As part of our ongoing, wonderful community partnership with The Red Derby, we’re pleased to announce that two Red Derby staff, Ann-Marie VanTassell and Beth Hansen, started an Art Group/Class for DASH’s children every Tuesday night at our Cornerstone Facility.  The class is a huge success and we could not be more grateful to Ann-Marie and Beth for bringing this experience to DASH as part of their innovative, new non-profit, The Arcade, which is dedicated to promoting and educating art in Washington DC, and whose goal is to establish studio and workshop space for artists in the area to enable artists to have a dedicated space to continue their craft both affordably and in a creative, collaborative environment, and to continue teaching and encouraging children to create art. They accomplish this through their arts programs for youth groups in the city, and they use their fundraising events as a space for education.

Most recently, DASH’s Children’s Art Group held its first Art Show at Cornerstone.  Our resident children proudly provided tours of the works to their families and community members. The beautiful pieces represented projects ranging from an “About Me” magazine to prints made from melted crayons and paint mixed with water and soap. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our children’s hard work and support healing from trauma through creative expression. Michael Henderson, Edgewood resident and a valued member of the DASH community, attended the art show and shared the following:  “The value of this type of expression for children cannot be described in an email. But I’ve seen the work you’ve done with the children and how you’ve engaged the community and, well, thank you. The art work was wonderful!”

Thank you to all of those who attended and a HUGE thank you to our volunteer art teachers Anne-Marie and Beth and to our extended family at the Red Derby.

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To learn more about Ann-Marie and Beth’s work at The Arcade, click here: http://thearcadedc.blogspot.com/2013/03/dash-art-group.html.