Open House at Biggby Coffee

Biggby Coffee held an open house for the Urban Art students last week. Their pictures were displayed for a week where customers could vote for their favorite. The shop also donated $1.00 per drink over a 4 hour window. At the end of the week, the Urban Art students from City Mission were honored at an open house in the store. They were given a free drink and presented with awards. We had a great time and give a huge shout of thanks to Biggby!!

CMA Art Exhibit for Parents

This past Friday, City Mission Academy students displayed art work from school and Urban Arts after school programs. The parents were able to peruse the rooms and see the beautiful work the kids had done throughout the year. Way to go CMA kids!

2009 Summer Camp Support Letter

Dear Friend,
Last summer Urban Arts held three weeks of camp in Detroit for inner city kids. We worked with over 120 children and had wonderful camps! It went so well that our partnering ministries have invited us back, and we have added a new partner! Five weeks of camp are planned for the upcoming summer with City Mission, Central Detroit Christian and Highland Park Community Outreach.

Our goal is to expand the children’s exposure to the performing and visual arts through daily hands-on activities and Christ-centered teaching. This year’s theme is “Celebrate the Gift”. Children will experience the elements of visual art, music, drama and dance. Daily lunch and a snack will be provided. Each camp will end on Friday evening with a dinner and closing performance for friends and family.
This is a faith based ministry. Currently, we have very little funding. So, we are asking individuals, groups, and churches to prayerfully consider sponsoring one or more children for a week of camp. The total cost for a child to attend is $80.00. This amount covers all meals, art supplies, a camp t-shirt, and transportation. Checks may be made out to START Ministries, a Michigan 501-C3 non-profit organization. START (Short Term Ambassador Relief Teams) is graciously handling our funding for this summer with no administrative fee. Therefore, 100% of the money donated to Urban Arts will go toward these summer camps.

Also, enclosed is a list of supplies needed for the camps this summer. We are striving to complete this list from volunteered gift cards or contributions from friends and family. Please consider helping us in this area of need.
If you have any questions, feel free to call or email me.
Serving Him,

Katie Beth Hostetter
Urban Arts Director

“The children at City Mission have so much talent and potential. The Urban Arts program helps children identify and put into practice their talent and potential. We are glad to have such an outstanding partnership.” --Nicole Aikens, Co-Director of City Mission

ITEMS CAN BE PURCHASED WITH A GIFT CARD FROM THESE STORES:
Sam's Club, Wal-mart, Meijers, Costco, Speedway, BP, Mobile)
sandwich makings
snacks (goldfish, fruit snacks, ect.)
cookies
juice boxes (100)
Mini-DV taps for video camera (30)
colored gaffer tape
100 brown paper lunch sacks
zip lock sandwich bags
3 CD players
300 CD-R disks
gift card for gas stations (Speedway, Meijers, BP, etc)

How I laugh

As we were finishing up our latest art project, Angel, one of my students, needed to fix her painting. She had done a wash with three colors and didn't like the way it turned out so she came back up for more paint. As she was moving the brush across some blue paint landed on the butterfly she had drawn. One of my workers who was helping Angel said, "Oh he's ok!" and Angel turned to him with her big, serious, brown eyes and said, "That ain't a he it's a she! And now she's blue! That ain't right!" Oh how serious she was. It took all my strength to simply smile and not laugh out loud at her cuteness as I overheard the conversation.

U Serious? PINK chocolate?

Easter has come and gone and I have been a terrible blogger since then. My apologies. Urban Arts has kept me busy busy busy! But here is a cute story from one of the boys we work with.

For our Thursday night class the week before Easter, instead of holding the drama and art classes we normally have, we decided to bring all 35 kids together and teach them how to make molded Easter chocolates. We had everything set out on long tables and two ladies were in charge of melting the chocolate down. I thought it would be neat to have different colors of chocolate..green, yellow, blue, purple, pink..all pastels for Easter. As the kids came up with their mentors, one boy, Larry, said ' What that?' as he pointed to the colored chocolate. I said, 'What the chocolate?' He said, 'yea'. I said 'It's chocolate but a different color so you can have Easter colors for your mold.' He said 'I don't eat no pink chocolate'. I laughed as he went for the milk chocolate and made his little Easter bunnies and crosses.

This was the very first time for all of the kids to make chocolates. They had a great time and it was nice to be able to be in a relaxed environment with them!

And the Angels are Singing

St. Patrick's day is now a day I will never forget. Not because of the brilliant greens or the crazy hats people wear, but because it's the day that Taugh asked Jesus into his heart.

