Award winning arts program taking expression of interest!

We are back!

JCI Eastern (aka Junior Chamber International) is proud to once again bring you the award-winning Art2Heart program. Six years in running and using arts as a way to engage participants, JCI Eastern's Art2Heart program is specifically designed to cater for primary school aged children (9-12 years old), who are currently experiencing social problems either at home or at school or who would benefit from building their self confidence. 

Children are encouraged to explore a wide range of media and learn art making skills that they may not acquire from their usual school classes. Through this program, children will meet and work together in a supportive and inspiring environment. With mentoring from established artists, children are encouraged to reflect and evaluate their experiences and gain confidence in their own artistic abilities.

The 2016 program will commence on 13 August 2016 and will run primarily in Nunawading over 5 consecutive Saturday mornings (10am -12pm) until 10 September 2016. Participation in this community program is free for qualified students.

To be considered in the 2016 program, please register your interest online here by 29 July 2016. Alternatively, you can contact JCI Eastern Art2Heart 2016 Coordinator Zach Chew on 0432 038 671. To request a program flyer, email us at jcieastern@gmail.com. 

Entering the world of dreams

We love our Art2Heart program, so it was sad to have to say good-bye to our wonderful youth participants on Saturday 29 August at the very last Art2Heart session for the year.

As usual, saying good-bye at JCI Eastern was not a dull event. In fact, we concluded this year's program by journey through the world of dreams, learning about the Aboriginal culture and playing didgeridoos with Didgeman, Stax.

Young participants also received a much deserved certificate, celebrating their courage to try new things during the program. Each of the participants also received a small gift from our friends at JCI Fujioka, Japan, who visited us a while ago. Some other highlights on the day include the amazing glass artwork from the previous workshop with Spirit of Glass and Jessie Bleakly, the 2015 Art2Heart Coordinator, showing the beautiful group felting piece that this year's youth participants collectively produced.

What a wonderful program Art2Heart is! We will see you again next year!

Telling stories through cartooning

According to Dave Gibb, an award winning cartoonist, from newspaper to movies, cartoons are everywhere and they tell stories. And what's more is that anyone can draw cartoons and anyone can tell their own stories. This was exactly what our Art2Heart participants experienced last Saturday when Dave led an entertaining session on cartooning.

Experiencing Glass Art

The wonderful Kirsten and Garey of Spirit of Glass have once again opened the eyes of our Art2Heart participants by taking us through the beautiful world of glass art.

Joining us on Saturday 15 August 2015 was our very special guest, JCI President Ismail Haznedar, who traveled from Istanbul, Turkey to support this year's Art2Heart program. We also had 4 JCI friends from JCI Fujioka, Japan with us on the day, who were eager to participate in the workshop.

With so much creativity flowing on the day, we cannot wait to see the final result of our artwork, which will be presented to the youth participants on Saturday 29 August.