ArtThread Partners

As part of our mission ArtThread shares its technology resources with other mission-based organizations, with healthcare facilities, and with businesses dedicated to supporting creative expression. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it us if you would like to partner with ArtThread and increase opportunities for creative expression in your organization.

We are privileged to be working with these institutional partners:

We are pleased to be working with Schott Communities, a wonderful non-profit organization founded in 1986 to address the needs of persons who are deaf or who are physically or intellectually challenged. Unique to Florida, Schott Communities develops residential housing for the deaf or disabled; designs programs to assist clients develop skills for independent living; offers clients counseling services and educational programs to promote self-sufficiency, and provides clients with social, recreational and spiritual opportunities to enhance their quality and enjoyment of life. This pARTnership with ArtThread features a gallery that is part of Schott’s Art Therapy program where individuals of all ages and abilities explore their own creative response to the challenges of living with a disability.  They paint with hands, feet, mouth or headgear – whatever means is available to them.  This program now offers the opportunity to unleash everyone's imagination and discover the world of computer art and graphic design.

The Early Learning Institute (ELI) is a private, nonprofit organization that provides and promotes developmental services, education and support to young children and their families. ELI serves children with developmental delays and/or disabilities, provides support for childcare providers serving developing children and children with special needs, and makes home visits to first time parents during the first year of their new baby's development. ArtThread’s pARTnership with ELI includes a comprehensive training program and gallery that enhances their Tech n’ Tots program. This technology focused support program is designed to expand and enhance a child’s access to play, communication and ultimately their social connections through the use of high tech and low tech resources. ArtThread faculty assists in exploring strategies that support emerging developmental skills through the use of augmentative devices, and assists the child’s efforts in their overall interactive play and academic and social experiences.

ArtThread is embarking on a pilot Colors of Care program with Superior Residences in Ft. Myers, Florida. This program will include training for their staff along with direct workshops and art-making sessions with residents of this memory care facility. ArtThread faculty will also work with the families of residents, showing them how to connect with the residents using the universal language of art - no matter where they are! The staff at Superior Residences will team up with ArtThread to provide outreach to the community as a way of both sharing creative experiences and providing respite to  community caregivers. Caring for the special needs of individuals with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease and other dementia related illnesses requires an extraordinary balance of professionalism and sensitivity. Superior Residences management philosophy promotes innovation and encourages creativity so everyone can "Live the moment...Love the moment."

ArtThread is proud to be working with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Clinical Art Therapy department. Art therapists were trained as part of the Work of Art program that ArtThread provided to Project 10: Transition Education Network. These art therapists, lead by Craig Seigel and Dr. Patricia Isis, have integrated the Work of Art program as an intervention within their art therapy program, and their students have become experts in using Splash!, ArtThread's online, no-fail, big-fun art-making tool. The work of these students was recently displayed at the Frost Museum in Miami as part of their "ARTWorks" exhibit. This fine art therapy program is one of the most comprehensive art therapy departments in the country and serves students participating in programs for emotional/behavioral disabilities (E/BD). The Individual Educational Plan (IEP) team determines the specialized instruction and related services needed for students with disabilities to access a free and appropriate education (FAPE).

The Shooting Beauty Project aims to inspire community involvement and encourage inclusion and diversity awareness through an outreach campaign focused around the film Shooting Beauty: Everyone Deserves a Shot-- the story of a fashion photographer whose life is transformed when she discovers true beauty at a day program for people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. The film is the centerpiece of an outreach campaign aimed at schools and communities around the U.S. and abroad.  As part of the campaign, the photography program created in the film has been recreated into workshops that empower others with the gift of art and photography as a new form of self-expression. This partnership with the ArtThread Foundation provides a photography showcase for the entire Shooting Beauty community, and an opportunity for an art to art conversation that cuts across cultural, language, geographical and physical barriers. 

