Campaign Story

The BAP trains and mentors a movement of Community Art Facilitators (CAFs) to provide psycho-social support through art therapeutic classes to children in under-resourced South African communities. CAF’s therapeutic art classes help children to stabilize through developing healthy coping mechanisms for processing stress and healing from trauma.

Butterfly Art Project Programs

1. Creative Development for Pre-schoolers

Art for Pre-schoolers  is a program where groups of children aged 5 years old, from 6 informal Educare Centers in the community, are invited to BAP for a two-hour weekly art session. These young children are provided with the opportunity to develop in: play, creative thinking, perseverance, focus. They can gain social skills, emotional strength, a wider concentration span, dedication, and develop a relationship with the inner self. Through art and creative activities, children are assisted in developing these capacities in preparation for their formal schooling in the future.

In addition, a group of Grade R children from Capricorn Primary School are invited for an hour per week to explore with clay. These children are identified as having major developmental deficiencies. They will be monitored to see if two years of a regular 2-hour art program at BAP will help them to catch up and be ready for the formal schooling system.

2. Art for Capricorn Primary School
The Butterfly Art Project works together with Capricorn Primary School  in the community of Vrygrond, offering art classes to 16 classes from grade 3 to 7.

3. Heart for Art
The Heart for Art program  within the Art Outreach department targets beneficiaries outside of school hours aged from 6 years to adulthood. This platform provides learners with the opportunity to express themselves using several different art mediums and offer a safe space for each of them to grow positively irrespective of the vulnerable living conditions they face every day.

4. Community Art Facilitator Training Courses
The Community Art Facilitator Training Courses provides participants a chance to gain insight into multiple aspects of art, widen their own artistic skills, develop lesson plans for teaching art in marginalized communities, and experience many exercises for creative development.

The training is structured in modules themed for a specific artistic concept and consists of 8 sessions of 3 hours each.