CARDINAL HILL GETS A HAND FROM A BEREA ARTIST

Katharine and artist Alfredo Escobar put a coat of primer on her hand sculpture.

Local artist Alfredo Escobar was one of the twelve artists to decorate a 6-foot hand in Berea’s “A Show of Hands” public art project that opened last summer. Since that time, he has visited several local and area schools to help the students create their own miniature hands using papier-mâché. Silver Creek and Berea Community Schools hosted the project earlier this school year, and most recently clients at the Cardinal Hill Adult Day Health and Preschool Programs have enjoyed Escobar’s handiwork.

Escobar’s programs with Very Special Arts of Kentucky and the Kentucky Arts Council have been very popular in Kentucky schools, and he has conducted visual art workshops as an Artist in Residence in over twenty schools in the past two years alone. He is often a featured presenter at the Lexington Children’s Museum, and was recently honored to be the speaker at the Honors Banquet at Saint mark School in Richmond, where Escobar attended.

Escobar has been working with Cardinal Hill’s Adult Day Health program for two years and has enjoyed leading the clients there in several art projects. He feels that the hand project has been the most interesting and beneficial project so far. “Because of the 3-dimensional aspect of this project, it’s more ‘hands-on’ than the others we’ve done.” he says. “Clients with all ranges of motor skills can be involved and successful in this project.”

Chad, Dawn and Chad add colorful paint to their hand sculptures.

Ann Hamilton of the Cardinal Hill Preschool comments, “I think it has shown the children there is more to art than just crayons, markers, glue and scissors. We already do a variety of art activities in class, but I think most children this age think of the very basic art supplies as the things used to make art.” She is happy the project has taught the children about their own self-expression and creativity, pointing out that, “Each hand turns out different even though they all started out looking the same.”

Hands created in the Adult Day Health Program at Cardinal Hill.

The Cardinal Hill Preschool program, housed in the Lyman V. Ginger Pediatric Center, serves children from birth to five years of age who have an identified disability or display significant developmental delays. Participants in this project have a range of disabilities including developmental delay, communication disorder, autism, spinal cord injury, sensory integration dysfunction, and cerebral palsy. This is the first project of this type Ann Hamilton has been involved in there, and she says she would be happy to host other simple art projects like this one.

Escobar’s work at Cardinal Hill is made possible in part by a grant from Very Special Arts of Kentucky.