Bringing art to youth via bus

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At an April 9 auction, Mary Carroll, Dominique Pierre-Toussaint and Tracie Nelson Stanton kept their eyes peeled for a bus “with good bones.”

“We didn’t care if the bus had a few bumps and bruises,” Carroll said.

They lucked out with an old Metro Transit bus that was used to carry people to and from the “dales,” like the Southdale shopping mall. It’s still in good shape, she said.

The trio is turning the bus into a solar-powered mobile art studio that will bring art to underserved youth all over the metro area. To make it happen, they’ve formed a nonprofit organization, Art ASAP, for which the acronym stands for After School Arts Programming, according to Carroll.

“Art ASAP” conveys a sense of urgency about exposing kids to art, she said. “Our goal is to bridge the gap in art education opportunities,” which can help students succeed in many other activities, as well, she said.

The group plans to launch an eight-week artmaking program on the bus called “The Bus Stops Here” in the Hopkins area next month. Soon the bus will be fitted with several types of workstations, with benches and easels and portfolio storage, she said.

Free classes will be geared for children in grades 4 to 8. “A lot of kids get in trouble around that time and they’re really creative. They crave self-expression,” she said.

Later on, the group plans to roll out the program in other parts of town. “The hope is that young people exposed to poverty, violence or addiction will find an outlet in creative and constructive ways through the art-making process,” Art ASAP materials state.

At the end of the course, young artists will have a professional portfolio; they’ll also exhibit their work, which “instills pride and it shows the importance of it to the community,” Carroll said.

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