The TAY Creativity Program focuses on empowering Transition Age participants to open their powers of perception to live with an increased awareness and aesthetic interaction with the world around them. We have writing exercises as well as visual art projects. Class discussions and projects are designed to open eyes, ears, hands, and hearts to the constantly flowing creativity of the earth and her children. Our concentration is on the experience of the creative process, not on the product. Each encounter teaches us something about ourselves, and about our materials.

Participants learn about poets, painters, and writers throughout history whose art and life can be an inspiration. We take field trips to museum exhibitions, and discuss the work we have seen over some yummy lunch or dinner after the museum.

In class, students explore materials such as paints, pencils, and paper. We use our materials, our writing, and our images to express life, sometimes in anger, sometimes in gratitude, and sometimes in celebration. At the end of class there is a time for sharing our work. We tape it onto the wall and have open discussion. Artists take questions that deepen the creative process by sharing techniques, used or talking about surprise events that happened on the page. In talking about their work, TAY artists can put words to their feelings, liberating themselves and strengthening their creativity for the future.

We see amazing growth in our students. Their self-confidence increases, and there is an energetic sense of anticipation as each class begins. Our TAY artists speak up at conferences, and they talk with others freely when their work is on exhibition. They are enthusiastic about sharing their work, and are supportive of each other.

We look forward to expanding our program to other parts of Alameda County. So far we have offered classes in Oakland and Berkeley. We are seeking funding to expand our program, so any interested underwriters are encouraged to call us at Health Through Art at the Health and Human Resource Center: 510- 549-5990.