Art Love

Art Love history:

 

School year 2020 our fabulous nurse, Marta Bausemer (aka Nurse B) applied for a grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation that the Director of Institutional Advancement, Andrea Kunst, had sent out to staff which was focused on supporting marginalized groups. Nurse B came up with an idea for a program called Art Love. The main idea was to use art as a way to connect with students, specifically but not limited to students who were connected to the LGBTQIA+ community.

 

The funding we received was $20,000 which bought art supplies. Every student who wanted to participate, received an art love supply box. With the funding, art a variety of art supplies were purchased and dropped off at student's homes. Nurse B ran a zoom Art Love class teaching kids about different art styles. In collaboration with the art teacher, and a social work intern, Nurse B was able to create a safe space to login, hang out, and make art. Kids could feel that they were not alone and they were connected through art. 

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Art Love ran for two years. It started out with a weekly zoom with students during the shut down and then morphed into an an essential part of GSA meetings. Students used the art room as a safe space for meetings already and used art as a tool to express their emotions and spread positivity. 

 

 In 2023 Art Love took a new form with the help of a $15,000 grant through Fannie Mae. Art Love became a surprise podcast called Who Do You love, meant for our staff to feel the love from our students. Nurse B learned how to use podcast equipment to capture recordings from former students in the hopes of sharing them with staff.

 

Nurse B rallied alumni specifically, the class of 2020. That class were one of the first students to experience art love and had a special meaning to Nurse B whose own daughter was a part of that Class.

 

Due to the pandemic, they had no prom and no graduation. Art Love became a way to reconnect them to the community they loved and to give thanks to the people who supported them through one of the hardest global events in recent history. If students could not come in for a recorded interview, they were also able to write letters.

 

At the end of the school year Nurse B presented many teachers with either a letter from a student, or a recording of her interview with alumni. Telling a teacher how much they mean to you is an invaluable message and Art Love was able to spread so much positivity and heart in such a simple and beautiful way.  

 

In 2024 Art Love took another form - a spinning form! Nurse B created a giant spinner with an industrial fan, and used it many times to make cool spin art. 

 

For BGA's Pride Month Celebration, students were able to pick the paint colors that represented their own LGBTQIA + flag and would put them on a small canvas. Then the spinner went to work and spun many revolutions so students could have their own reimagined pride flag. Many students made multiples which were given to staff since which are still hung up in classrooms.

 

For the 2025 2026 school year, Art Love has helped the GSA turn into positive actions! With the help of a co-advisor BGA's GSA had more kids show up than in any years of the programs history.

 

For one of the first events, students were asked to think about what makes them feel safe, specifically, what words. The students expressed wanting to do something this year that was inclusive of the whole school, not just students in the GSA, so they all came up with an idea to take the words they wrote in that exercise, and to make art with them, and hang them up all around the building. 

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Not long after that, NPR reached out. Producer Amanda Beland asked Nurse B if she was planning to do anything with Art Love this year...

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So Nurse B shared the idea that the students came up with and Amanda was very excited about checking out the art. Soon, students, staff and the Head of School were asked about Art Love and its impact. NPR came and did a few interviews with students, they hung out with us for the afternoon while we started the Art Love project with the GSA students and any other students who wanted to participate.

 

We ended up with over 20 students participating, current and alumni, and a number of staff. Words have been created and finished and have been hung up around the school this week, and we plan on taking all the posters and art work to Pride this year, to the march, and we will put the posters and words on sticks and march them in Boston for youth pride.

 

Very exciting stuff happening! We are thankful for all of the support!