Grant Applicant: Paint Love

The feature below is brought to you by Paint Love, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Paint Love, please visit their website: here. 

Paint Love brings free, high-quality arts programming to youth facing poverty or trauma.
“Sometimes when I feel mad at myself, I will say mean things about myself like I’m stupid, or I’m ugly. But since we did this Paint Love project, now I will think about myself that I’m smart, and unique, and perfect just the way I am.”
Fourth grader at Powder Springs Elementary School, working with Artfully Made Club

The ten-year-old girl smiles and goes back to creating a mosaic border around a mirror on which she has written “I am smart and quirky,” as a daily reminder to herself. Being a kid is hard enough- facing self-doubt, bullying, and peer pressure. But for the two thousand young people Paint Love works with each year, growing up is even more stressful. Most of the kids in this project, this school, and throughout other schools and nonprofits Paint Love serves, are growing up facing poverty or trauma.

Paint Love empowers kids through art.
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Our programs go above and beyond the ordinary. Paint Love projects introduce youth to new ways of seeing beautiful in the world, their community, and themselves. Through projects like screen printing, wax encaustics, collaborative murals,  metal pours and metalsmithing, writing and storytelling, design and illustration, stop-motion animation, glass blowing, quilt making, sculpture, paper making, photography,
and more, our programs teach new mediums while incorporating intentional themes and
social-emotional skill building focused on seeing and creating beauty and goodness.

Paint Love serves young people who often have the least access to the arts and creative self- expression, but could benefit the most.

To reach youth who face, or risk facing, poverty or trauma, we pair local, professional artists with Title 1 schools and youth-serving nonprofits. Paint Love takes care of all the planning and provides all the supplies to create extraordinary projects that our partners wouldn’t be able to do on their own.

Our nonprofit partners serve children fleeing domestic violence, facing sexual abuse, grieving after the loss of a parent or sibling, homeless youth, new immigrants and refugees, and more.

Our school partners are designated Title 1 by the GA Department of Education based on the number of students eligible for free/ reduced lunch (FRL). On average, 65-95% of their students are eligible for FRL. Over half of the art teachers have zero budget for supplies, and at best, serve between 500-1000 students with a supply budget of $1- $3 per student for the entire year. Since Atlanta is a hub for newcomer refugees and immigrants, most school partners have a high rate of English language learners and children who do not speak English as well as high numbers of transient students- including homeless children and those in the foster care system. 

Studies show that constant stress (like growing up in poverty) or trauma (like losing a parent or being abused) impacts kids’ developing brains and has a permanent effect on their lifelong ability to do everything from have healthy relationships to manage emotions. Arts engagement is actually proven to reduce stress and teach skills that can help them live healthy, happy lives.  

Here is one example of how Paint Love’s art programs make a difference in kids’ lives:  

Cat Goolsby, a professional metalsmith and Paint Love artist, works often with teens from Wellspring Living, a residential program for girls who have been removed from sex trafficking. A young woman participating in Cat’s jewelry making workshop is trusted with real tools like a motorized drill and experiences how good it feels to earn trust, and even overcomes a little bit of fear operating the machine or stamping a piece of metal. When she gets discouraged that her pendant didn’t come out how she wanted, she is supported and encouraged to try again and she learns persistence. When she is finished, she gifted the necklace to a friend, and she feels pride that she created something beautiful and unique and happy to have something to give away.

Through this project, she learns new skills and her mind is challenged in new ways with designing and creating. She acknowledges and manages tough emotions, and thinks of a way to do something kind for someone else. She sees that everyone’s projects came out differently and there is more than one way to do the project. She learns to control her anger and frustration, maybe she realizes that drawing designs is calming to her and recognizes that is something she can do next time she gets upset. She has fun and leaves feeling good about herself, and like she can successfully tackle new challenges.

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Paint Love would use support from See Beautiful to bring empowering arts programming to new Title 1 school partners in the upcoming school year.

We currently have a waiting list of teachers and principals from Title 1 schools across the Metro-Atlanta area who want to bring Paint Love projects to their students. Our school partners receive a minimum of 8-12 hours of programming, but sometimes, with funding support from the community, we have the capacity to offer even more, like the recent 200- foot mural artist Brent Coleman created with students at Clarkdale Elementary. At Clarkdale, 86% of students are economically disadvantaged and receive free or reduced lunch.  Brent volunteered over 80 hours and worked with all 800 students during every stage from planning the mural to the final touches. The mural highlights the STEAM focus at Clarkdale and the international community at the school, as well as includes sections where the kids could paint anything they wanted to represent themselves and leave their mark on their school in a big way!

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We believe every child should have access to programming that helps them see beautiful and encourages them to spread that beauty.

Paint Love serves See Beautiful’s priorities of equity, inclusion, justice, and peace, as our core mission is built around providing opportunities to youth across the spectrum of access, ability, and privilege, with a special focus on those who are often overlooked and underserved. At Paint Love, we choose art as our tool because we know how transformational it can be, but our main priority is always empowering youth to create and see the beautiful in themselves and their world, even beyond the time they are holding a paintbrush.  

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Written by Laura Shaw, Operations Manager at Paint Love

Edited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful