the Drift - a blog about Snow City Arts

“Wow. I. Am. Awesome!" Darius posing for his self-portrait. This was 18 year old Darius' response as the frame was peeled back from the white t-shirt, revealing the silk screen print he had just made. The image, a detailed silhouette of himself that he had composed and printed in black ink onto a fresh t-shirt, led teaching artist Jon Stein to question if he meant the awesomeness of the print, his artistic abilities, or just himself in general. [...]

As a part of our yearlong 20th Anniversary celebration, Snow City Arts has had the opportunity to reconnect with many former students. Earlier this Spring, at our Visual Arts Exhibition, Allie Spicer, one of our Visual Arts Teaching Artists, met up with Tamara, who created a painting more than 10 years ago when she was just six years old. Now an accomplished writer and visual artist, we wanted to know more about Tamara today and what she remembers from her [...]

In the summer of 1998, Miguel was just 12 years old. As a patient in the pediatric dialysis unit, he found the long hours of sitting and getting treatment to be lonely and boring. One day, teaching artist and Snow City Arts' founder Paul Sznewajs walked into the unit and introduced himself as someone working with kids in the hospital. He engaged with Miguel in a variety of ways, but quickly realized Miguel had a natural talent for drawing. Most [...]

Savannah is 10 years old, and although she's spent time in more than 20 workshops with Snow City Arts' teaching artists, we found her to be an already talented artist. Painting has always come naturally to her, and she particularly likes creating abstract works. Attending to this interest in abstraction, she was recently introduced to the techniques of Jackson Pollock, and she experimented with different methods of applying and working with paint. "I like making paintings like that, because it [...]

It was nearly a decade ago when Frankie first became a student with Snow City Arts. Since then, he’s worked with our teaching artists to write poems, make films, paint paintings, perform music, take photos and more. Much more. All told, Frankie has created more than 40 different works of art with SCA while attending more than 250 workshops while in the hospital. Frankie, age 14, Fruit Groops Today, Frankie is 21 years old and still working with [...]

For most of us, a lifetime of going to the hospital every three weeks would be an emotionally daunting task. Yet that’s the reality of students like Ajianette, who has been coming to the hospital for regular treatments for 12 of her 13 years. Ajianette, age 10, Chicago LOVE Nearly eight years ago, Jia, as everyone calls her, started working with Snow City Arts. Over the years she’s worked with a dozen of our teaching artists, participated in [...]