In 2013 and 2014, I lived in Dominica, West Indies, accompanying my husband on his path to becoming a physician. In my time abroad, I took advantage of opportunities provide accessibility to the arts through volunteering. As a board member for the annual RUSM Arts & Crafts Expo, I organized and managed a school-wide creativity program for the local preparatory school. After realizing my limited materials, I made up projects that gave kids their own voice and voiced the visuals of the island. I strove to match ages and capabilities to each project. The children found immense pride in having their work exhibited and sold alongside the work of established artists and craftsman at the Expo. 

In the 15 min. between school ending and the start of our Arts & Crafts making I was informed that I was unable to use the classrooms for seprate art making stations. What an opportunity for creative problem solving! What space can we use? We cleared aside the bulky desks and chairs in the multipurpose room (the desks and chairs in there place there is only room for 15 students to work and we were expecting at least 35 kids). How can we divide the space? color butchered paper! And there we had it, students were not used to working on the floor, but they did not seem to notice. It went like this:

It is especially important for the children to notice the transformation of their work from the drying station to the selling table. I created exhibiting stands from recycled cardboard to elevate the work.

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