ARTspeaks is a community arts program unlike any other. More than 100+ artists have contributed work in the past to ARTspeaks, with the majority coming from outside the UUCF community.
Using art and community building as a tool for social change, ARTspeaks artists are encouraged to explore a relationship to social justice, ministry and spiritual realms.
Mission
- Discover and provide a space for art that expresses the challenging and present social issues that words cannot yet say.
- Educate how art can be foundational to deeper community building and spiritual practice.
- Support local artists and various local artistic communities especially those on the margins.
Past ARTspeaks Partnerships
- Ft. Belvoir in-patient unit.
- American Legion.
- Vienna Arts Society.
- Black Lives Matter artists from the city of Richmond.
- High schools from lower-income areas of Fairfax.
- Homeschool programs.
- The Art Connection, which facilitated the following additional partnerships: Borromeo Housing, Inc., empowering single mothers to create a self-sustaining future; Byte Back, which improves opportunities by providing computer training and career prep to underserved Washington, DC, metro-area residents; College Bound, which works to make college a reality by serving more than 200 students from 50 schools in the DC area with 100% of students in their programs accepted to college; Fairfax CASA, which advocates for abused and neglected children referred by the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court; Just Neighbors, which provides immigration legal services to low-income immigrants; Opportunities, Alternatives and Resources (OAR), which assists adults involved with the criminal justice system and their families.
- Empowered Women International in Washington, DC.
Interested in Helping?
Do you want to be part of an exciting process that may include day-to-day administrative operations? We need you! We need assistance with labeling artwork, procuring artists’ statements, receiving artwork and hanging artwork. We also need individuals who are able to support reaching out to social justice organizations and to support local causes. Contact Laura Weiss.