According to K12 founder and executive director Jerri Stannard, “We created a space that is big enough to share with less fortunate folks, those who are incarcerated in some way and need the right artistic outlet to keep them out of the negative situation; and, we give them a chance to see great ideas coming together by their own hard work.”
One of the gallery’s ongoing outreach programs is HALLO (Helping Adolescents Achieve Longterm Objectives), in partnership with the Montgomery County Juvenile Courts. “About 20 kids from detention centers come in each week to do creative community service and develop life skills,” Sargeant said.
“They’ve created 15 large-scale murals that are on abandoned buildings, and their current one will go on an abandoned house in the alley in front of our building.
“Our 30/60/90 program is the same thing, but for adults. They just finished four murals that went on the outside of the Montgomery County Courts Building. They come once a week and help with building construction in the mornings, then paint in the afternoons.”
“The new space is 30,000 square feet larger than our last space,” Stannard says. “This allows us to expand outreach, and the flexibility of the space allows us to work with other organization for hosting events.
“The dedicated public art studio is fantastic for growing the HAALO program; we have an entire studio dedicated to making mosaic and painted murals for our community.”
A recent DP&L Foundation grant will allow K12 to hire 28 young people this summer, most from Mound Academy who have been in trouble, to be paid for construction work at the new facility and to create more community murals.
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