Students from a Silvermine School of Art online workshop created Valentine’s Day cards to send to the staff at Norwalk Hospital this week. Instructor Karen Siegel assembled art kits for the students to use that included card stock, specialty papers, gold and silver pens, metallic hearts, and heart images. More than 100 hearts were delivered to the hospital.
"I was trying to think of a creative way to connect our students with the doctors and nurses at Norwalk Hospital,” said Siegel, “I saw Valentine's Day as the perfect opportunity to do this. I felt this would empower both the students and the Norwalk staff in an impactful way. Our goal was 100+ hearts to give!" In this Feb. 7 online workshop, Siegel taught her students about professional artists Jim Dine and Romero Britto, who both use hearts in their art, and encouraged them to be creative with the varied materials. She also invited members of the community to join in. After the work was completed, students brought their hearts—done as collages, drawings, and paintings—to Silvermine. Siegel exceeded her goal and sent 150 hearts to the hospital on Wednesday.
Silvermine’s mission is to cultivate growth through the arts, to be inclusive of all, and to serve as a community gathering place that deepens understanding and empathy through the transformative power of art.