Opportunity Village Announces Lisa Clark as an Artist-In-Residence for its NOVA Initiative
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2016
Opportunity Village Announces Lisa Clark as an Artist-In-Residence for its NOVA Initiative
Click to tweet: (http://ctt.ec/MhFUL) .@OppVillageLV announces Lisa Clark as an Artist-In-Residence for its NOVA initiative. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/1mgW51v
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Opportunity Village, Las Vegas’ Favorite Charity, announces Lisa Clark as an Artist-In-Residence for the organization’s New Opportunities for Visionary Arts (NOVA) initiative. Clark joins NOVA as a Mosaic Artist and Art Facilitator.
Based on the Creative Abundance Model, created by Susan Dlouhy and Patty Mitchell, NOVA provides OVIPs flexibility to participate in a variety of activities that create a path to employment and earning wages, based on their individual talents and interests. Studios have been created at all four Opportunity Village campuses revolving around a culture focusing on choice and creative expression. OVIPs and staff have the opportunity to participate in this new initiative.
As an Art Facilitator, Clark will lead OVIPs to experience personal growth and insight by guiding them through the artistic process using projects that have been specifically designed to raise self-esteem, promote individual success, provide relaxation and encourage creativity. Under Clark’s leadership, OVIPs will design projects that foster inclusion, safe participation and provide choices that help the individuals develop a sense of personal identity by creating a lesson plan or project plan, clarifying supplies needed and then facilitating the project through its completion.
Previously, Clark was a Community Training Specialist at Transition Services, Inc. where she worked with groups of adults with intellectual disabilities in work skill training and product development for handcrafted art items to be sold in the organization’s retail store, Studio 8 Ten. She was also a Volunteer Facilitator for various projects in Opportunity Village’s Fine Art Program. In 2009, Clark worked with adult artists and staff from the Opportunity Village Art Enrichment program to facilitate and design a large collaborative mural that was mounted on the wall at the original Opportunity Village Thrift Store location. During 2008, she worked with community artists and artists from the Opportunity Village Art Enrichment Program to create a collaborative art piece for the organization’s Contemporary Arts Center Collaborative Exhibition and Art Auction.
Clark is a published writer and is the author of Good Luck Charms and Protective Amulets: Their Meanings and Origins and Art Facilitation for Special Needs Populations, Cats After Dark Press, LLC, available for viewing on Amazon.com. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Social Services and Business Management from the University of Phoenix, attended the Art Center College of Design at the College of Southern Nevada, and also took Mosaic intensive classes in Italy and Turkey.
About Opportunity Village
Mission: Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organization that serves people within our community with significant intellectual disabilities, to enhance their lives and the lives of their families.
Opportunity Village was founded in 1954 by seven families who were determined to give their children with disabilities the best lives possible. Now, more than 60 years later, Opportunity Village is one of the most recognized and respected organizations of its type in the United States.
Nevada’s largest employer of people with disabilities (who we call OVIPs), Opportunity Village serves nearly 3,000 individuals annually, providing vocational training, employment, habilitation and social recreation programs and services that make their lives more purposeful and interesting.
Opportunity Village citizens – individuals who were previously considered unemployable – work at Opportunity Village’s Employment Resource Centers and in jobs throughout the community, collectively earning wages amounting to more than $3.9 million in 2014. They are hard-working and diligent, proudly paying taxes and happily leading more fulfilling lives.
Primarily a self-funded organization, Opportunity Village generates the majority of its operational funding through its employment contracts and fundraising efforts such as the Magical Forest and Great Santa Run, saving Nevada taxpayers nearly $35 million annually.
###
MEDIA CONTACT:
Mallory Hanneke
Preferred Public Relations
702-254-5704
mallory@preferredpublicrelations.com