ArtReach Studios
www.thearcsanfrancisco.org
Personal and Professional
Development for Artists with Developmental Disabilities
About ArtReach Studios
The Arc of San Francisco opened ArtReach Studios in Pacifica,
California in February 2004 to provide an art institute
experience for 16 adult artists with developmental disabilities
living in San Mateo County. ArtReach clients, or students, are
assisted to identify and pursue academic majors and minors, to
create personal portfolios and websites, and to exhibit their
work for sale in public venues.
ArtReach is not an art therapy program; it is an arts academy
that teaches art history and theory in addition to practice and
technique in drawing, painting, photography, printmaking,
ceramics, sculpture, website design, film and videomaking,
theatre, dance, music theory and composition, writing fiction,
plays and poetry, and more. ArtReach students, like all serious
artists, research various movements throughout history to be
able to identify important painters and styles of painting,
poems and poets, photographers, sculptors, architects, film
genres, directors, and so forth in order to inform their own
artistic endeavors and personal development. In this regard,
ArtReach Studios stands out among art programs for people with
developmental disabilities.
A Typical Day at ArtReach
ArtReach is open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through
Friday. Classes are taught three mornings a week by ArtReach
Instructors and by guest artist lecturers. Afternoons at
ArtReach, students work on their own personal projects and
research while receiving individualized guidance, and discuss
marketing plans for the exhibition and sale of their work. A
regular feature of all lessons is facilitated peer critique, in
which students are encouraged to speak about their own
creations, as well as to exchange ideas with their fellow
artists about their unique inspirations and visions, and the
expressive process.
Learning About the Arts in the Community
More than half the time in ArtReach, students learn about art by
traveling around the Bay Area exploring museums such as the
DeYoung, Legion of Honor, SF MoMA, Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts, Fort Mason, San Jose Museum of Art, UC
Berkeley Art Museum, and the Stanford Museum of Art, and touring
private artists’ studios and workshops, performance spaces, and
galleries.
ArtReach Instructors also teach students how to find out about
and attend events and performances on their own or with friends
and family in the evenings and on weekends.
Proud to Call Pacifica Home
ArtReach Studios has been featured in articles in The Pacifica
Tribune, and our students are regular visitors to the Pacifica
Public Library right next door and the Sanchez Art Center and
San Pedro Valley State Park just around the corner. Call (650)
355-5258 today to visit or volunteer! |
