Art and Poetry at The Care Center
When a student chooses a form, molds the wire mesh and over the next few weeks applies papier-mâché, plaster and paint to create a sculpture out of thin air, she is learning the same skills she will need when she applies to college, goes to classes, secures day care for her child and eventually begins a job in her chosen field. The art classes at The Care Center allow young women to build unique self-esteem and creative problem-solving skills that they may not have learned in a writing or math class. A blank canvas is an analogy to the student’s lives. We draw that analogy and encourage the completion of long term planning and goal setting.
The students at The Care Center also experience art outside the classroom including The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, The Springfield Quadrangle, The Community Music School, The Eric Carle Museum, Smith College Museum, and regular visits to The Wisteriahurst Museum.
What is poetry? Does it have to rhyme? Must it be about flowers and nature? Students at The Care Center soon discover that poetry is a form of self-expression that can take many forms, and the most important thing is that it express something true about the writer¹s life.
Author and educator Tzivia Gover developed a poetry program for The Care Center in which students read poetry by contemporary and classic authors, then create their own poems in response. While this form of creativity feels like a welcome contrast to core academic courses, students are still learning important writing skills that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The experience of fun, challenging, creative writing is, for many, the path that leads to the love of reading and writing.
To bring the art and craft of writing to life, we invite visiting authors to The Care Center. Students read the authors¹ books in advance then have the opportunity to meet and talk with the authors at a reading and signing.
Care Center Galleries
The following is a collection of works from Care Center Students: