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Purpose:
A month long celebration for charities and all they do for us.
"Art For Charity Month" (AFCM) is the brain child of artist David F. Heatwole. It is our intent to help make AFCM a reality. AFCM is intended to be an annual, month long, nationally recognized, event where the arts will come together to support America's not-for-profits that are dedicated to the health and well being of the less fortunate and most vulnerable while also supporting the world we live in. AFCM will not be set to a specific designated month but will be flexible in order to occasionally reflect various seasons, already established celebrations or just to be inspired by various times of the year. All the while employing and advancing the arts.
Attention: Gallery partners for the 2017 Art for Charity Month Art Auction
Interested Art Gallery supporter, thank you for visiting, and for considering to support my Art For Charity Month vision. Below is where you can make your contribution. Thank you for your support! - David
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$100 contribution to Art For Charity Month
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$200 contribution to Art For Charity Month
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Note from David F. HeatwoleThe following letter was started on the last day of 2016 and ended on Inauguration Day 2017 which interestingly enough according to OxfordDictionaries dot com (the first one that popped up on a google search means "the beginning or introduction of a system, policy, or period."
I am writing this letter on the last day of 2016. It is currently 11:07 PM and my wife and I just finished watching the recent box office hit movie Martian with Matt Damon and an all star cast. I think this movie is an appropriate movie to leave 2016 with as I am about to embark on one aspect of my mission to "Change the Way . . . ART Works!" For the past month of 2016, starting on Thanksgiving break I have spent much of my waking hours, when not home schooling and spending time with family, researching great charitable organizations that serve others in our wonderful country. I have gone state by state in alphabetical order starting with Alabama, home to a museum to Rosa Parks and home of Martins Luther King Jr's church which was used in the struggle for equal rights then ending with the "Equality State" of Wyoming. I was in search of special organizations I wanted to recognize with what I am calling "Art For Charity Month" and to support their efforts with the sale of my art through a “third party” online fundraiser website. |
What I found when reading mission statements of literally hundreds of organizations is that there are a lot of thoughtful, caring and concerned individuals willing to give of their time, talent and treasures for the benefit of others, mostly perfect strangers. I also discovered, of course that there are a lot of people in need nationally, but ultimately if they have hope there is support for them. I read so many testimonials from volunteers as well as past clients of the good efforts from so many of these organizations. Sadly, I also read many critical testimonials of many organizations. I know from personal experience how challenging it is to run a not for profit. The mission and vision may be very important and necessary, but sometimes all of that can be lost in the need to keep a board together and active or having to devote time and energy, and even money to fundraising.
I would quickly like to thank the websites www.greatnonprofits.org, and the online yellow pages that were instrumental in my search for these organizations. The first website service I mentioned was so helpful, not only because it provides important information about each organization, but also becuase it shows whether their not-for-profit status is in good standing or not. The creators of the site also allow registered members to provide their opinions of and experiences with these organizations. I must also thank many of the charities themselves for making sure to recognize their important Partners on their websites, many of which are charitable organizations themselves. Of course it is important to recognize the services, that almost all of us rely on, supplied so efficiently by Google, Yelp and Microsoft Edge for their search engine services.
When I started looking for the first recipients for this national Art for Charity fundraiser I only had one criteria - collaboration. I wanted to support organizations that were doing valuable work for other individuals in need but that also provide a variety of opportunities for volunteers from various walks of life. As I was reviewing charity after charity and honestly trying to bye-pass the big national organizations whose advertisements always appeared at the top of the YellowPages.com website, and at the top of all the Google searches, I noticed that while I was choosing a variety of organizations that were doing good, I was once again leaning toward supporting organizations that are dedicated to helping children of all ages. There are many organizations dedicated to serving the underpriviledged and less fortunate but not as many as I would have liked to have seen engaged in reaching the youth. We have all heard of the mentoring organization Big Brothers Big Sisters, the educational and services organization RESA that serves students nationally that need extra support and of course Head Start and Early Head Start that both help with early childhood education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services. But there aren't as many state by state grass roots organizations as I would have liked to have seen. I know that these national organizations see funding cuts from state and federal funding yet still need to continue their work supporting the youth and families in our communities. I encourage everyone to support them however and whenever you can, they need it.
For most of my life I have questioned how I might support important organizations using my art. I also thought about how the arts could do more to help the efforts of taking care of people. The idea of a national "Art for Charity Month" came to me in 1997 after taking a road trip with a friend around part of the country and coming back home with barely a dime to my name, a broken down vehicle, and no real home to go back to. Thanks to God, and the help of strangers I went from having nothing, but faith, to having so much more than I could ever have hoped for, an even stronger vision for the arts and how it could help others. Half a year later my Art for Charity Month idea was recognized by proclamations issued locally by nearly every city, town and unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia. It is my hope that this idea will one day be adopted nationally and appear on all the calendars as a month long celebration and active effort to support our service organizations.
One might be surprized that in my month long search for these 1st Art for Charity Month beneficiaries I did not choose too many 501(c)(3) organizations in the art field, being that I am an artist and an arts advocate. One reason is because most of the art organizations aren't very active in actively serving the less fortunate in ways that can help them by providing theraputic or healing activities. While I do believe arts organizations should be supported to make sure that the arts are available to the general public I currently am not focusing on them unless they are attempting to tackle humanitarian causes. One national organization that does deserve all of our respect and came immediately to mind when thinking of arts organizations that really are making a difference in the world is the Very Special Arts which was started along with Special Olympics by the Kennedys. As you may see in my list of charities there are only a couple very interesting organizations that are using the arts in a humanitarian and/or environmental charitable manner that I picked for this 1st year's Art for Charity Month support. One such organization called Art of the Nations is the only organization that I chose that provides services both nationally and internationally. They seem like an amazing organization started by one woman, a fellow artist who decided to do something wonderful with the arts and in the 24 years since she started the effort the organization officially founded in 2004 has given out over 1 million bags of art supplies to missionaries and organizations around the world allowing more than 60 million children to enjoy the power of making art.
I did find some smaller community organizations started by individuals who use their own particular interests to reach others. Using horses for therapy is one way that people are using their personal interest in horses to benefit others including disabled veterans, people with mental disabilities or behavior disorders. I found a very unique organization in Jacksonville Florida called Youth Vault Inc. that is dedicated to educating children who have been arrested in the topic of law, the organization is also dedicated to presenting criminal law to the youths in schools, churches and after-school programs. Another organization that really stood out to me was Cafe Reconcile based in New Orleans, Louisiana that is educating youth in reconciliation while also giving them real life experiences of working in and operating a restaurant.
For most of my life I have been a collector of one series of things or another, When I was a child I collected stamps, gum wrappers, tobacco tags, books by particular authors, and more. As an adult I started to take art collecting more seriously. The fun of finding pieces that fill in a black in a particular series of items is one reason for collecting. It isn't necessarily having the item that is exciting, often times it's just being able to fill in the missing piece much like filling in a blank spot in a half completed puzzle. About a quarter of the way through my search of organizations I have to admit I began having the same sort of excitement as collecting as I discovered a really unique charity. I was especially excited when a unique organization was discovered, but also very inspired. I found myself constantly saying to myself "Oh wow! I wish I could start one of these in my community."
Admitingly, I do have to share that I know there are a lot of other worthwhile causes and organizations working to support those causes. Because of my own lack of time and even lack of access to the internet over Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations I had to start my search with the largest cities of each state. So I know full well there are tons of other amazing groups out there doing great work for the benefit of others. You are all truly an inspiration and one day I hope to learn about your mission and vision and the work you are doing. Another aspect of this personal project was to find a commercial contemporary art gallery that I could partner with to help carry out this task. After all I only had one chance to raise as much money as possible for the chosen organizations with my art in this particular Art for Charity Month art auction.
Today, believe it or not, after working religiously on this list of charities and galleries, whenever I had an opportunity between homeschooling my two boys, I finally finished my list with Wyoming on today of all days, inauguration day 1/20/2017 and the 11th birthday of my youngest son.
I would quickly like to thank the websites www.greatnonprofits.org, and the online yellow pages that were instrumental in my search for these organizations. The first website service I mentioned was so helpful, not only because it provides important information about each organization, but also becuase it shows whether their not-for-profit status is in good standing or not. The creators of the site also allow registered members to provide their opinions of and experiences with these organizations. I must also thank many of the charities themselves for making sure to recognize their important Partners on their websites, many of which are charitable organizations themselves. Of course it is important to recognize the services, that almost all of us rely on, supplied so efficiently by Google, Yelp and Microsoft Edge for their search engine services.
