Onassis Cultural Center Athens, Greece. 2014

“Art Without Limits” was a series of art workshops and events for children in an inclusion setting that was held in Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki communities) in collaboration with artist and art educator Timothy Lomas.

The first event was a weeklong art workshop and exhibition that was held at the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, Greece and included students with disabilities ( Down syndrome, Asperger, and Autism spectrum) in an inclusion setting with typically developmental students. Our partners at OCC (Christos Carras, Aphrodite Panaiotakou, and Myrto Lavda and her team) created a welcome space for the students and were very caring and engaging. Aside from a wonderful cultural venue, OCC is a leader in educational programs in Greece so it was especially meaningful for the students to have an exhibition at such a prestigious establishment.

Our second partner in this event was SKEP- Social responsibility, Association for Children and Youth. SKEP is at the forefront of inclusion efforts in Athens and is similar in mission to the IDEAL School of Manhattan where I am an art educator for K-12 students. Both organizations strive to bring together students of differing abilities in order to create a more equitable society. It was a pleasure to meet and work with SKEP’s president and founder Athina Kritikou and we spoke at length of future collaborations between our organizations.

Katerina Zervou, arts educator in special education, served as my assistant and did an excellent job as my translator.

Clamra Celestin, Vice-President of Global Children’s Art Programme accompanied us as a volunteer and was wonderful and indispensable working with the students.

Also, this project would not have been possible without all of the administrative efforts of Todd Pierce (Public Affairs Officer) and Eleni Alexaki (Cultural Affairs Specialist) at the U.S. Embassy in Athens in coordinating this memorable event.

The goals of the “Art Without Limits” events were to collaborate with local Greek organizations that are involved in inclusion efforts to bring together students with and without disabilities in a creative project and exhibition.

The programs were highly successful and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The projects at the OCC in Athens consisted of a large “Children’s Mandala Mural for Peace”. This mural is made up of mandalas from around the world which the students color and join together to create a large collaborative composition. This mural is a signature piece of Global Children’s Art Programme and I have recreated it in several cities in SE Asia, Turkey, and the U.S. thus joining together these students, through art, to part of an international community of young artists.

The second project that we worked on were individual self-portraits in a Pop Art style inspired by American artist Andy Warhol. As part of the “Art Without Limits” program, and as an American artist myself, I wanted to introduce the students to an American art movement. I provided a presentation of portraits by Andy Warhol and spoke of the Pop art movement as a point of inspiration. I then photographed each student and created duplicate images using different filters and gradients in Photoshop. Using these manipulated portraits as source material the students cut them apart and recreated their portrait in a collage style on a canvas which they had painted a background in bold Pop art style. The results were overwhelmingly successful and each student’s piece was a collaboration with myself.

The last project was based on Aboriginal “Dream Time” painting. One of the goals of Global Children’s Art Programme is to introduce young artists to traditions in art from other cultures. The “Dream Time” paintings of the aboriginal people of Australia are known for their use of patterns, dots, undulating lines and bright colors. I provided the students with a presentation on Aboriginal art as a source of inspiration and the students chose an animal or creature to paint in this style.

At the end of the art workshop the students’ accomplishments were celebrated in an exhibition in one of the main halls at the Onassis Cultural Center with educators, parents, and other members in the field of inclusion work and education in attendance (approx. 150 atttendees).

The exhibition was very well received and the provided the students with a memorable event of creativity and collaboration superseding any differences in varying abilities and challenges. (see photos)

After Athens We traveled to Thessaloniki and the surrounding area for another week of art workshops. In all we created four art events at the following locations throughout Macedonia:

–       Art workshop with Friends of People with Disabilities: “Action for Something Different” Thessaloniki

–       Art Workshop for children with and without disabilities from local schools in Kozani in cooperation with the Municipality of Kozani and the local NGO’s in support of children with special needs. Kozani

–       Art workshop at the Center for Care for People with Special Abilities. Veria

–       Art Workshop at ELEPAP, Center for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled. Thessaloniki

All of these events were one-day workshops with the exception of Kozani which was held over 2 days. At all of these events we created variations on the “Children’s Mandala Mural for Peace” in either the grid or free-style formats depending on the population.

In both Athens and the Thessaloniki area there were over 100 participants that shared in an incredible collaborative and creative experience while making beautiful art and murals for exhibition. All the art events were a great success and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. (see photos)

Greece is an incredible source of culture and inspiration and this has been an invaluable and enriching experience to myself as an artist and educator and I hope to return for future collaborations.

My utmost gratitude goes out to the U.S. Embassy in Greece and the Arts Envoy program.