Heading into Afterschool Art’s 20th year, greater support of local artists is needed. Without them, finding artists with experience teaching youth is often hard.
Critical is higher afterschool teaching hourly rates. Artists should not be “volunteering” a large portion of their time to make programs work. By partnering with other nonprofits, salaries can be augmented.
Sales of artwork languished during COVID. But, one benefit of the pandemic was better use of wonderful outside spaces suited for awesome sculptures.
Entities could consider a novel approach of renting artwork. To get around the intricacies of purchase through the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts or the Hawaii State Art Museum, rental agreements could be through simple purchase orders. Art instead of staples.
The idea came to me as I viewed Kamran Samimi’s wood sculpture in Thomas Square. As a community, we could be more creative.
Bob Grossmann, Ph.D.
President/CEO, Afterschool Art
Manoa
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