Salt Lake Trib Article: Art for Kids Sake Exhibit

Young artists on display in new exhibit

Young artists from Utah and Africa star in a new exhibit at the Sorenson Unity Center, which has struck up a partnership with a young nonprofit agency founded to empower community leaders through art, among other avenues.

Art for Kids Sake features community arts projects sponsored by Great West Institute, including murals created by students at Dilworth Elementary School and displays about a program in which youngsters created nature art for Tracy Aviary.

The exhibit also offers information about a project in which children from Kaberamaido, Uganda, created a mural on a local building with the help of Chris Peterson, a Sugar House artist who founded the Great West Institute.

Peterson said he visited Uganda as a part of his “day job” with the Trivani Foundation in Springville, a humanitarian organization that helps people in impoverished nations.

Peterson described the Ugandan project as “really inspiring” and is an example of how the imagination of children can fuel community activism.

“I’m impressed with the universal interest in children, recognizing that art is a really powerful tool for empowering kids to communicate what is in their imagination,” he said.

Community art, he added is “grass-roots driven so it doesn’t require a lot of top down resources and it’s more in tune with what the community is all about. By focusing on the children it bridges a lot of the divide in every community.”

Nichol Bourdeaux, director of the Sorenson Unity Center, said the partnership with Great West will launch a community garden at the center.

“Our plan is to start a community garden and outdoors space and one of the things we talked about was the youth getting involved with an art garden or sculpture to bring kids into nature,” she said. “This spring we will offer classes on setting up a mural about what outdoors or nature mean to them.”

Plans call for the mural to be unveiled for the center’s anniversary in May.