Art For Transformation

A young girl holds her newly-created masterpiece with pride.

Two days in the making, she has worked hard on this self-portrait, coloring it with chalk and carefully laying out the background colors. So why now was she being told to cover all of her hard work with black paint?

This lesson in conflict illustrated how sin affects our creation to participants of a youth camp in Guatemala hosted by Athentikos—an organization that Christian Reformed World Missions partners with through missionary Joel Van Dyke. These camps are known as I am Art.

At I am Art camps, artists from both Guatemala and North America led the children in creating personal works of art, like the self-portrait that the young girl created. Campers also took part in dance, photography, and other forms of art.

On the third day of the camp, leaders asked the children to “destroy” their artwork. They cut up their mosaics and covered up their paintings and sculptures with black.

“We knew that many of these children have experienced horrible conflict,” said Scott Moore, founder of Athentikos. “We wanted to explore conflict in a safe way. It was tough . . . but that is where transformation began.”

Although it was difficult, the children followed the instructions to alter their creations, some crying as they did so. They connected this symbolic conflict to their own personal stories. Several of the children shared experiences of abuse and poverty and they took comfort in being heard.

But the darkness did not last forever.

The next day, the children explored God’s story of redemption. The black paint on the self-portraits was scraped off and the paintings were colored in even brighter colors than before. The children connected their art’s positive transformation to their own story, too.

“It was an incredible week for the 125-plus children who participated in the camp,” said Joel Van Dyke. “It was a thrill to see the excitement and enthusiasm of families as they came out on the closing day to view an exhibition of the children's newly-created artwork.”

Athentikos will host three more art camps in 2015 with hopes of including at least 500 children. Pray that the results of the art camps will make a positive impact on the communities of Guatemala.