Art Beyond Barriers is the school club I began with the goals of helping and connecting with the impaired through art. Through both visual and performing arts, the kids benefit from the experience by having an outlet to express themselves, learn cooperation, improve their motor skills, build their confidence, and understand that their disabilities do not prevent them from doing meaningful work. The club also aimed to fundraise in order to provide educational equipment, art supplies, and mobility aids at the end of the school year.

Originally, Art Beyond Barriers was just a weekly volunteering activity I did, in which I would help the Art for All Foundation organize and run events. However, there was often a lack of volunteers, which meant I would frequently reach out to friends to see if anyone was interested in helping out. Because of this, I wanted to open a school club to reach a wider audience of student volunteers who were interested in helping out and who also have a passion for art.

Beginning the club and gaining traction wasn’t hard, as I think the club’s goals speak for themselves. The most difficult part of running it was trying to host activities without the Art for All Foundation present. Art for All works in partnership with orphanages and schools for the disabled, which meant that if I wanted to organize activities when Art for All wasn’t free, I would need to contact these places myself. That wasn’t the problem—but as a school club, I couldn’t take responsibility for any mishaps that may occur. This made some places more hesitant to work with us, which didn’t happen when Art for All was the one reaching out. I overcame this challenge by continuously contacting schools and clearly communicating the club’s positive intentions. With this, we eventually found schools willing to work with us directly.

Another challenge I faced was learning how to lead a school club. Art Beyond Barriers’ executive team was made up of first-time club leaders, which meant we were all new to the process of organizing club trips. Because of this, we were often on different pages about what was happening. This caused a few conflicts between executives, but we overcame them by holding a meeting where we shared what each of us knew and cleared up misunderstandings. From there, we tried to communicate our ideas as clearly as possible.

Overall, this experience showed me the importance of communication and how much effort it truly takes to organize large-scale events. I also learned the importance of building initial trust with people and organizations to make these activities happen. There’s a lot of ethicality and care that needs to be put into place to make sure everyone is safe and satisfied. Working with maturity is important, and the ability to problem-solve is essential—because not everything will go perfectly, and things can (and do) go wrong.