(light music) - [Lara] Transforming discarded materials into fine art.

Learn about C.R.E.A.T.E Community Studios with executive director, Heather Hutchison and enjoy a performance by Dave Maswick.

It's all ahead on this episode of AHA, the House for Arts.

- [Narrator] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, The Alexander & Marjorie Hover Foundation and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M & T Bank we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M & T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.

(light music) - Hi, I'm Laura Ayad and this is AHA, a house for arts, a place for all things creative.

Let's find out what Matt Rogowicz is up to today.

(piano music) - I'm here in East Chatham, New York at the studio of Tamara Zahaykevich who creates what she calls constructions pieces that blend the worlds of sculpture and painting.

What does that mean?

Follow me.

- I have been making constructions using forms and paint.

So I am considered a sculptor that does a lot of painting on top of or integrated in the work, I have called them constructions.

And that is because there are times in my life when I applied for a sculpture grant and have been rejected for not being a sculptor and having too much painting in the work and applied for things in painting where they've called me a sculptor and that and I didn't qualify for those reasons.

I really didn't want to be an artist.

I didn't think of myself as an artist.

I thought I would be a designer.

I really liked clothes when I was young and I wanted to do something design oriented.

I also knew that artists were poor and I was afraid of that but I couldn't push against it so I found myself in the Rome program, Tyler School of Art which is part of Temple University.

And there, I got so involved in making art that I just couldn't look back.

I would do installations site-specific pieces when I lived in Philadelphia and I went to Tyler.

When I moved to New York City, I didn't have many opportunities to make large scale installations.

I was constantly searching for venues and it was frustrating to me because if I don't have a strong drawing practice and I resorted to being a sketchbook artist and it was very painful for me.

I decided that I would make models of galleries in 19, this was 1998.

I wanted to make models of galleries and do shows in them.

That was my thought.

And it was, I was trying to be funny conceptual but the day that I picked up the foam board, I brought it into my tiny, tiny studio.

I had this real urge to make something that would be completed in one day.

None of my projects before that could be completed in one day.

So I took a form, was actually a piece of styrofoam and I copied it.

I used tracing paper and I copied each part and constructed it.

And it was extremely crude.

And I just knew that it in itself wasn't anything spectacular, but I knew that there was a road going forward with this kind of making that I was really interested in.

(upbeat music) I'm not interested in sketchbooks.

So I don't have a lot of preliminary drawings.

I consider the material that I'm working with primarily foam board as a drawing material as well.

So I'm drawing in space.

What I do is I bend them really easily with my hands.

And then I'm able to glue the pieces together and have these forms, these lines that then you can adjust and make three-dimensional forms with.

(upbeat music) I'm a first generation American.

My parents are from Ukraine or I'm of Ukrainian heritage.

And my grandmother was quite comfortable until the war.

I've seen people who lose their minds when they lose that kind of comfort.

But my grandmother had a resilience and she became extremely resourceful.

Being able to take something like a really ugly table and put a beautiful tablecloth on top to make us feel special.

And it was something that impressed me in a way that I wanted to follow her.

And again, not wanting to be an artist because I was afraid of being poor.

I saw it as a way of being able to survive it.

I think about her when I'm working, I have had her photograph on the wall of my former studio, where I when I'm struggling, I'll look up and see her there looking down on me.

And she's telling me that I can do it.

Yeah.

I have a real need to alter things.

And, to give them sort of a chance, give them another life.

And I'm not quite sure what that is.

It's almost like I'm anthropomorphizing these things.

I really take it so seriously what I do even though at the same time, it's so goofy when I do what I make.

And some of them are funny and goofy but there's the seriousness of it is in my exploration.

Like what I'm doing is I'm studying constantly.

- With locations in both Saratoga and Schenectady, New York, C.R.E.A.T.E Community Studios is dedicated to providing a space where individuals in the community can find a creative outlet through art making.

How exactly can art benefit the community?

Let's chat with C.R.E.A.T.E's executive director, Heather Hutchison to find out.

Heather, welcome to a house for arts.

It's a pleasure to have you.

- Thanks for having me.

- So tell me about C.R.E.A.T.E, what is it set out to do and does the name stand for anything?

I think it's an acronym.

- Yes it is, lots of periods in our name.

C.R.E.A.T.E., is capitol region expressive arts transformation and empowerment.

And we were formed by art therapists and art educators partially because we saw a void in the expressive arts in the capital region and by expressive arts I mean, not just visual arts though we tend to have like a visual art bent to our programming.

But as an art therapist, I was getting lots of calls from different agencies, wanting training wanting art therapy for their consumers, and started to feel like we needed some more sort of consolidated effort around the arts and healing and in the capital region.

- What kinds of programs has C.R.E.A.T.E.

done recently and any ones too, that stick out to you as really successful or really engaging?

- Yeah.

So it's definitely been a work in progress we've been around for we'll be entering our fourth year in 2021.

