'Art for the Arc' helps adults learn life lessons

Featured on kvue.com

The Arc of the Capital Area offers innovative programs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and one of those programs is bringing some color into their lives and helping them find their dreams of independence.

With the greatest of care, 33-year-old Mary Elizabeth put the finishing touches on her newest creation.

"I like mice and elephants and tightrope walkers and clowns. Because that's what you usually find in the circus," she said. "This is a really cool piece, because I started it from a movie I really like."

Mary Elizabeth is taking art lessons at the Arc of the Capitol Area. Her future is a canvas waiting to be covered with the vivid shades of success.

"Art is like freedom," Mary Elizabeth said. "To expand my horizons."

It's a lesson shared by the dozens of intellectually and developmentally challenged students in The Arc of the Arts Studio.

The program pairs these budding artists with volunteer artists from the community, like Andrew Grimes, who teaches them to work in different mediums, including claymation and to professionally show and sell what they make.

"Through the classes, we really find this hidden talent that they have," Grimes said. "A lot of our students are selling more art than the instructors are. All of a sudden, they have an identity they can share with everybody else."

While learning to express themselves visually, art shows help the students learn skills such as socializing, and money management.

"It's a wonderful way to see what these individuals can accomplish given the right circumstances and training and care," said Leslie Archambault, the Arc's marketing director.

And once her paintings sell, Mary Elizabeth and students like her will be proud to call themselves professional artists.

"It's like a job to me," she said.

Students will be selling their artwork Thursday at the Arc of the Capital Area headquarters. They're calling it the Greatest Art Show on Earth.

Click here to watch the video.