Love Your Block Mini-Grant Arts Projects Announced
On the 15th of April, the Love Your Block team announced a new grant opportunity for projects that help build community and assist at-risk and in need Lancaster residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, all while keeping a safe distance and respecting the stay at home orders. Fifteen grants of $500 were awarded and we are highlighting five arts-based projects.
CONGRATULATIONS to all the recipients!!
FREE COLORING BOOKS
Jenny Germann is a local artist who has been creating downloadable coloring pages since the middle of March when Stay at Home orders went into effect. The coloring pages are freely available on her website at jennygermann.com, and many of them are Lancaster themed. Although she has made them free to download, she was concerned about those who don’t have a printer or a way to access the pages. With the grant, she will be turning the coloring pages into books to place in Little Free Libraries throughout the city, providing access to more families.
HAND SEWN MASKS
Schirlyn Kamara, local artist and founder of Handz On Hope, parent organization of the Nimble Thimble Social Enterprise fabric shop, has been working with women from their sewing programs to create masks for the homeless, the domestic violence shelters, and the police since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the grant, they will be expanding their distribution into the southeast, focusing on areas such as Almanac Avenue, Duke Manor, Stevens Avenue, Franklin St., and Hillrise. They are taking photos of both the sewers and the mask recipients, wanting to show how the community is working together during this time.
NEIGHBORHOOD PHOTO SESSIONS
Michelle Johnsen is a local photographer who has been taking photos of life during COVID-19, including Stoop Sessions where households are photographed in front of their homes. With the grant, she plans on transitioning to Front Window sessions, where families can be photographed inside their homes from their front windows, spreading joy and the reminder that we are not in this alone. Each family will receive a copy of their photo, and all the photos will be uploaded to an online gallery. She also plans on showing the images in a gallery with other COVID-19 photos once we are able to gather again.
CRAFT KITS
Violet Baldwin, of Baldwin's Dirty Little People Gallery, applied for a grant to provide craft kits to children.
“Kraft Kits with Kids” will be hosted by Crispus Attucks in mid June. Children 6-12 can pick up a handmade arts and crafts kit prepared by a local artist. As a former stay at home mom I identify with the parents in quarantine right now who could use something unique and different to do with their children and as the parent of a young artist I can say providing the opportunity and tools for kids to create no matter the circumstances will only serve them in beneficial ways later in life.
REFUGEE NEWSPAPER
Bhim Thapaliya with Acts for Humanity has been working with Matt Johnson of CWS Lancaster to create a program called The Refugee Youth Journalism Project. It is a 5-week course where the students will learn journalism techniques, using them to interview members of Lancaster's refugee community to see how they have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The students will write articles based on the interviews, which will be turned into a 'refugee newspaper', accessible online and in print