ArtThread is pleased to be working with The Oliver Street School - part of the public school system in Newark, NJ.  The faculty at Oliver Street School envisions a community of learners inspired by the universal principle of scholarship.  At Oliver, students are grounded by a rich past and charged by the challenges that face the human condition in order to distinguish themselves as problem solvers for the global community. Teachers will be using the ArtThread Gallery in class with students as a way to inspire individual and team creativity, and as a way to foster connections both in and out of the school environment. This program is part of school's goal to prepare youngsters to engage in critical dialogue, achieve cultural competence, and advance technological innovation for the 21st century. 

ArtThread is proud to be working with Project 10: Transition Education Network.  Their mission is to assist Florida school districts and relevant stakeholders in building capacity to provide secondary transition services to students with disabilities in order to improve their academic success and post-school outcomes. ArtThread is partnering with Project 10 to provide the Work of Art Program, an innovative technology and training program that combines creative expression, social networking, 21^st Century skill-building, school-based enterprise, and self-determination for transition-aged students with disabilities. Work of Art fosters creative expression, teaches technology and graphics, builds community and connections, offers positive therapeutic activity to help counteract negative behavior, and leads to student empowerment and sense of accomplishment.

We are so proud to be partnering with the folks from Sustainable Cambodia.  They are a model organization, both for the vision to empower rural families in rebuilding their communities and for the incredible commitment by their onsite Cambodian staff to effect lasting, positive change. As a grass-roots 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Sustainable Cambodia uses a unique structure to ensure that 100% of funding goes directly into the community development and education programs. Programs assist the residents of rural Cambodian villages to create a sustainable quality of life through wells, irrigation systems, economic opportunities, schools, training and empowerment. The goal of this new partnership with ArtThread is to encourage students, teachers, sponsors, volunteers and supporters to connect though the ArtThread technology.

ArtThread and Shriners Hospital Tampa, Florida: This partnership brings the ArtThread Interactive Online Gallery to the kids at this Shriners Hospital. Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 pediatric hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico providing specialized care for orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate. The art made by Shriners kids in Tampa will be on display in a customized version of the Gallery, which will be seen on large format LCD screens throughout the hospital.

ArtThread and VSA arts of Florida: VSA arts of Florida is dedicated to creating a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts of Florida provides arts, education and cultural opportunities for and by individuals. VSA arts of Florida and ArtThread have created the Work of Art Program, a training program that helps artists with disabilities to navigate critical career pathways and provide technical and entrepreneurial skills. Many VSAFL artists have not had exposure to structured occupational training that provides alternative art-making skills (online and computer-based) and entrepreneurial self-reliance for the developing artist. The Work of Art Program provides a starting place -- a way for the artist to take specific incremental steps towards ameliorating the challenges caused by physical and fiscal logistics.

The Creative Center and the ArtThread Gallery: The Creative Center is a community of artists, cancer patients and survivors, trustees, donors, and friends who are dedicated to bringing creative arts to people living with cancer. Through offering free-of-charge workshops in their office and workshop space in New York City, and through a bedside art program in hospitals and hospices throughout the New York area, The Creative Center brings the world of art to more than 15,000 participants each year. This Interactive Gallery partnership with the ArtThread Foundation will allow the entire community to participate and share in the work of both professional and non-professional artists - offering proof of the depth and diversity of the individual artistic expression of cancer patients who are often viewed as representatives of their disease rather than unique individuals.

The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University: The ETC donated a team of digital artists and programmers to create the online art-making tool "Splash" for the ArtThread Interactive Online Gallery. The Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University is one of the world's leading institutions for training in interactive digital media. Students undergo a rigorous, project-based curriculum where they work in teams in highly creative environments. The ETC currently has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, and other operational campuses in Adelaide, Australia as well as Redwood City, California. The ETC offers the world's only master of entertainment technology (MET) degree, a unique program that combines fine arts with technology to enable students to learn the processes, resources and insight for storytelling and entertainment in a digital medium.

Electric Owl Studios: Born from the Carnegie Mellon ETC program, this Pittsburgh-based company is solely dedicated to developing unique and innovative entertainment for children. Electric Owl believes that each child has a natural creative instinct, and they have made it their job to tap into this and provide an outlet for that expression. The Studio's design team is responsible for the creation of "Splash," and continues to develop and support ArtThread's online artmaking technology.