Englewood—The tables in the crowded Midday Gallery in Englewood, New Jersey, were set with delicious hors d’ouvres and the walls were embellished with creative art work, but the most striking aspect of the SINAI art show on the evening of June 18 was the children. Their faces positively shone with pride as they observed the many visitors admiring and commenting on the original works these students had produced in the Art Therapy Programs in participating SINAI schools.

SINAI School’s Art Therapist Sarah Tarzik took the time to explain how art can benefit students who may have difficulty sharing their ideas through ordinary speech. Creating personal works of art provides these children with different avenues in which they can express thoughts and feelings they might have been previously unable to verbalize.

“The students in my classroom are first given certain guidelines to follow,” explained Ms. Tarzik, “and then they are given free reign to express themselves within those boundaries. For example, they might be told they are to be working only with watercolors for a particular project. As they work, their art experience is gradually broadened to include a discussion on how using watercolors can serve as a metaphor for personal behavior and relationships; how one must be careful to blend and control these colors just as one has to take care to control and blend relationships and behavior.”

When their projects are completed, the children’s pride in their accomplishments is increased as their classmates share positive comments about each other’s works. Throughout all of these experiences, creating art is utilized as a tool to reflect the youngsters’ inner feelings and to encourage them to ‘think out of the box.’ Their classes provide a setting where they can learn to work together and speak positively about their accomplishments and those of their classmates.”

Walking around the gallery, I had the opportunity to meet some of these budding artists in person. I spoke with 11-year-old Judah, quite dapper in his black fedora.  Judah was eager to explain to me that he had put in a great deal of time to complete his collage entitled “War Hero,” and how it reflected his feelings. He also was proud to point out the collaborative work painted as a group project by his sixth grade classmates.

I also visited with Moshe, after I listened to his mother tell Ms. Tarzik how much her 9-year-old son enjoyed and looked forward to her art class. I learned that Moshe loves bells and dragons, and his renditions of both were quite detailed and dramatic. I was also able to learn about 10-year-old Eli’s personal interests by viewing his intriguing works, “Bicycle Playing Cards,” and “ An Ode to DS,” hobbies he never would have shared verbally with anyone just a few months ago.

Each piece of artwork displayed at the show was clearly an expression of how art can empower children to communicate and cope with challenges. The show was made possible by a special project of the Bear Givers Organization, created by businessman and philanthropist Joseph Sprung, entitled “The Empower Art Program.” Bear Giver’s philosophy “is to enable a child with special needs to build his self-esteem.” In this art program, he can “experience the joy and pride of creating art, seeing it showcased and sold at a special exhibit and making a meaningful contribution as proceeds are donated to his school,” in this instance, The SINAI Schools Scholarship Fund. Support of the scholarship fund enables SINAI to provide parents of special needs children with substantial scholarships to meet high tuition costs.

SINAI is one of the country’s leading Jewish schools for children with learning or developmental disabilities. The school creates a highly individualized program tailored to fit each student’s social, emotional and educational needs. This necessitates using one teacher for every two students on average; in order to provide them with specialized language, behavioral and  now thanks to the generosity of  Edward, z”l, and Florence Paley and  Selma and David Mironov, z’”l,  art therapy.  The children who participated  in the Unique Inspiration’s Art Show, are enrolled in art therapy programs in SINAI Joseph Kushner Academy, SINAI Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, and SINAI Maor Program at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School.

As educators and parents, we understand that each child is unique. Congratulations to Bear Givers and SINAI for giving our children a vehicle with which to celebrate their uniqueness and to give back to others, and kudos to the Midday Gallery for allowing SINAI to use its beautiful gallery to host this event. It was heartwarming to see how excited the students were on this special evening honoring them and their wonderful teacher; and to see how thrilled all of the participants were to celebrate these youngsters’ accomplishments.

By Estelle Glass