"All children are endowed with a creative power which includes an astonishing variety of potentialities. This power is necessary for the child to build up her/his own existence" Ramses Wissa Wassef, Wassef Art Centre, Harrania, Egypt

Art makes a difference
Art to Heart has extensive experience in working with children in a community context. At the centre of its work lie questions such as: can art make a difference? Can art heal? To what extent does the living environment impact on children lives? Can art re-establish a lost balance?
The long-term art programmes Jole has been involved with indicates that art can be a significant factor in positively contributing to the formation of confident, well-formed individuals.

Arklink – Fatima Mansions
From September 2002 to June 2007 Jole Bortoli worked with ArkLink (the outreach programme of The Ark, a cultural centre for children) in developing a long-term art programme involving children, age 4 to 14, in Fatima Mansions, an inner city community undergoing a process of regeneration.

Working with the children in their community, has been for Jole a dramatic and invaluable learning as well as an important insight into one of the most interesting community regeneration programme, taking place in Dublin at the moment.

The children’s natural vitality, curiosity, and insatiable will to work have been amazing and hopefully will contribute to the development of a positive sense of self.

http://www.ark.ie/arklink.htmlhttp://www.ark.ie/archives/archive034.html

Rockforest, Co. Clare
At Art to Heart’s centre in Rockforest, Co. Clare we regularly run art workshops for the children from the local community.

With the expanse of the Burren National Park all around, the children are encouraged to create artworks using found natural materials, to closely observe nature in all its manifestations and to freely interpret, with many different art materials what they have seen and felt.

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