Int’l ARTreach

Katy resident and professional artist Vickie McMillan is in Africa this summer. She is photographing and painting the landscape, the animals, and the people.  She is also piloting a special ARTreach Project called HEART (Hope and Education through the Arts) this is a program designed to equip the local people with creative skills they can use to make a living for their family. 

McMillan is presently working with the owner of a local citrus farm managing a center that cares for over a hundred of the worker’s children. She is teaching art and is designing projects that the older children can make and then sell in town. She is also teaching watercolor workshops every Tuesday evening for adults the community.  With nine adults attending last week, and over twenty expected to attend next week.  Vickie has been helping the new artists organize an informal art show to provide an opportunity to learn to exhibit and sell their artwork professionally.
These are new opportunities for this poverty stricken community. Good things are happening” she reports, “The creative energy and art talk is stirring up the air, there is a sense of hope and enthusiasm circulating throughout the entire community.
 
Vickie does not take all the credit for the positive energy behind her HEART Project, which is being funded by donations to her church. She is in Africa and a distinct mission trip and her team has spoken in many schools and churches. Part of Vickie’s work is to paint, while the pastor speaks, and as a team, they are utilizing the universal language of art and music to share a message of hope and love.

Vickie is journaling her experiences and submitting updates each month to ARTreach. You can follow her adventure online at Houston Chronicle’s chron.com

ARTreach and the Institute of International Education hosted a delegation from Iraq, coming to Houston through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (http://exchanges.state.gov/education/ivp/) on, November 6th.  

Traveling under the program title “Performing Arts,” the delegation was composed of nine individuals, including several officials from the Ministry of Culture.  During their U.S. tour, these visitors were examining the role of performing arts in the community, including education and wider-audience promotion.  While in Houston, the delegation expressed an interest in learning more about the impact of the arts in the Juvenile Justice system and the work begin done through ARTreach, a small non profit from Katy, Texas focused on art education and outreach to neglected populations.

ARTreach introduced the delegation to the international dance companies URGEWORKS and Havikoro through a program designed for the youth at the Fort Bend County Juvenile Detention Center. This ARTreach program utilizes the talents of the dancers and the hip hop culture to motivate the youth to make better choices, avoid negative influences, seek positive people and remain true to their heart.   The testimony of the dancers adds impact to the presentation.   ARTreach is a 501 c3 non profit organization that fundraises to bring the arts to troubled youth and children at risk in Katy, Houston and Fort Bend County. The organization utilizes the arts in the juvenile justice system as a way teach troubled youth constructive, productive and creative ways to express themselves through dance, music, graphic design, spoken word, RAP and creative writing.  

The delegation from Iraq was impressed by the presentation, and ARTreach and the Fort Bend County juvenile probation department’s staff enjoyed an exchange of ideas concerning the arts and the positive impact the arts can have on society.  Several members of this delegation were also involved in a cultural program recently arranged by the organization American Voices that brought U.S. artists to perform in a number of concerts in Bagdad last February and in a summer Unity Academy in Erbil, N. Iraq.

More information about the Iraq project is available on line at http://www.americanvoices.org
ABC Nightly News Broadcast at:  http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3418287
Carole McCann on Houston’s Channel 2,

ARTreach director Vickie McMillan shares painting techniques with citizens in Uganda. Her program combines missions outreach with the arts. This was a unique ARTreach parternship with David Stockwell Evangelistic Association (DSEA). Vickie utilized the arts as way to translate and communicate new ideas to students in school communities in Kampala.

The DSEA team of five completed its mission campaign in Kampala, Uganda, July 10-July 26, 2007.  Working with local pastors and DSEA’s NEST Evangelist coordinator for Uganda, Apollo, the team had the privilege of preaching the Gospel to thousands of students in the Kampala area through DSEA’s School Assembly Program, David Stockwell Speaks Out. This was the first mission DSEA has hosted in Kampala, and the groundwork was also being laid for future ministry there. 

The team hosted an Evangelism Training Conference for about 300 local pastors, evangelists and Christian workers at Kisaasi Fire Centre Church.  A local Ugandan praise team led worship along with Amy Stockwell; messages by David Stockwell, Chad and Vickie McMillan and Sean Stockwell on Spiritual Warfare, Brokenness, A Passion For Souls, Creative Methods in Evangelism, Reaching Youth for Christ, and others encouraged attendees.   Visit www.davidstockwell.org to learn more.