How to use art to create positive change in a community

Ingredients:

Take an old Ford Taurus with no radio and no AC.

Add 2500 miles of open road.

Encourage children, adults and in some cases even animals to paint the car in order with their own unique style.

Begin Driving.  Get lost several times. Eventually end up at the Pacific Ocean.

Try to help save an open art studio.

That is pretty much what Sarah Raskey and two others did when they took off on a seven day, thirteen-city whirlwind tour from Chicago, Illinois to Laguna Beach, California a few weeks ago in order to help save an open art studio in Chicago called Art Works.

Check out this AMAZING video that Sarah made about Art Works.  

Along the way the trio raised $1300, had a run-in with a flying trash can, and even convinced a police officer who pulled them over for a painted tail-light to skip giving them a ticket and instead join the fun and paint their car.  Most importantly, they created tons of awareness for open art studios across the country as thousands of hands joined together to put their artistic print on the car in what became one giant community art project on wheels.

I had a chance to interview Sarah recently and learn a little bit about her journey.   Check out the interview below.

                   Sarah posing in front of the the 'hippy-art car."

Thanks for doing this interview. Tell us a little more about Art Works and why saving this studio is so important to you?

Art Works is an art studio that is free and open to everyone who would like to create art and music together, including people who are homeless and/or have a mental illness. As an art therapist I am well aware that sometimes when people are given labels such as "Schizophrenia" or "Bipolar" or any label that can have a negative association, it can injure a person's self esteem and create self stigmatization.  Sometimes such labels create misunderstandings between people or unfair judgment....so when we as people have the opportunity to establish our identity as an artist...we get to replace the old label with a new one that we are proud of and it give individuals a sense of belonging and heightened self worth.  That changes lives.  

Wow, that's inspiring. It sounds like an amazing place. So what's up with the art car?

When we found out Art Works was closing we knew we would not have much time to plan and needed to do something fast, unique, and an act that demonstrated a willingness to really put ourselves out there....way out there.  Ultimately, we wanted to do something kind of nuts that would bring attention to the issue and hopefully raise money.  Driving cross country and having people paint the car started off somewhat as a joke since we had so little time, but Jake Colton, friend and fellow therapist graciously offered up his car as he had intended to donate his car by the end of the year anyways. This project was out of my comfort zone as I tend to be really organized... and while I love spontaneity...even I realized this was pretty impulsive. But the people at the studio are so amazing and we really wanted to support them..and we felt that it was better to move forward on this project because even if we totally fell on our face at least we can say we did something to try to keep it open.  so as we talked about it more, it just started to make more sense and we decided to do it.

                   Kids are all about it!  Painting the car in Newport Beach, CA.

When you're driving cross-country in a painted car, do people give you strange looks?

Oh, absolutely.  People would shout out to us often, and even get out of their car to check it out if there was traffic...and we almost caused a few accidents.  It was definitely effective for giving us a reason to talk to the general public about a cause/organization that is still so new and so brilliant! 

                    The peanut gallery...check out the dancing sock monkeys video here

 
I always like to listen to music whenever I go on long road trip.  What kind of music were you guys jamming out to?

My sister and I are WAY into music, always have been...I actually get made fun of because my favorite part of road trips is getting together an amazing play list to listen to and then not talking to anyone for hours while just driving and listening!  I have always done that and it is one of my absolute favorite things to do!!! So when I found out that there was no cd player or ipod hook-up and it kind of sounded like we had a missing muffler. I thought I would have a complete meltdown..and I did..we ended up buying a battery-powered boombox at one of the first gas stations we could find...but the engine was so loud, it was difficult to hear any music.  So mostly we just videotaped each other and ended up with some pretty hilarious videos.

Editors note: check out their videos HERE. They really are hilarious.  I especially recommend the GJ swing video, the sock puppet video and the video about getting pulled over by a cop.

                    The best way to get out of a ticket: have the officer who pulled you over, join the project.                    

Okay, let's let get this straight. No CD player, no iPOD hookup and a missing muffler.  Ha! Sounds awesome.  Anything else interesting about the car?

Um....there was no AC either.  It got so hot at one point we had to pull over so my sister could um....well...get sick.  She is such a tough girl though, most people would have wanted to abort mission at that point, and all she wanted was a hair tie and another bottle of water! The car was pretty hard on us, but it had a ton determination...it definitely did not lack character and it really ended up being so reflective of the project.... riddled with imperfection but even more so with heart.

                     Jake fixes car troubles with a Mountain Dew from Taco Bell...

 
This all sounds like one helluva trip. What's the craziest thing that happened while on the road?

Hmm..where to start on that one! We got lost...A LOT....but that was almost an everyday occurrence....Probably the craziest thing that happened to us happened on our second day when we were headed towards Springfield, Illinois.  We were driving along when out of nowhere an industrial sized garbage can flew over a four-foot concrete median right at the car.  We couldn't swerve because there was too much traffic, so we just hit the gas and ran it over.  It ended up getting stuck, so we drove for a while dragging it along until we finally stopped to unhook it. When we got out of the car, it had completely melted to the underside of the car.

Old guy surfers are all about it!
 
Last question. You went to thirteen cities in seven days.  Did you have a favorite stop?

All the people we met along the way were so warm and genuine and the stops were so different it's hard to choose. Santa Fe was probably the edgiest more artistic crowd.  The crowd there was a real get in the dirt with you type crowd. It was pretty crazy.A few people fell off the car there for sure! Salt Lake City was really awesome as well.  One of the artists there, Zach Proctor got really involved and has had a continuing interest since the trip.   But honestly, all the people we met during this trip were so kind and receptive to the cause.  In terms of inspiring altruistic performance art it was an incredible experience and we just want to send out a big thanks to everyone we met..and also to out friends and family who supported us along the way.  I must have called my husband a thousand times to figure out where we were.  It went something like this... no hi how are you, just "Can you mapquest the middle of no where for me....yeah, actually we must be somewhere there was a large tumble weed and I think we saw a badger or something about 30 minutes ago...where is that at?  

Well, thank you very much for the interview, Sarah. You guys rock! If our readers want to help, is there anything they can do to get involved?

The most important thing is just to spread the word about the power of the arts and to encourage others to help support this particular studio.  A lot of the trip was about putting open art studios on people's radar screens so even hoping others feels inspired to start thinking about how to create open art studios in their own communities.  Open art studios benefit everybody!!!Art is a universal language that transcends socioeconomic class, gender, cultural differences, and welcomes diversity.  It points to our collective similarities as human beings and allows us to connect with one another on new levels.   There are no prerequisites for people to come.  These places are really amazing in cultivating compassion and breaking stereotypes.  Of course, we still need more money to save the studio, so if anyone would like to donate or has any good ideas about how we can keep the doors open, we'd love to hear from them.

                                                            Believe!!!!

If you have an idea for Sarah or would like to get involved, email her here: sarah@sarahraskey.com

To find out more about Sarah's trip across America, check out her website here