January 13, 2007, 9:23 pm

ART WITH HEART HISTORY

Art with Heart began in 1996 under the leadership of graphic designer, Steffanie Lorig, who served as a board member of the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). Lorig’s role as the Community Outreach Chairperson gave her the opportunity to connect AIGA’s membership of professional graphic designers with children in need in the Seattle area. She dubbed the effort, “Art with Heart,” and continued efforts under the wing of AIGA and published Oodles of Doodles for Your Noodle, a therapeutic activity book for hospitalized children whose original printing featured 97 different designers and illustrators from all over the world. In 2002, Art with Heart cordially spun off to became its own 501c3 nonprofit organization, which allowed it to make youth a priority both locally and nationally.

HIGHLIGHTS

2008

• Demand for Oodles grows and we do a 5th printing…which means we can help 10,000 more seriously ill children!
• Travel to Hollywood to do a hands-on Chill & Spill workshop with foster care youth at Casey Family Program’s “It’s My Life” Conference. Also invited to go to San Diego to present at the national Child Life Conference about sibling issues.
• Collaborated with 16 different child, grief and sibling experts to come up with the therapeutic activities for “Magnificent Marvelous Me!”, our newest offering for children dealing with a serious illness or disability in the family. Local printer, ColorGraphics, prints it pro bono to allow us to help 5,000 more children!
• Win another Sappi Ideas that Matter Grant for a new book that will help teens and tweens who are affected by illness.
• Oodles and Chill & Spill continue to break borders…helping kids in New Zealand and Johannesburg – as well as to South Africa to a Leadership Academy for Girls!
• Past Board President Bruce Tyler dies and his friends form the Bruce Tyler Youth Fund in his honor to help keep the Oodles of Doodles project alive and well.

2007

• The Self Portrait Workshops evolves to become Art Buddy, which, through training and its accompanying manual, empowers creatives from all over the country to work with youth in their own neighborhoods.
• Art with Heart adds our first Development Director to help us reach farther into the community
• Erin Gruwell from the Freedom Writer’s Foundation distributes Chill & Spill to teachers in her program, helping get books into the hands of at-risk youth across America.
• Art Buddy trainings begin, teaching creatives how to engage and empower youth in their own communities.
• Research for the Sibling Book Project begins.
• Art with Heart’s books continue to break down barriers, going to Chile, Guatamala, Costa Rica and Mexico.
• Art with Heart receives funding to begin outreach to Seattle’s foster care population.

2006

• Art with Heart’s tenth year anniversary!
• New, abbreviated version of Oodles published, thanks to donations from the Kirlin Foundation, the Phoebe Haas Charitable Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and ColorGraphics. This revision now matches the 48-page Spanish version.
• Art with Heart partners with Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center for a series of summer Chill & Spill workshops – the first testing ground for its effectiveness.
• Art with Heart moves out of founder’s basement into Rainier Valley’s 2100 Building which holds 13 other nonprofits that serve youth and families in crisis.
• Art with Heart writes and publishes a Therapist’s Companion to Chill & Spill to help school counselors and therapists utilize Chill & Spill as an outreach tool to improve the mental health of youth in their care.
• Our books begin to travel outside North America: Chill & Spill helps youth at a girl’s school in South Africa and Oodles lands at a pediatric hospital in London.
• Art with Heart begins offering Therapist’s Trainings to teach school counselors and others how to use Chill & Spill to effect positive change in student behavior.
• Art with Heart hosts its last auction…next year we are switching to a fundraising breakfast format to help ease the small staff’s workload.

2005

• A 48-page Spanish version of Oodles of Doodles is born and has the potential of helping 10,000 hospitalized Hispanic children.
• Thanks to a grant from the Seattle Foundation, Art with Heart hires first part time employee, Vita Weinstein.
• Starlight Starbright of Ontario purchases last 2,000 Oodles of Doodles books for hospitals they serve in Canada, depleting our storehouse. A search for funding begins in order meet demand for the reprint.
• Oodles of Doodles receives First Place in the Blair L. Sadler International Healing Arts Competition at the Society for Arts in HealthCare Conference.
• Thanks to Sappi’s “Ideas that Matter” grant and the Robert B. McMillen Foundation, as well as an in-kind donation from Hemlock Printers, Art with Heart publishes Chill & Spill to help survivors and witnesses of trauma.
• Hurricane Katrina strikes, killing at least 1,836 people and displacing tens of thousands of people.
• The Arts Council of Central Louisiana invites Art with Heart to Louisiana to help. Art with Heart donates Chill & Spill books to 1,500 high school students and works with youth in the shelters. Also trains school counselors from a 9-parish region on how to spot PTSD and how to use Chill & Spill to alleviate the symptoms.
• Volunteer Yoko Ott-Dayton spearheads the Teen Survival Backpack Project, which supplies homeless teens with tools for self-expression such as the Chill & Spill journal and art supplies, as well as supplies to stay warm in the winter (project ends 2007 after helping 100 homeless youth)

