UPLIFTING IMAGES
Public defenders see beauty through children’s art
Child artists are brightening the days of Montgomery County’s public defenders through an innovative program that empowers young lives through art.
“This art has dramatically changed our space,” county Chief Public Defender Dean M. Beer said recently as he unveiled 20 pieces of artwork donated through the Fresh Artists program that was founded in 2008 to help keep art alive in under-funded public schools.
Recalling one of his favorite quotes, “Beauty will save the world” by writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Beer said, “I think that is so true of this artwork, especially where it is today.”
“We have our clients who are in stressful situations, for some of them this is the worst day of their life, and to come in and find a little beauty and a little art is so helpful and beneficial,” Beer said.
Beer said the lawyers in the office enjoy the art too.
“They’re here late at night and they work hard and put the time in on these cases. To have this beauty and to have this artwork is invaluable to them,” Beer said.
Officials of the Fresh Artists program installed the artwork, along with plaques identifying the student artists, in the secondfloor courthouse space that houses the office of public defenders.
County officials explained Fresh Artists was formed to help provide under-funded schools “with access to art supplies and teaching and guidance for students that might not otherwise have the opportunity to have those experiences.”
“We know that art can serve as therapy for students, a way to express themselves, a way to work through trauma and a way to heal,” county Commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh said during the unveiling ceremony.
Barbara Chandler Allen, founder and president of Fresh Artists, said she and her son, Roger, found a way to introduce the brilliance of public school children’s art to thousands of people who value their contributions as “fresh” artists.
“Basically, we saw something broken in the world and we also saw at the same time a way, by engaging vulnerable children, of fixing it,” Allen said during the ceremony. “We’re thrilled to be here.”
The children keep their original artwork. Fresh Artists then reproduces digital images of the artwork that can then be distributed. Corporate and individual donors make financial gifts, in exchange for the high-
resolution reproductions that grace the walls of their corporate facilities, and the monetary donations are used to support the delivery of art supplies and innovative art programs to underfunded public schools, officials explained.
“It’s sort of a big circle of giving,” Allen said.
Allen said through a “No Budget for Art” concept the program also donates some of the art each year to hospitals, clinics or public defenders offices, organizations that provide services “to the most desperately vulnerable people” in communities.
“Probably some of the most difficult jobs in our country are serving the poor and the destitute and those in trouble,” said Allen, adding the goal of the program is to transform those workplaces with “incredibly happy, hopeful children’s artwork” to lift the spirits of those working in them.
“Donated by children who get nothing in return other than the gratitude from people knowing that what they’ve done is really philanthropic,” Allen said.
The county public defender’s office is the forty-second institution that has received the art donations through the program. Allen said she sometimes feels like “a fairy Godmother” as she helps transform the work spaces.
“Art is something that can connect all people. It can provide relaxation, inspiration and healing,” Arkoosh said. “Studies have found that just being around art can be very relaxing for people and can provide healing benefits. We know these things are really important.”
Arkoosh said officials are grateful for the donation of art for the county office.
The office of public defender handles about 21,000 hearings a year.
“And you can imagine that many of the families that arrive here are stressed, many of them are encountering the court system for the first time and they’re kind of in uncharted territory,” Arkoosh said. “Now they’re going to walk into an office that is so warm and welcoming with this art.
“Besides the thousands of new visitors that walk through these offices, we have our phenomenal public defenders who work so hard every day managing all of these cases, attorneys and the team that supports those attorneys, and they too have beautiful pieces of art in their offices to bring them joy every single day,” Arkoosh added.