“ACTS: Not MINE; OURS” an art installation by Miss Jaime

This piece is a continuation of an installation I began in the fall of 2010. I spent that semester facilitating a drop-in studio art club for kids in the Westcore Neighborhood of Holland. I was finishing my college career; the culmination of my Art and Psychology degrees was weekly sharing space, meals, and conversation with a group of teens in the hopes that I might encourage and empower them. That semester taught me that I had more to learn than to teach, more to grow in than I had to offer, more to bear witness to than to say or suggest. That semester and those teens changed my life. Because of them, ACTS exists today. 

The materials used in this piece are almost entirely ‘left-overs’ and recycled materials. The paint was extra after the kids wrapped up their paintings each evening. The range of colors reflects the many projects they created this semester. There are bold and bright colors, moody hues, and every kind of blue. As I did in my first installation all those years ago, I again used cardboard as my canvas. This represents the daily choice to give my FIRST and BEST to the kids. Time, energy, and materials. I also like the idea of reimagining an item’s purpose. I hope that you might consider what in your life is so easily discarded and labeled as unwanted or unusable. 

A Mixed Media Installation

Cardboard / Acrylic Paint / Canvas / B&W Photography

5ft X 7ft

Why are we so quick to assign value to things and to people, to see them in a single light or with limited possibilities? 

What might happen if we gave them an opportunity to be helpful, powerful, OR meaningful? 

As I hung this collection, seeing it all together for the first time, I reflected on what others are too often concerned about. The lifespan of a thing. When it will be over, used up, no longer useful.

They ask what will happen to ACTS in the future? What happens when I am not doing this work every day? 

As if I AM ACTS. The truth is, I am just a person who loves God and loves people and said YES to a call. 

This right here is ACTS. This whole collective of children: Their Stories, Their Hopes, Their Gifts, The Community that exists because daily They Choose One Another. ACTS isn’t a place or a program. It isn’t MINE or because of Miss Jaime. These lives and faces and words… THIS IS ACTS. These kids are engaging in the ARTS. They have created authentic COMMUNITY and seek to share it. They are TEACHING me and all those around them every day. They are SERVING one another, their families, and all of you here tonight.