Artistree Outreach
Artistree’s Outreach Program brings the transformative power of the arts directly to those who need it most—children, seniors, rural residents, and underserved communities. Through customized, on-site visual art programming led by experienced instructors, we foster creativity, connection, and wellness in schools, senior centers, and nonprofit service locations across the Upper Valley. Help us keep these programs accessible and impactful for all.
Arts Outreach
The arts can be catalysts for wellness, growth, development, inspiration, and community connection. Artistree Community Arts Center, from the very beginning, has operated with a strategic vision for maintaining and expanding access to the arts in our community.
Many local families and individuals face challenges in accessing art due to a lack of transportation, financial limitations, and/or an absence of socially- or pedagogically-appropriate arts experiences. Artistree helps overcome these obstacles by engaging children and adults in off-campus programs at the locations where people live, work, learn, and socialize. Our arts programs take place in area schools, senior citizen services, and nonprofit centers that serve specific vulnerable populations.
Most of our outreach is delivered by experienced visual art instructor and Outreach Coordinator Finnie Trimpi. Finnie is a long-time resident of the Upper Valley who has taught art for decades both in and out of public schools and is trained in teaching creative aging activities. At all of our outreach locations, Finnie collaborates with site staff and participants in order to address the specific needs and interests of each group.
Our outreach program aims to inspire and create a positive change in the lives of our participants. We focus on six of the vulnerable populations that the U.S. Congress prioritized in the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999: low-income groups, women, children, populations with special healthcare needs (chronic illness, disabilities, and end of life care needs), the elderly, and rural communities.
Below we share two examples of Artistree’s outreach work. For further information about our outreach program, please contact Finnie Trimpi at outreach@artistreevt.org.
Please help Artistree keep our outreach programs low-cost and/or free to our neighbors. Your support helps bridge the gap between community need and arts services. Thank you!
Art Benefits the Aging
Our aging population today faces many challenges: less social contact, financial insecurity, mobility issues, and physical and mental health difficulties. Because the arts can bring mental, physical, and social benefits to this group, Artistree partners with assisted living/residential facilities and nonprofits working with senior citizens. The senior centers provide services such as transportation, meals, and activities to help area seniors age well in our community.
Artistree’s outreach fills a void in many area seniors’ lives. Finnie visits each location once a month, year-round. She provides one-hour visual arts and crafts experiences with a variety of goals in mind, free to participants.
At the senior centers, Artistree offers activities at an introductory level for attendees’ general interest and for hobby building. At assisted living facilities, however, some of our class participants are memory care patients, often due to stroke or neurologic disorders that affect eye-hand coordination. Finnie facilitates process-oriented activities that engage the mind and body and may focus on fine motor and dexterity skills.
By providing regular services directly where seniors are already spending their time, Artistree staff forge relationships with participants, facilitate social interaction, and support wellness through creative engagement.
Artistree in Schools
Arts education sparks creativity, builds confidence, and strengthens learning—but too often, it’s the first to be cut when schools face challenges. That’s why Artistree brings hands-on arts programs directly into schools, ensuring all students can access the arts and develop skills that enrich their learning and strengthen their communities.
The Wilder School in Hartford, VT is one of Artistree's partner schools. It houses the Alternative Program and the Hartford Autism Program. The Alternative Program is a therapeutic educational program for students who have severe behavioral disabilities and cannot be educated in their local schools. The students in the Autism Program have autism or other related developmental disabilities and are learning effective communication skills, social skills, functional academic skills, self-help/personal care skills, and more.
Artistree staff teach art lessons at The Wilder School once a week. Research shows that non-verbal, musical, and visual forms of expression are important tools for all learners, and arguably students who struggle for success in traditional education environments need visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile pathways to learning most of all. Artistree programming at the Wilder School is important because it fills a crucial gap in the students’ education, one that fosters both learning and social-emotional development. Artistree staff is committed to facilitating safe and productive spaces for children with special needs to tap into their creativity.
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Locations
Tunbridge School
Baxter Memorial Library
The Sharon Academy
Maple Leaf Children's Center
The Family Place
Alternative Program at the Wilder School
Autism Program at the Wilder School
Hartford Regional Resource Center
The Ottauquechee School
Special Needs Support Center
Twin Pines Housing
Valley Terrace
The Mill School
MoonRise Therapeutics
The Thompson Senior Center
Woodstock Elementary School
Woodstock High School and Middle School
Woodstock Terrace
Zack’s Place
Harvest Hill
Mountain Valley Treatment Center
Evarts House
Stoughton House
“The monthly creative arts program that Artistree brings…has not only been educational and rewarding but has also benefited our mental and emotional health, especially throughout the pandemic when classes were held on Zoom. We are so thankful to Artistree for this collaboration and for making our world a brighter, happier, and more beautiful place.”
Deanna Jones
Executive Director
The Thompson Senior Center
Woodstock, VT
“I want to share this with you.
Parents and buses stop in the morning to bring students who, on any given day, may not be faring so well. Last week, that indeed was the scene: Sean (not his real name) sat in his father’s car, refusing to get out to come into school.
He said, ‘I hate today. I hate school. I’m not going in.’
I said, ‘Today is an Artistree day, though, and Finnie will be here.’
The energy in the moment changed. Sean’s shoulders relaxed and his body turned toward the school. He made eye contact and said, ‘I guess I’ll come in.’ He then exited the car with a bit of hop in his step.
And there it is. The effect Artistree and Finnie and art have on The Wilder School: they make difficult things easier, including days when leaving the car seems like an impossible task. I love my school and am so grateful that ours is one of the many programs to benefit from Artistree’s outreach. That ‘benefit’ is immeasurable. Not only in the peace it brings to our school community, but also financially. Our budget could never absorb the actual cost of providing this class to Sean and the other students.
Thank you, Artistree. Thank you a million times.”
Doug ‘H’ Heavisides
Principal
The Wilder School
Hartford, VT