So we've kind of gradually grown the last, you know obviously this last year has been a little different than other years but really I think our focus is really around families and kids and how art can bring people together.

So in terms of successful programming, most of it's been successful, but I think that are some of the most profound programs that we've really been proud of are some of our community art projects that we've done public art wise but also our teen programming in both-- - What is it about them that makes them so successful in your opinion?

- Well with the teen programming in particular, I think it's that a lot of times teenagers feel misunderstood by their families or the larger community.

- [Lara] Woe is me.

- Yeah, exactly.

And many of our students actually it's even way beyond that, where it's not just a woe is me.

They really have significant mental health concerns.

And particularly right now during COVID, but also, you know come from backgrounds where their families really truly don't understand them or are having conflicts.

And we really pride ourselves on being a safe place.

So that has been something that's very exciting to see is some of those students, who've been with us for a number of years now, and now they're in college or they're pursuing careers and it's exciting.

In the community art realm, that's more of like the broader art is empowerment and community empowerment you know, going to racial and social justice or just you know, having the community to come out to paint a mural and civic pride.

- Right and I understand that you have locations both in Schenectady and in Saratoga Springs.

Am I right about that?

- Yes, correct.

- So I'm kind of curious to know we'll come back to the idea of community here because I think that's important but how did you become executive director of C.R.E.A.T.E.?

I imagine you do art yourself right?

- Yeah.

Yeah so as I mentioned, I'm an art therapist.

Myself and a colleague, Ellie Lopez and I, one of the first times we met just purely through needing to connect with other therapists.

We started talking about how we needed to create a community studio that there wasn't anything like this in the capital region there are in other communities.

And it was a seed that grew over a number of years until we finally found the right spaces.

And then we pulled Julie Lewis, our other co-founder and too her background's in early childhood and art and kind of helped fill out the program.

So I just kind of fell into the role of executive director you know, just purely by happenstance, but also, you know I've got some background in business and was running a private practice and stuff like that before starting C.R.E.A.T.E.

- That's really interesting, Heather, that a lot of the folks that you work with including yourself have some background in counseling or therapy.

And I think sometimes people don't traditionally associate those things together but sounds like that's really important.

You know, I was looking at your calendar for what you have going on this month.

'Cause you have this online calendar on your website and there's things that I saw on your calendar like open studios or clay day.

And then there was something that caught my eye that says coping through creativity I think.

- Yeah, coping creatively.

- Coping creatively.

Forgive me.

Can you tell us a little bit about these sessions?

What kinds of students are enrolling in these?

What do they get out of them?

- So the coping creatively group is actually a true art therapy group and kind of operates independently from C.R.E.A.T.E.

and because it's run by licensed mental health professionals.

So it's more of the, we use the studio space for the groups and that is folks who are dealing with profound mental health issues.

Open studio is a much looser form of art therapy.

I mean, it's technically not art therapy, it's art as therapy where, you know, you come in and we introduce, you know if it's the first time coming into the studio.

We introduce a number of projects that you could potentially do, talk to you about what you're interested in investigating art material wise and generally just have, encourage people to just play.

'Cause I think that's something that we've gotten away from a lot of times, you know, we look on Pinterest and we see this project that looks like great to create and it's very product driven, paint and sips, you know it's very product driven.

- It's very digital, right, 'cause what you're getting people to do in C.R.E.A.T.E., and the studios and C.R.E.A.T.E.

is to touch things and it's tactile and they're playing with clay and they're playing with materials.

It seems like during the pandemic too, kind of are lacking, like being able to touch things and always synthesize with our hands.

I mean, that must be a real kind of release almost for the students.

- Yeah and that's, there's a very important component of art making that's sensory and that's what makes art grounding is you are actually tactilely doing something with your hands.

And I think too, the big, our big focus is that process of just really being mindful with the art materials and being present in the moment.

And sometimes you might make a mess but it's okay to make a mess because life is messy.

So that's kind of one of our mottos.

Sometimes people roll their eyes at me and tell me, well oh yeah, here she goes again, life is messy, but it is.

I mean, we've seen that a lot, this year in particular and you know, this is a safe space to make a mess, right.

- Especially with all these protocols about order and keeping things safe and keeping things clean which I'm not criticizing that that's essential.

But it sounds to me too, like it's also good to have a space where you can kind of shed those types of rules a little bit in terms of just getting your hands messy.

- Yeah and I think sometimes it's really hard for people to let go of that.

You know, we're very product driven in our society and we want things to turn out a certain way because it's predictable.

And sometimes the idea of making something where you don't know what the outcome is going to be can be really scary.

So it's a very different mindset.

And that's what kind of makes us different from a lot of other art studios.

- So this is really fascinating Heather.

I kind of want to come back to this idea of grounding and the idea of working with something that maybe is not predictable.

You don't know the outcome.

How might that be essential for people?

