Our year of conversations with children

We are proud of what we all have achieved in just two years:

• Placed 250 works of art in high-profile businesses throughout our region, Michigan, Washington D.C. and Massachusetts
• Received the gift of artwork from 395 generous and creative children
• Delivered the retail value of more than $100,300 in art supplies to 265 severely under-resourced inner-city art teachers
• Created a sustainable annual event to honor the young artist-philanthropists
• Developed a sophisticated, museum-quality image database and unique art installation procedures.

Now we are turning our attention to "conversations with children". Adults all seem to "get it. They are delighted to participate in our innovative social business.  But we felt that we needed to reach out to children so they understand the full power of what they are doing as part of Fresh Artists.  

So we decided to take this year to create specific ways to communicate directly with children. Our tag-line says, "empowering young lives through art", but we weren't sure they knew they were empowered. We are focusing on three specific initiatives:

• Writing a children's book called Pablo the Philly Philanthropist. Pablo loved to draw and paint, and sometimes got in trouble for drawing when he should have been doing something else. A talented boy, Pablo was invited by Fresh Artists to donate the use of his artwork to their program to help other kids in his city. Pablo agreed, and is told he is now a "philanthropist".  He doesn't understand the impact of his giving until he actually sees large-scale reproductions of his artwork hung in a large office building,  and watches watches boxes of art supplies pour into his school.

I am profoundly grateful to three creative young men for their work on this project:  

• Stephen Trueman, an aspiring children's book writer who wrote a charming narrative.
• My son, Gardner Allen, who volunteered to do the fabulous illustrations.
• Roger, my younger son and co-founder of Fresh Artists, who coordinated the artwork, graphic design, layout and pre-press work.

The book is now on our webpage in beta format. Please write us and give us your thoughts.  

• Designing a children's box game based on the classic "memory" or concentration game, using the brilliant images from the Fresh Artists collection. We hope to have this inter-generational game widely distributed through the network of art and children's museum shops, highlighting Fresh Artists' mission of empowering the philanthropy of children through their artwork.
• Creating "Sign Studio", a real-life social entrepreneurial business where kids make and donate their art, see it used in a real-life application they can understand, and actively participate in delivering the art supplies to children in need within their community.

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