By Brett Hetherington*

Wednesdays after school lets out Grandview United Methodist Church (Northern Waters District) has been creating space for elementary school students to explore their artistic side. Through a partnership with a local artist, On the Drying Rack has welcomed more students who are passionate about exploring art than anyone expected.

“Our club provides local youth with affordable access to an enriched afterschool program,” shared artist Stephanie Stewart who oversees On the Drying Rack. “We are so excited to build a creative community with Grandview UMC. I believe that art is a universal language that is nestled inside all of us simply because we are made in the image of God. As an artist it is my purpose to share my time, talent and treasure with others to cultivate the creative nature that might otherwise be suppressed.”

Stewart’s passion is evident in the way she interacts with students about art and life on Wednesday afternoons. She displays patience with frustrated artists whose vision is not materializing, brings calm to overenthusiastic students who just want to keep moving, and offers a strong guiding voice during times when the excitement overtakes the room.

She is joined in leading On the Drying Rack by Kyla Decatur and Randi Mull, who each oversee their own groups in separate rooms of the church building. Grandview UMC pastor the Rev. David Hull-Frye shared that they and the community played important roles in the church hosting On the Drying Rack.

“I got connected with Stephanie and Kyla through a community art committee we were both at and started looking at how the church could support art. Stephanie teaches art classes in Canton and other areas and wanted to bring one up this way and so we looked at how the church could host that,” Hull-Frye said.

The decision was a popular one! Organizers expected the program to initially attract about a dozen children, but after connecting with the Cuyahoga Falls City School District and school leaders asking permission to share information with, 27 students enrolled.

Because of the great response, Hull-Frye said, “we brought Randi onboard and now we have three teachers. I think we have the space here to do it, it’s just figuring out if we have enough people.”

There is already a waiting list for the spring session that starts in January.

On the Drying Rack students work in groups with students in their grade because they generally have the same skills and interests, but Decatur says they sometimes rotate the groups if the project would benefit from doing so.

“We try to focus on a master artist every week, so someone does something that is associated with that every week,” Stewart said. “We have studied contemporary artists such as Tim Burton, Renée Kurilla, and Henry Moore, as well as Fauvist movement artist Henri Matisse and Cubist artist Pablo Picasso.”

On the day I visited, students were studying Picasso and creating self-portraits.

“I’m all about getting people to see themselves in a different way,” said Mull.

Hull-Frye shared that the church has taken pride in the club, proudly displaying artwork from the young artists in the building so congregants can view them. The senior fellowship group that meets in the building twice monthly talks about the club with pride. And there are plans for the club to share the work of these young artists with the community of Cuyahoga Falls.

“Just this week we’ve been in contact with the Cuyahoga Falls library which is willing to host the students’ art and display art pieces in the new year. The Cuyahoga Falls school board is also willing to display their art for all to see,” said Hull-Frye, adding that details are still being worked out.

“The goal is to have kids get comfortable displaying their art, especially if this is something that they want to think about going into as a career,” he said.

One chance meeting led to an after-school art club that is not only allowing elementary students to thrive in their exploration of art, but ripples out into their families and their community, because a church was willing to open its doors to possibility.

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.