The Arcade Blog Relaunch

It has been a while since we have posted anything new, and in honor of our ArtGroup Art Show coming up on Thursday, September 13th, we are re-launching our site! The ArtGroup show is to celebrate five years of ArtGroup at DASH, and is being put on with the help of the District Alliance for Safe Housing and Red Derby. Come out and see the our ArtGroup mural and the amazing artwork created by the children we work with this Thursday from 7 to 9 pm and hear more about our story!

Red Derby T-shirt Designs!

Please join us on Sunday November 23rd for another round of Derby T-shirts!  Come out and screenprint your own all while supporting art education in our neighborhood.  We'll be at the Derby all day, so stop by and say hey! Check out the designs below!

Art Group Thanksgiving!

 We were pretty impressed with how our collaborative cornucopia turned out!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Red Derby T-Shirt Day

Many of you have asked where to acquire a Red Derby T-shirt.  Well, here's your chance!  And it's a custom limited edition design.  We'll only be printing these on Sunday the 18th, so come by Derbs between 11 a.m. and Midnight to screenprint your own!

Mother's Day at DASH

Together with the kids, we hand dyed 75 scarves for the moms over at DASH.  It was such an easy, simple, kid-friendly process with really great results!  We used a Batik process which took about 3 weeks for us to do.  First, we had the kids dye all of the scarves one solid color.  Then we used melted wax and various utensils to create the design.  We then had the kids re-dye the scarves and the parts that were covered in wax retained the original dye color.  We had so many colors, so the possibilities were endless.  I think the kids really enjoyed that part of it.  Here are some pictures of the finished results!

Get Lucid at The Dunes

Get Lucid, a group based out of Philly, organized a fundraiser for DASH at The Dunes.  Beth and I were there screenprinting our little hearts out! If you weren't there, you missed out! Hopefully this is the first of many events with these guys!  Bonus! Mari from DASH made an appearance!

DASH girls!

Ben Droz approves!

DASH Awards Luncheon

We were so honored to be given DASH's "Support Beam" award!

A little excerpt from our speech:

"Art education is important to the development of young peoples’ minds. It teaches creative problem-solving, builds confidence, hones fine motor skills, and is therapeutic. This subject is very dear to us because art was a large part of our childhoods, and we feel that every child should be able to have the same access.

We’ve been incredibly lucky to get to work at DASH every week. The staff has been so supportive in allowing us to have full creative freedom with our projects, even if we make a total mess. Which is very likely.

We have now been teaching Art Group with the children at DASH for a little over a year now, and we are constantly in awe of the incredible art work these kids create. They are in school all day, often with after-school activities, and somehow still arrive to Art Group at 6 pm full of enthusiasm and excitement for the week’s project. We’ve also been able to build close relationships with these children, and seeing them is not always just about making art, but the connection we have to them.

Art Group is just as exciting and experimental for us. We look forward to it just as much as they do. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit and color. Or paint. Or cut up bits of paper. It’s just as therapeutic for us. We are so fortunate to have made this connection with DASH, and are truly honored to receive this award."