The kids sat down at their tables that were prepared for the third art project of Urban Arts Class. Since it was St. Patty's day we brought green bug juice and chips. and as the kids snacked my mom began to tell the true story of Saint Patrick. The kids were listening intently. Now if you know my mom, you know that she is able to weave the salvation message of Christ into almost any story. This story was no different. As she neared the end, she asked if anyone had never asked Jesus into their heart. Taugh raised his hand. He came up in front of the class and prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior. It was a beautiful moment.

Even boys like valentines:)

Red soda with ice cream, pepperoni and cheese pizza, heart balloons, cute napkins and a really cool valentine card was what made up the party that we threw for City Mission urban art kids on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun! We didn't tell the kids in advance, but surprised them with all of this and they were just grinning from ear to ear. Of course, we had art to work on, but after all that sugar it was pretty interesting to get see them try to stay focused on the project at hand. (that's why the typical snack is HEALTHY!) But they did pretty well working on their "dot art". It's really coming along! I can't wait for the final project. After we had cleaned up, I handed out my valentine cards to the kids. The boys got really cool cards that turned into a b-ball court and b-ball. Guess who ended up putting them together:) Yep! I helped them out and we had a fun game of basketball!

Summer in February

Here's a quick update on what Urban Arts is looking like for this summer. We are again, partnering with City Mission and Central Detroit Christian for 2 weeks each. Both organizations will be able to offer a week of elementary day camp as well as a week of middle and high school day camp. An additional week is pending with a ministry in Highland Park, MI. (just on the outskirts of Detroit)

It's crazy to look out my window at piles of snow and ice cycles as far as you can possibly see, but it takes so much preparation to get commitments from volunteers, line up people to help prep for the crafts, create a program, and find the funding among many other things! I'm really excited about the 2009 camps! I have the theme, but I'm going to keep that a secret for a little while longer:) You'll just have to check back!

Keep us in your prayers! Grant proposals are being mailed over the next few months!

Early Art Forms Emerge Again

Two Urban Art tracks are offered to the 6-12 graders at City Mission this semester. One track is visual arts and the other is drama. Did you know that the art form of block printing started in 200 AD! Well, we are taking it to the next level here in 2009! Students are going to design and create their own stationary with original block printing. I'm thrilled to have my mom teaching this art form! In the drama track we are going to explore something that was created a little closer to the present day...like 1845...well, it's better than 200! We are digging into monologues. Dramatic and comedic. I'm looking forward to teaching my group how to explore their character and engage the audience!

Second Semester in Full Swing

Urban Arts is back from Christmas break! I have the same group of kids at City Mission but this semester we are focusing on visual arts! They are learning so many cool things. The theme for Central Detroit Christian Urban Arts this semester is "Crazy for Christ". We will be focusing on drama, music and dance with the kids. They are going to help write an original drama script for the performance in May! Enjoy the pictures of the City Mission kids working on their art projects.

The Littlest Star in Brightmoor

My Tuesday afternoon class of Urban Art students at City Mission not only performed at Kensington but they performed for the tutoring classes at their Christmas party. They performed The Littlest Star. We had a ton of fun and the kids did a great job reading their parts!

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Tonight was the City Mission Urban Arts performance at Kensington with the New Community Kids. It went really well and my kids were on their best behavior! I am so proud of them:) Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Rehearsal Rehearsal

Have you ever needed to be in two places at once before? Well, we all know that it's really not possible but if there was a night I could have picked to be in two places at once, it was tonight. My City Mission kids had their dress rehearsal for the performance at Kensington Church and my Central Detroit Christian kids had their dress rehearsal for their performance the following week. I ended up at CDC. We had a lot of work to do, but the volunteer teachers were amazing and helped me out soo much! After a very long rehearsal, I think we are ready for the performance next week!

God Works in Monetary Ways

I have to wonder what other people are thinking when they see a person listening on their cell phone and the individual gets a HUGE smile on their face. I would probably get happy and smile right along with them! Well, I was that individual that people were probably staring at today. As I was listening to my voicemail, the message that was left said that a family from New Community Kids is donating $200 to cover the expenses of purchasing new dresses, pants, and dress shoes for our Urban Art kids to perform in the Christmas performance in December. What an AWESOME blessing! I wasn't sure how we were going to get the outfits, but I knew the kids would end up wearing something. Now, these girls and boys have a brand new Christmas outfit that THEY OWN! Don't worry, pictures will be posted as soon as we get them:) And THANK YOU to whoever the family is who is so generous by giving the money!