When I started looking for the first recipients for this national Art for Charity fundraiser I only had one criteria - collaboration. I wanted to support organizations that were doing valuable work for other individuals in need but that also provide a variety of opportunities for volunteers from various walks of life. As I was reviewing charity after charity and honestly trying to bye-pass the big national organizations whose advertisements always appeared at the top of the YellowPages.com website, and at the top of all the Google searches, I noticed that while I was choosing a variety of organizations that were doing good, I was once again leaning toward supporting organizations that are dedicated to helping children of all ages. There are many organizations dedicated to serving the underpriviledged and less fortunate but not as many as I would have liked to have seen engaged in reaching the youth. We have all heard of the mentoring organization Big Brothers Big Sisters, the educational and services organization RESA that serves students nationally that need extra support and of course Head Start and Early Head Start that both help with early childhood education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services. But there aren't as many state by state grass roots organizations as I would have liked to have seen. I know that these national organizations see funding cuts from state and federal funding yet still need to continue their work supporting the youth and families in our communities. I encourage everyone to support them however and whenever you can, they need it.
For most of my life I have questioned how I might support important organizations using my art. I also thought about how the arts could do more to help the efforts of taking care of people. The idea of a national "Art for Charity Month" came to me in 1997 after taking a road trip with a friend around part of the country and coming back home with barely a dime to my name, a broken down vehicle, and no real home to go back to. Thanks to God, and the help of strangers I went from having nothing, but faith, to having so much more than I could ever have hoped for, an even stronger vision for the arts and how it could help others. Half a year later my Art for Charity Month idea was recognized by proclamations issued locally by nearly every city, town and unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia. It is my hope that this idea will one day be adopted nationally and appear on all the calendars as a month long celebration and active effort to support our service organizations.
One might be surprized that in my month long search for these 1st Art for Charity Month beneficiaries I did not choose too many 501(c)(3) organizations in the art field, being that I am an artist and an arts advocate. One reason is because most of the art organizations aren't very active in actively serving the less fortunate in ways that can help them by providing theraputic or healing activities. While I do believe arts organizations should be supported to make sure that the arts are available to the general public I currently am not focusing on them unless they are attempting to tackle humanitarian causes. One national organization that does deserve all of our respect and came immediately to mind when thinking of arts organizations that really are making a difference in the world is the Very Special Arts which was started along with Special Olympics by the Kennedys. As you may see in my list of charities there are only a couple very interesting organizations that are using the arts in a humanitarian and/or environmental charitable manner that I picked for this 1st year's Art for Charity Month support. One such organization called Art of the Nations is the only organization that I chose that provides services both nationally and internationally. They seem like an amazing organization started by one woman, a fellow artist who decided to do something wonderful with the arts and in the 24 years since she started the effort the organization officially founded in 2004 has given out over 1 million bags of art supplies to missionaries and organizations around the world allowing more than 60 million children to enjoy the power of making art.
I did find some smaller community organizations started by individuals who use their own particular interests to reach others. Using horses for therapy is one way that people are using their personal interest in horses to benefit others including disabled veterans, people with mental disabilities or behavior disorders. I found a very unique organization in Jacksonville Florida called Youth Vault Inc. that is dedicated to educating children who have been arrested in the topic of law, the organization is also dedicated to presenting criminal law to the youths in schools, churches and after-school programs. Another organization that really stood out to me was Cafe Reconcile based in New Orleans, Louisiana that is educating youth in reconciliation while also giving them real life experiences of working in and operating a restaurant.
For most of my life I have been a collector of one series of things or another, When I was a child I collected stamps, gum wrappers, tobacco tags, books by particular authors, and more. As an adult I started to take art collecting more seriously. The fun of finding pieces that fill in a black in a particular series of items is one reason for collecting. It isn't necessarily having the item that is exciting, often times it's just being able to fill in the missing piece much like filling in a blank spot in a half completed puzzle. About a quarter of the way through my search of organizations I have to admit I began having the same sort of excitement as collecting as I discovered a really unique charity. I was especially excited when a unique organization was discovered, but also very inspired. I found myself constantly saying to myself "Oh wow! I wish I could start one of these in my community."
Admitingly, I do have to share that I know there are a lot of other worthwhile causes and organizations working to support those causes. Because of my own lack of time and even lack of access to the internet over Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations I had to start my search with the largest cities of each state. So I know full well there are tons of other amazing groups out there doing great work for the benefit of others. You are all truly an inspiration and one day I hope to learn about your mission and vision and the work you are doing. Another aspect of this personal project was to find a commercial contemporary art gallery that I could partner with to help carry out this task. After all I only had one chance to raise as much money as possible for the chosen organizations with my art in this particular Art for Charity Month art auction.
Today, believe it or not, after working religiously on this list of charities and galleries, whenever I had an opportunity between homeschooling my two boys, I finally finished my list with Wyoming on today of all days, inauguration day 1/20/2017 and the 11th birthday of my youngest son.
