Art Explosion is off to an amazing start!

The teens at GiGi’s are bursting with creativity and enthusiasm.  Spontaneous singing and dancing jams are expected and encouraged by teens, their parents, and volunteers.  When Bruce Dempsey, MEd, BFA, a Chicago artist, approached GiGi’s to start an art program, it seemed like a great fit for our vibrant teens.

Alena works with Bruce to design her artwork

Quincy and Anna sing during Art Explosion

Art Explosion offers teens an opportunity to learn about and create art.

It is currently offered once a month.  We plan to offer an intensive, weekly course in the summer leading to an art display.  Our goals for Art Explosion are as follows:

• Discuss and create art to promote confidence, self-esteem, and a sense of ownership
• Promote self-expression through art
• Encourage teamwork with peers
• Offer opportunities to display work and participate in art showings

Alena and Adam choose pieces of construction paper

First Session: Andy Warhol’s Flowers

We had our first Art Explosion session on January 20, 2016.  Bruce selected Andy Warhol’s Flowers for this session.  He began the session with a short lecture on Andy Warhol’s work and artistic style before introducing the project: making our own Flowers-inspired art.  Teens used colored paper to create their pieces and worked with Bruce, Jenny, Sara, and Eddie to cut out flowers and blades of grass.  They also learned how to use rubber cement to glue their flowers and grass onto a piece of colored paper.  The teens were very excited with the results, posing for a group picture at the end of our session.  We were thrilled with the teens and parents’ positive response and look forward to creating more artwork in the coming months!

Bruce Dempsey shares an example art piece

Adam, Quincy, Anna, and Alena share their artwork

About the Art Explosion Facilitators

Bruce Dempsey: Earned his BFA at Carnegie Mellon University.  Studied fine art and art history in Florence, Italy.  Earned his MEd in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jenny Popova: Completed her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Education from University of California, Berkeley and M.S. in Occupational Therapy from University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a certified Occupational Therapist who works in Early Intervention with children from zero to three years old.

She is currently pursuing her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago and is passionate about research in the area of family-centered care and family empowerment in Early Intervention.

Sara Brumm: Majored in Psychology and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Currently a first-year occupational therapy student at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Interested in the program?  Join us Friday, February 17th from 5-7pm.  Click HERE to sign-up.