'Cause we often hear about, you know, of course like food and groceries and medicine are essential but as from the perspective of an art therapist how might things like that grounding and that expression that you get from art making and the mess that you can make how is that essential to people right now?

- Yeah, so maybe going back to this I think I mentioned a play you know, one of the first things we do when we're little kids is we make a mess, right.

We're just purely like, we don't care what we're doing.

We're just making a mess.

- [Lara] That's why kids like baking.

- Yeah, exactly.

We just, that's how we investigate and learn how to do things by making mistakes.

And we lose that in adulthood.

And there was a really interesting podcast by Brene Brown talking about the power of play and that's, I mean, mindfulness, play, art making.

It's all really connected because we just want to be present in the moment in terms of what we're doing not thinking about the stuff that's going on in our head but just being present with ourselves being present with each other.

And that's something that we lose a lot of right now.

- Well, that all sounds really exciting, Heather and I can't wait to check out the website again.

Thank you so much for being on a house for arts, it was such a pleasure talking with you.

- Thank you.

- Please welcome Dave Maswick.

- I'm Dave Maswick and this is "Lost and Found."

(guitar music) ♪ Whenever things got rough ♪ ♪ When she was under some strain ♪ ♪ When she was feeling some heat ♪ ♪ When she was feeling no pain ♪ ♪ She touched this small wooden cross carved ♪ ♪ From timbers of the ship ♪ ♪ Of a famous French explorer lost at sea ♪ ♪ A reminder that love will find her ♪ ♪ And see her safely home ♪ ♪ A reminder that love will guide her ♪ ♪ And see her safely home ♪ ♪ Seems like every time love got close ♪ ♪ Something pulled it away ♪ ♪ So she swallowed her pride along ♪ ♪ With the truth and faced another day ♪ ♪ With the small wooden cross ♪ ♪ Carved from timbers from the ship ♪ ♪ Of a famous French explorer lost at sea ♪ ♪ A reminder that love will find her ♪ ♪ And see her safely home ♪ ♪ A reminder that love will guide her ♪ ♪ And see her safely home ♪ ♪ Nobody knows how it's gonna start ♪ ♪ So we work so hard at matters of the heart ♪ ♪ And nobody knows when it's gonna end ♪ ♪ Or if in that final moment we are lost again ♪ ♪ They say she died of a broken heart ♪ ♪ But they will never, ever truly understand ♪ ♪ And when they took her to her final rest ♪ ♪ She held the necklace in her hand ♪ ♪ A small wooden cross carved from timbers of the ship ♪ ♪ Of a famous French explorer lost at sea ♪ ♪ A reminder that love will find her ♪ ♪ And see her safely home ♪ ♪ And to remind you that love will guide you ♪ ♪ And see you safely home ♪ This is called "The Last Man Standing."

It's about the bonds of friendship and the fact that they extend beyond this life.

(guitar music) ♪ Here's to you my best, my one true friend ♪ ♪ I love you like my brother ♪ ♪ Life will change the day you go away ♪ ♪ I'll lay you down in a field of green ♪ ♪ And send a prayer that you can rest ♪ ♪ Whatever path you're on ♪ ♪ Know that I'll keep your secrets ♪ ♪ I'll tell your stories ♪ ♪ I'll remember you well to the ones you leave behind ♪ ♪ And I'll raise one last toast ♪ ♪ From the last man standing to memories of time ♪ ♪ So long gone by ♪ ♪ Here's to you my last, my one true heart ♪ ♪ I've always loved you like no other ♪ ♪ My life will change the day you go away ♪ ♪ I'll say goodbye with one last kiss ♪ ♪ And I'll send a prayer to heaven ♪ ♪ And mix my tears with flowers in the dirt ♪ ♪ Know that I'll keep your secrets ♪ ♪ I'll tell your stories ♪ ♪ I'll remember you well to the ones you leave behind ♪ ♪ And I'll raise one last toast ♪ ♪ From the last man standing ♪ ♪ To memories of time so long gone by ♪ ♪ Here's to all I know and those I don't ♪ ♪ And all you strangers on the highway ♪ ♪ Someone's life will change forever ♪ ♪ The day you go away ♪ ♪ And they'll lay you down in a field of green ♪ ♪ And send a prayer to heaven that you find peace ♪ ♪ Whatever path you're on ♪ ♪ That you find peace whatever path you're on ♪ ♪ Know that I'll keep your secrets ♪ ♪ I'll tell your stories ♪ ♪ I'll remember you well to the ones you leave behind ♪ ♪ And I'll raise one last toast ♪ ♪ From the last man standing ♪ ♪ To memories of time so long gone by ♪ ♪ To memories of time so long gone by ♪ - Thanks for joining us.

For more arts visit wmht.org/aha and be sure to connect with WMHT on social.

I'm Laura Ayad, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT venture fund.

Contributors include Chad and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, the Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation and the Robison Family Foundation.

- At M & T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M & T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts, and we invite you to do the same.