
Our mission is to provide therapeutic arts to Youth & communities with the least amount of social services, after school and summer activities available.
Affordable
All projects aim to inspire art-making with simple materials. If someone does not have access to supplies, we find a way to provide some!

Reliable
We use a community-based group setting with a co-leader approach to model co-parenting and offer a wider range of artistic skill sets and opportunities to:
- Build self-esteem and acceptance
- Promote empowerment and courage
- Practice self-discipline, communication, and vulnerability
Therapeutic
Certified Art Therapists, Jamie & Bailey, plan and facilitate programs with the "artist within," clinical experiences, and vast knowledge of Art Therapy's techniques.
Community Partner Programs
CPPs may be on a one-time or ongoing basis, depending on the hiring organization who pays a fee-for-service cost for the program. ArtVan works with all populations, agencies, and organizations to support specific needs and requests.
- Lewiston Public Schools
- River ValleyVillage
- Horizon Program
- The Center of Wisdom’s Women
- Youth Leaderships Advisory Team (YLAT)
Core
Neighborhoods
Since 2004, ArtVan has provided Art Therapy programs to under-resourced neighborhoods, free-of-charge, due to numerous grants and steady support from individuals donors and foundational grants.
- Maritime Apartments, Bath
- Hyde Park, Bath
- Perryman Village, Brunswick
- Lewiston Public Library
- Tree Street Neighborhood, Lewiston
- Bacon Street, Biddeford
- Family Development, Auburn
- Broadview Acres, Auburn

Art offers a way to channel feelings safely adjust to new relationships solve problems creatively feel a sense of belonging

For deeper, therapeutic interventions, ArtVan’s unique co-facilitation model allows one Art Therapist to focus on emotional space and the other Therapist on the product, prompting insight into sensitive material.
When a Youth laughed at her own drawing, the Teaching Artist invited the Art Therapist to help them explore the disconnect of effect (humor) and subject matter (suicide). Together they supported the Youth’s artistic expression, technique, and difficult feelings that she may have been unable to express without Art as the conduit.


Thank You to Our 2020 Foundations

- The Onion Foundation
- Sam L. Cohen Foundation
- Maine Women’s Fund
- Davenport Trust
- Jane B. Cook 1992 Charitable Trust
- The Aldermere Foundation
- Alfred M. Senter Fund
- Bowdoin Common Good Grant
- First Parish Church, Brunswick
- Baldwin Foundation
- Maine Community Foundation: Community Development Block Grant
- The Davis Foundation