In an effort to help provide free art programs for local kids facing life’s adversities, the Point Loma-based nonprofit organization A Reason To Survive (ARTS) will host the fourth annual “ARTSea Caf\u00e9, POP!” on Saturday, May 17 at Pawka Green at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.
“It’s our annual gala “\u00a6 it’s our major fundraiser,” said ARTS development director Dana Nitti. “Our goal is to raise $100,000 for ARTS programs.”
Founded in 2001 by artist Matt D’Arrigo, ARTS annually serves more than 10,000 local children between the ages of 3 and 18, Nitti said. According to its Web site, www.art-survive.org, “ARTS is dedicated to healing, inspiring and empowering children facing life challenges by providing innovative arts-based programs, education and opportunities.”
Nitti said ARTS serves children and families facing a host of challenges, including life-threatening illnesses.
“It’s very wide, from physical, mental and emotional disabilities,” Nitti said. “We work with military families, pregnant teens, foster kids, kids with autism and homeless kids.”
Since its inception, more than 25,000 children in the San Diego area have benefited from the ARTS campaign and its signature outreach program, according to Nitti.
“We call it Expression Sessions,” she said. “That’s kind of our signature program. It started out as going to different places like Children’s Hospital [San Diego] and Ronald McDonald House and then we opened the Pat D’Arrigo ARTS Center in January of 2007″\u00a6”
Nitti said Expression Sessions typically include about 10 children who are guided by artists and volunteers in hour-and-a-half sessions.
As part of the program’s expansion, ARTS opened the Pat D’ Arrigo ARTS Center, 2820 Roosevelt Road, Suite 106, at NTC Promenade in Point Loma’s Liberty Station Loma last year. The facility offers in-house programs, workshops, trainings and day camps, Nitti said.
“It gave us the opportunity to provide a larger range of programs, and that includes music, media arts, photography [and] ceramics,” she said.
In celebration of pop-art culture, this year’s gala, held from 6 to 11 p.m., will feature dinner, a silent and live auction, live entertainment, dancing and a video created by ARTS kids.
Tickets are $150 each and can be purchased by calling (619) 297-2787, ext. 2004, or by visiting www.artsurvive.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an effort to help provide free art programs for local kids facing life’s adversities, the Point Loma-based nonprofit organization A Reason To Survive (ARTS) will host the fourth annual “ARTSea Caf\u00e9, POP!” on Saturday, May 17 at Pawka Green at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. “It’s our annual gala “\u00a6 it’s our […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"ARTS event to help kids express selves","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}