A Night at the Gardens!

Frederik Meijer Gardens was buzzing with 3-6 year olds last week Thursday evening. Students from Ridgemoor and West Leonard, Early Childhood schools took their families out for a night of art and fun at the Gardens.
Each year VSA puts on Early Childhood events with lots of art activities for students and their families for each of the Early Childhood schools in Grand Rapids and last thursday was the night for these two schools.


The students went from room to room, dancing with butterfly wings in the creative movement room, making beautiful clay tiles, drumming outdoors, engaging in interactive stories, participating in puppet theaters, and of course enjoying the butterflies at the Gardens.


Along with the artists leading the various activites, there were also a slew of volunteers who came out and helped! One group of volunteers was made up of the top 20designers who are part of the upcoming fashion event on May 15, Runway on Monroe. With these designers, kids created beautiful fairy bracelets and coffee filter butterflies, and left with these reminders of their night at the gardens.


Thanks to all the families, artists, volunteers, and teachers who came out and to Frederik Meijer Gardens for hosting this wonderful event!
To see more pictures from this event, go to our facebook page.

Painting Expressions: VSA Student Exhibit

Over the past year, students in the Grand Rapids Public CBOT (Community Based Occupational Training) program have come to VSA each Wednesday for art classes. The art classes included a Drama/Theater session, a Jewelry making session, and a Painting session.

The students presented their work from their final session this past Wednesday, March 24 with a reception at VSA.



Before the reception, each of the students were also asked to finish two sentences:

1. I like art because:
2. My favorite part of VSA this year was:
These written responses were then hung up next to their painting.

One of the students answered the questions responding, "I like art because it helps you with many different techniques and colors," and "My favorite part of VSA this year was the painting because how it brings out your inner spirit and outer spirit and how it establishes your personal thought of how you feel."

The process of creating the pieces was definitely one of expression and the paintings the students produced were unique, intricate, and beautiful.

For more pictures of the student's paintings, see the album on our Facebook Page.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Yesterday, Tuesday, March 23, the VSA offices were transformed into a Black Box Theater for a very special production.

As the culmination of a ten week adult theater class at VSA led by teaching artist, Tim St. Claire, ten students performed a few scenes from “The Wizard of Oz” for an audience of teachers, parents, siblings, and friends.

The students did a fabulous job on stage. They hit their lines, transformed into their characters, and at many times elicited uproarious laughter from the crowd.




Thanks to all those who came to see the show, to Tim for his wonderful direction, and thanks to the very talented actors and actresses who performed!

A Very Special Concert

Come support the VSA choir!
This Saturday, March 13 at 3:00pm, at Kuyper College (Kuyper College Chapel, 3333 East Beltline NE, Grand Rapids).



The Very Special Choir was invited to sing with the training choirs of the Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Choruses. This should be a wonderful concert and will include a reception following the concert as well as a free-will offering going towards Very Special Choir to help continue to support this program!

Children Make Art for Children: DeVos Children's Hospital Artwork

Friday night was an exciting night for VSA and the students who have been involved in the DeVos Children's Hospital project!

LaFontsee Galleries hosted an art opening exhibiting some of the art that has been created by VSA students for the Children's Hospital. The exhibition featured much work from VSA students along with students from other community organizations around Grand Rapids. Artists, students and teachers all came out for the event and everyone was excited to see their work framed and on display. Stay tuned as more VSA artwork is choosen as the hospital is completed.

Thanks to all the parents, students, and artists who came out for this exciting event and for LaFontsee for hosting.

Call For Art: Legacy Trust Award Collection

VSA arts of Michigan-Grand Rapids seeks artwork from adult artists with disabilities for the Legacy Trust Award Collection to be included in ArtPrize 2010 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

VSA is soliciting artwork entries created by adult artists with disabilities for the Legacy Trust Award Collection of ArtPrize 2010.

ArtPrize is a radically open art competition, giving away the world's largest art prize. Part arts festival, part social experiment - this international art contest is decided solely on a public vote. ArtPrize runs September 22 through October 10, 2010 in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information see the ArtPrize website at www.artprize.org.

This award collection has been designed to assist adult artists with disabilities to participate in a preliminary art competition with three winning artists moving forward to compete in ArtPrize 2010* in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as the Legacy Trust Award Collection.

*VSA will make every effort to secure an appropriate venue for the three winning artists, but neither artprize nor VSA can make any guarantees

To register and for more information,

see the Call for Art here.

Music in Mrs. Geers Room

Each year over forty special education classrooms from throughout our community participate in VSA Artist Workshops and Artist Residencies, in mediums such as dance, music, pottery, jewelry making, and painting—all which encourage expression and confidence in these youth.

The pictures below are from one of our music workshops at Appleview Elementary. Teacher, Lynelle Geers, submitted a proposal for a workshop in music to "learn new ways to incorporate music into their routine that will burn some energy while teaching key concepts" She wrote, "I would would to use music to gain their attention, get some wiggles out, and build coordination."

Teaching artist and trained Music Therapist is doing just that with this class of 11, 8-11 year olds. Today was Erinn's second time visiting this classroom and she will finish up next week with the final, one-hour session. Erinn definitely has to work hard to keep the attention of these energetic students, but with the help of drums, active songs, egg shakers and lots of movement, she's able to do it!



Thanks to Mrs. Geers class for letting me come in today to make some music and take some pictures, you guys are great!