Cops 4 A Cause partners with TAC for ‘Art Pack Campaign’

The Tioga Arts Council (TAC), along with Cops 4 A Cause, distributed 24 free Art Packs to educators representing six schools and one nonprofit agency in and around Tioga County, N.Y. on Friday, Dec. 8.

TAC works with many educators in the community. Each year these dedicated professionals see students who have tremendous artistic talent, but cannot access supplies to express their ideas. Teachers will provide materials, often out of their own pockets, to support these students and their artistic visions.

For the past three years, TAC Supporters have made this free Art Pack campaign possible. However, thanks to a friendship between the owners of Cloud Croft Studios and Scott Pauly, TAC found a new partner to help make this program financially possible, Cops 4 A Cause.

“Giving back to the communities where we live and work,” Cops 4 A Cause (C4C) is a non-profit located in New York State comprised of a group of active and retired law enforcement members, and supported by community members. The organization was founded in 2018 as an avenue to raise funds to give back to the communities where we live and work. 

TAC and Cops 4 A Cause met a year ago to discuss partnership opportunities and after several visits, and learning about each respective organization, Cops 4 A Cause agreed to sponsor TAC’s free Art Pack program.

With the help of Newark Valley High School Art Teacher Burton Taylor, TAC curated and prepared 24 uniform packs with a Bristol Pad, Travel Sketchbook, Windsor Newton Galleria Acrylic Paint Set, Charcoal Pencil, and a Kneaded Eraser. 

Volunteers assembled 24-packs, and in a card TAC included the following from poet, Christian Teresi.

“That your vision and the way you interpret the world matters is an idea that bears repeating. Its obviousness is too often taken for granted. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in a letter to the painter Paul Cezanne that ‘Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further.’ I think that is true in the sense that art arrives from the risks we take as we interpret the world and then the gift of sharing that vision with others. It is an act of kindness. In deep admiration of the things you will create, we leave you with a poem about vision and perspective.”

I see a butterfly go by

– Fernando Pessoa (May 7, 1914), translated by Richard Zenith

By Christian Teresi

I see a butterfly go by 

And for the first time in the universe I notice

That butterflies do not have color or movement,

Even as flowers do not have scent or color.

Color is what has color in the butterfly’s wings,

Movement is what moves in the butterfly’s movement,

Scent is what has scent in the flower’s scent. 

The butterfly is just a butterfly

And the flower is just a flower. 

Recipients of the art packs include students from Vestal High School, Newark Valley High School, Owego Free Academy, Chenango Valley, Union-Endicott High School, Tioga Center, and the YES group through Catholic Charities.

In a statement, Michelle McLaren, Catholic Charities outreach, stated, “I taught an after school session with one of these groups guiding them on how to be creative and sharing some art techniques and fun challenges. Some of these students are also signed up for our Adopt-a-Child Program for Christmas gift assistance. The two children that will be receiving these art packs are ones that showed great interest in drawing and exploring ways to express their thoughts.”

To learn more about this program, Contact Christina Di Stefano by email to tiogaartscouncil@gmail.com.