JUST US: annual art collaboration to develop social-emotional skills of local youth
This year’s curriculum engages middle-school students in art classes or after school programs to explore the concept of empathy.
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — UNCW’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and The Harrelson Center are once again collaborating on a program called JUST US that uses art to teach youth important social-emotional skills.
This year’s curriculum engages middle-school students in art classes or after school programs to explore the concept of empathy, then apply their new understanding to create quilt panels out of tissue paper.
The program culminates with Artist Maya Freelon gathering the quilts produced by each group and combining them into a community quilt, in a manner similar to the AIDS quilt.
Participating programs received their art supplies in March, will produce their quilt panels in April and deliver them to Ms. Freelon on April 30, who will combine them for a public debut and program on May 1, at 3:30 PM in the atrium of the Watson College of Education.
The program is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
The JUST US program began last year as a way to build resiliency skills among students during the pandemic.
The 2021 curriculum led students to understand how they manifest stress, how to practice resilience and how to use art as a way of expressing one’s feelings and telling stories.
The full list of schools, nonprofit organizations, after-school programs that are participating include:
- Girls Rocking In The South (GRITS) Theater for All/Transition Program for Young Adults
- Soaring As Eagles Communities In Schools
- Young Scientist Academy Voyage
- Coastal Buds GHA Autism Supports
- Cape Fear Latinos The Harrelson Center
- DC Virgo Preparatory Academy Myrtle Grove Middle School
- Emma B. Trask Middle School Snipes Academy of Arts and Design
- Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington Cape Fear Center for Inquiry
- Watson Student Leaders at Winter Park Elementary School
