Today, we want to make our $10,000 goal! And we’re giving you a chance to get in on the action.  We set aside some awesome artwork and will make it available to supporters all over the country today between 12:00pm and 10:00pm.  At noon, we will launch a Facebook album on our Facebook page.  Under each picture, you can use the comment box to make your bid.  We’ll contact you at the end of the auction with directions as to how to pay and receive your piece!

Thank you for being strong supporters of the Art Feeds hooligans.  We’re all supporters of this crazy cause- Some of us just happen to be working in the office.

See you this evening!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

Tonight, we have 2 locations set up!

First, we’ll set up our Annual Art Feeds Art Auction at JB’s Piano Bar!

Here are some of the awesome pieces that will be up for bidding tonight at our Silent Auction form 5:00pm-9:00pm and at our Live Auction beginning at 7.

For those whom are out-of-town, we’re hosting an ONLINE Auction tomorrow (Friday May 18) from 12:00pm-10:00pm.  Stop by our Facebook page for information!

Second, our Restore Joplin project will be displayed on Main Street in conjunction with Rebuild Joplin.  We’ll even have boxes in the streets with creative tools, so our little Art Walk-ers can help design a building as well!

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Hope to see you tonight on Art Walk or tomorrow at our Online Auction!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

Today for our Wednesday Giveaway, we’re giving away a $40 credit to our Online Auction on Friday! The auction will be from 12pm-10pm CST on Friday May 18.  A photo album will be posted on our Facebook page with photos of each piece available for bidding.  Using the comment box, you can bid on each piece. At 10pm on-the-dot, we’ll take down the album and contact our winners.

To enter the giveaway, please comment and share this post on your Facebook page!  We’ll choose a winner at random tomorrow.

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

Update 5/17: Dina Thomas is our Wednesday Giveaway winner!

We had an Elephant Zoo, a haunted McDonalds, & a St John’s hospital with water slides. Several students rebuilt their destroyed school, a few rebuilt their homes that had been destroyed months earlier.  And as usual, they did it with cheerful hearts & great detail.

This is the action our brand-new Joplin sparked in all of us- We just wanted to run through the streets!

These creations will be on display on Art Walk this Thursday with the team from Rebuild Joplin! We’ll set up our “New Joplin” in Main Street so the rest of our community can explore our streets.  Then, we’ll have a few fresh refrigerator boxes so more kiddos can design their own buildings!

We’ll be set up from 5-9 on Main Street.  Don’t forget to wander up to JB’s Piano Bar to catch our Annual Art Feeds Art Auction and create at the Mobile Art Center parked out front!

Here’s a video from the Restore Joplin project last fall:

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

These internships are heavy on man-power.  We anticipate working with 2500 children this summer, so we need excited, creative, and dedicated interns to help us mobilize creating healing in the children we encounter.  We are specifically looking for interns to be in our office and on-the-ground helping us conduct programs across the city.  This is a stimulating, challenging, and super fun job!  You will end up on the Art Mobile often and covered in paint more-than-often.

These are unpaid, on-location internships.  We ask that you be at least in commuting distance to Joplin, MO.  We will help locate housing and part-time jobs if you will be joining us from out-of-town.

What are you waiting for?  Run to our application!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

We’re still booking birthday parties for this summer! Visit this site to learn more about booking an Art Feeds Birthday Party.

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

Last Friday at the First Friday Art Walk, we parked our Art Mobile outside Randy Bacon’s Gallery and Studio and painted all the faces we could find!

Look how darling is this mustached bird and beautiful princess?  Thanks to everyone at Randy Bacon’s for inviting us to be a part of your Art Walk!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

We handed out our first round of mugs on Tuesday!  (Hey St. Mary’s and Irving kiddos- Your mugs will arrive next week!)

Don’t they look great?

Even our friends in the kitchen got in on the action!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds

There were a lot of questions asked of me by people much older like, “Do you have a degree?”, “How do you get your funding?” and “Who is your boss?”. Well, I was still getting a degree at the time as a sophomore in college and I was my own boss. It seemed that many were very skeptical of my age and how that played in to me running an organization. It came to a point where I would struggle to tell people my age, because I wanted to be taken seriously. I was serious about creative education, art, and how it was helping these children.

Amidst all this, I found an organization that had the complete opposite reaction of most of my older peers. An organization that would call the skeptics of mine “old people”, in the early stages of starting Art Feeds, I found DoSomething.org.

While many said I was too young, Do Something was geared toward being young, 25 and under, and creating social change. While others hesitated to give large amounts of money to a 19 year old, Do Something made it only available to young people. It became an incredible resource for me when writing for grants, asking questions like “how the heck do I fill out this 501c3 paperwork?” and even offering free “Boot Camps” to learn how to run Art Feeds better, speed pitch my ideas to industry professionals and win a grant in the process.

This is why I am so ecstatic, humbled, honored to be 1 of 12 semi-finalists in consideration for the Do Something Awards. This year there was over 1,000 change makers, do gooders, and non-profiteers in the running. All 12 will be interviewed and of the 12, 5 Finalists will be chosen to appear on the Do Something Awards on VH1 in August. The 4 of the 5 finalists receive a $10,000 grant and the winner receives $100,000 for his or her cause. This is such an incredible opportunity for Art Feeds to grow our programs and reach more children with our therapeutic art and creative education programs.

The most beautiful part of all this is that the 11 other semi-finalists are incredible and doing amazing things to change the world, it is such a blessing to be considered amongst them. You can check out Art Feeds and the other semi-finalists here.

This is my message to any young person that has a seed of an idea that can create change. Do it. You have my support and the support of great organizations like Do Something on your side, happy to encourage you to change the world.

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.
Meg Bourne
Founder
Art Feeds

Check out this teaser from the 2011 Do Something Awards!

Watch this video on YouTube.

The children in Art Feeds Ghana programs have been rescued from child slavery situations.  Art Feeds is helping these children cope and grow past the trauma they have faced by supporting them with therapeutic art and creative education.

Each child in our programs receives an Art Feeds Art Pack at the beginning of every year at the launch of programs.  Our founder Meg delivered these art packs on a recent visit to Art Feeds Ghana programs.  The art packs given to the kiddos in Ghana are the same art packs that are given to the students in our Joplin programs!

Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate.

Art Feeds

@artfeeds