Calendars are in and they look beautiful! These are a great gift idea for your family & friends and 56% of each sale goes toward our 2012 art programming at Ayuda’s OKA House!

You can purchase your’s this Thursday at the Youth Art Exhibition or visit our DONATIONS page to place your order. Designate “2012 Art Calendar” and please add $3 for shipping if you wish us to put your calendar in the mail. Order soon so you can receive your calendar by January 1st, 2012!

Jewelry Making TOMORROW NIGHT!

Family Portraits coming up for Christmas!

And SAVE THE DATE: Youth Art Exhibition on Thursday, December 15th 6:30 PM to be held in the NEW Esperanza Health & Wellness Center at 4417 N. 6th Street! Don’t miss your chance to attend this exciting event and see the new health facility in Hunting Park!

Hope to see you soon!

They’re UP! After a ton of work, our banners were hung yesterday in Hunting Park. The kids are amazed to see their designs up hanging on colorful banners waving in the wind in our own park. Very rewarding. Be sure to join us on October 14th for our celebration of this accomplishment. More info here.

Click photo below to see the banners hanging in the park:

Click to view!

Enjoy! Be sure to read the teens’ closing thought of their favorite moments of their summer at OKA at the end of the newsletter. We truly have had a great summer and we hope you have as well. See you in the fall!

Hello, it’s Gloria :]

Today at the OKA house we took a trip to South Street to indulge in the wonders of the Arts Street Textile Studio and the Magic Garden. At the Arts street textile studio we met with Kathryn Pannepacker who told us about the background of the art that is done in that studio. She also taught us how to weave. It is very easy and a nice way to bring different colors and textures together. She said that it was all about the color and texture so if the yarn was bundled up together it was fine cause it made it look nice. After we made our own piece of art we said our thank you’s and goodbye’s and then walked down the street to the Magic Garden. At the Magic Garden we met with or guide Stacey, who took us on a tour of all the nice art work Isaiah Zagar made in houses and garages he owns along South Street. I found this very interesting because he used lots of pieces that were found in trash to make it beautiful art. It told a lot about his life and had lots of his artistic inspirations’ names on it. Most of the art done in these places were mosaics. There were a couple of sculptures but those were made for him by other people who look up to him. Lots of the paintings and mosaics of himself have more than two hands because he describes himself to have more than two hands for the reasons that he does his art so fast and also he relates himself to a Hindu god. He truly lives up to the quote ” One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. It was a great time and I hope to visit again :]