tireless in their efforts to make people here a little bit stronger . Art with a Heart stresses how the visual arts can enhance people ' s lives . I ' m so used to treating art as a solitary activity , but it ' s the communal aspect of making visual arts projects at AWAH that really makes me feel like my life is being enhanced . I couldn ' t imagine doing anything else this summer . ‐ Allison
Tasks :
● Assisted in teachi job skills , and visu twenty teenagers AWAH ' s summer
● Managed conflict between job prog
● Tested new proje products to be so HeARTwares stor
● Promoted the ma Shop & Bop , thro calendars , and co representatives