The Burchfield Penney Art Center at SUNY Buffalo State in partnership with the Artists/Veterans Art Collaborative will offer a series of classes at The Center to Vets and their families to gather and explore how visual images can be used as a means of expression. Sessions run every third Thursday, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, October 15, 2015 through April 21, 2016.
The evening begins with a tour led by docent Gina Derrico in the galleries followed art making in the studio classroom. The program is free and open to all veterans.
The partnership offers military veterans a safe, productive, healthy environment at The Center where they can network and forge new friendships while working with artists creating original works of art. Workshops will be facilitated by artists and projects completed during the visit:
April 21, 2016 - Artist: Russell Ram – Collected Memories
Creating a paper collage using personal collage memories (Exhibition visited: Collected Memories)
About The Artists/Veterans Art Collaborative
More than half of the 2.6 million Americans dispatched to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan struggle with physical or mental health problems stemming from their service, feel disconnected from civilian life and believe the government is failing to meet the needs of this generation’s veterans, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Back in 2010 two neighborhood friends, artist Jackie Albarella and Iraq veteran Dan Frontera, decided to pay forward their personal experiences to help Vets cope with the tensions of coming home after deployment. With the help of Jim Becker, a Major in the US Army reserve and VA therapist, the Artists/Veterans Art Collaborative group was founded. The Collaborative’ s newly formed partnership with the Burchfield Penney served nearly 100 Vets and their families with a series of classes earlier this year.