What We Take for Granted

How many of you guys out there own a white button down shirt? a pair of black pants? a pair of dress shoes? I would guess that most of you would have this in your wardrobe, even if you don't wear it all the time. And ladies, what about a nice "Sunday" dress, dress shoes, a pair of tan pants?

This past week, I was working with my elementary kids at City Mission and they wanted to know what the costumes were for our performance in December. Since we are partnering with KCC, we are matching their costumes. It's pretty basic: girls wear pretty party dresses, boys wear white shirts and black pants for the first set. The costumes for the second set are tan pants and a solid color shirt. As I explained the two different costumes, I began to see some worried faces and a few hands began to raise. I knew then, it wasn't going to be as simple as opening up the closet door and pulling out one pair of many tan colored pants. These kids don't have that luxury. Once again, my heart broke for these children. But, they will not go without this Christmas performance if I can help it! Thrift stores here I come!:) If any of you would like to help out by letting a child borrow a piece of clothing or buy them a new item for this performance it would be the best Christmas present they could get!

The Grinch

Last night I held auditions for the Grinch play at City Mission. This is the program that the junior and senior high students will be performing at Christmas. We only have 3 rehearsals but I have a feeling it's going to be a smashing success...as long as the kids are quiet long enough to hear the instruction..(that would be a prayer request:)

Do we have to add the little kids?

Since we only had 9 kids at City Mission's Urban Arts last week, I felt the led to open it up to the third grade class for the fall. When the six kids walked into the class, the first question from a fourth grader was, "Do we have to add the little kids?". Of course, I was smiling inwardly, but I had to keep a straight face as I explained that we did "have to add them" and said how it would be even more fun with them! After we began playing our first drama game, I think all 15 kids were happy to be together.

We handed out the practice CD's for the kids to begin listening to and learning the music for the Christmas program. I was actually a few CD's short and felt awful, but promised the kids they would get them next week. They were very understanding. One little girl came up to me after class and asked what she should do if she didn't have a CD player at home. I wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not, but I believe she is and it broke my heart. I'm going to confirm with her teacher at school and see if I can get her a cd player.

Meet & Greet for Urban Arts @ City Mission

This past Thursday was the first night of the mentoring/urban arts program at City Mission for the junior and senior high students in the Brightmoor neighborhood. There are 35 kids signed up for the program. I've been working with the director of the mentoring program to smooth out a schedule for all these kids since I am the only one teaching on this night. The way that everything falls for this term it looks like we will have 5 non-consecutive weeks to provide the program and then have a performance in December. With God all things are possible, right!:) Technically, i'm not starting until Oct. 23, so i'm still working on choosing the content that will work the best for this schedule. It's not been easy, so i'd love your prayers! Also, please pray that each of the kids in this program would have the desire to be there and have a good attitude shown through action and word. It makes a world of difference to the atmosphere of the class!

Opening Day for Urban Arts After School

Yesterday was the kick off for the after school programs with Urban Arts. I did double duty in the city starting with the program at City Mission in the afternoon and then jogging over to central Detroit to teach at CDC. Both programs ran pretty smoothly. My friend, Laura, who is helping me on Tuesdays did a great job team teaching with me!

At City Mission, we are working with the 4-6 graders at the academy. It's a small group of kids, but they are wonderful! We are focusing on drama and vocal music this fall. A good friend of mine directs a children's program called New Community Kids at Kensington Community Church. We have decided to partner with them and give the City Mission kids a chance to experience a performance on a "real" stage with the kids from NCK. I think this is going to be such a great experience for them!

Central Detroit Christian has us working with kindergarten through 6th grade. We have a lot of kid! Two grades rotate at a time to us for a 30 minute period. The other two segments they get are Bible and Academics. It's really a neat way to provide all three elements for the kids. The only downfall is the 30 minutes feels like about 10 after we start working with them. I know I am going to be asking the Lord to multiply my time!

In both programs we are focusing on our Christmas performance at the beginning of December. City Mission is learning a Christmas medley that will tie in with the kids at KCC and then will be working on another Christmas song and short drama for their local performance. Central Detroit Christian kids are working on a 5 song Christmas medley with choreography and props. Both are going to be pretty cute!

Phase 2

Today I'm headed to a City Mission program meeting to propose my Urban Art after school program for this fall. After a successful summer camp program, I'm excited that they are interested in us continuing the program. There's a lot of work to be done, but please continue to pray for this whole adventure as I am learning what it means to daily walk by faith.