2004

• Due to overwhelming demand, work on a Spanish translation of Oodles begins.
• Family Circle Magazine writes an article about Oodles of Doodles, helping spread the word nationally about the project.
• Bumbershoot invites Art with Heart to have a booth in the Visual Arts arena, helping bring local visibility to our efforts. The art exhibit showcases the creative talent of at risk and seriously ill youth.
• Artist and author, Sabrina Ward Harrison, conducts special workshops with foster care youth of Treehouse and YMCA as well as speaks at our fundraiser.

2003

• Founder Steffanie Lorig quits her full time design job to concentrate efforts on taking Art with Heart to the next level.
• Art with Heart is awarded $45,000 from the “Ideas That Matter” grant given by Sappi Paper Corporation in order to reprint Oodles of Doodles books for a second time, helping another 10,000 hospitalized children. The money, coupled with donations from Vulcan and the Otto Haas Charitable Foundation, help fund the project.
• Art with Heart tests first rough iteration of Chill & Spill at a camp for children affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Art with Heart is invited as honored guest and speaker at the national Make-A-Wish Foundation’s annual Wish Expo.

2002

• Research and development for Oodles of Doodles continues.
• In-kind donations from 6 local printers and 7 different paper mills, as well as support from individual donors and foundations, allow Art with Heart to publish 10,000 Oodles of Doodles, which features 124 pages of therapeutic activites and 97 different illustrators from around the world. Distribution begins to hospitalized children through the Child Life Conference in Orlando, thanks to a partnership with Starlight Starbright.
• Art with Heart begins development on Chill & Spill, a therapeutic book for teens and ’tweens, partnering with YMCA’s Program Director, Jeanean Jacobs, who is an art therapist specializing in trauma in at-risk populations.
• After considerable deliberation, Art with Heart amicably spins off from parent (AIGA) to become a stand-alone 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. A new board of directors is formed with Bruce Tyler as President.

2000

• Team of seven volunteers joins founder Steffanie Lorig to do research with therapists, Child Life Specialists, etc. to make Oodles of Doodles a reality.
• Art with Heart receives a grant from the NEA for the InterGenerational Book Project

2001

• AIGA Seattle’s “Cutting Edge Fashion Show” benefits Art with Heart. Proceeds lay down the foundation to print Oodles of Doodles.
• Terrorist attacks in the U.S. prompts Art with Heart to begin research on creating a therapeutic book to help children affected by tragedies such as these.
• Volunteer Christi Williford spearheads the Project Peace Mail campaign that creates holiday greetings for victims of 9/11, imparting messages of hope and healing.

1999

• After hearing a story about a little girl with cancer, named Hallie, founder Steffanie Lorig has a dream about creating a book that would bring happiness and contentment to hospitalized children. Ideas for Oodles of Doodles start to percolate.

• Vice President, Laura Zeck, spearheads the InterGenerational Book Project which links together homeless children from First Place School with senior citizens to write and illustrate stories together in book form (held once a year through 2003).

1998

• Art with Heart’s first program, SoulFood, encourages creatives to step out of their studios to bring nutritious, gourmet meals to homeless teens at YouthCare’s Orion Center (held once a month, until 2005).
• Their second program, the Self Portrait Workshops, brings together Seattle designers and artists with homeless children. Initial community partners include First Place and YouthCare’s Orion Center. Through the years, Rotary Boys & Girls Club, Wallingford Boys & Girls Club, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s “Hutch School,” among others, are added to the list. Art with Heart hosts an average of 20 workshops per year until December 2006.

1997

• Art with Heart hosts their first Design Chat, entitled “Pro Bono…Without All the Hangups” to encourage designers to give back to their community using their time and design talent. From this event, a small, but dedicated committee begins meeting once a month.
• Art with Heart co-hosts a benefit auction to help pay for medical treatments for a local designer/illustrator’s child with a rare metabolic disorder, thus beginning their once-a-year fund-raising efforts.

1996

• Steffanie Lorig joins the Board of Directors of the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and chairs the Community Outreach Committee, which she dubs “Art with Heart.”