The artwork featured on the cover is part of an exhibit at the Oakland Museum entitled, Gifts of the Streets -- Children's Art from the Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center, an emergency housing facility for children from homeless families. Children living at the Center met weekly with professional artists from the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA), to make works to be included in the exhibit. Urbanview spoke with Laila Solaris, staff artist at MOCHA.

UV: Explain your role in the MOCHA Afterschool Art program.
LS: I am a staff artist at MOCHA. I work for the Education Department. Most of my job is teaching art in public schools. The Art for Life organization came up with the idea of offering weekly afterschool art classes for the Henry Robinson Center. Because of their donation to MOCHA, it was offered the opportunity to teach an afterschool program. Ken Addison, another MOCHA employee, and myself worked with the staff at the Children's Services Department to create a program that would be fun and educational.

UV: Talk a little bit about the assignment that produced the piece on the cover and the artist who created it.
LS: The assignment was a project I call "Stained Glass Windows"; but really it is a study in shapes and composition. The students were given shapes to trace -- yogurt covers and cardboard squares and triangles. In my demonstration, I point out that two traced shapes can overlap to make a third shape. It sounds simple, but the students always amaze me with their elegant compositions. Part of the assign-ment was to fill the whole page with traced shapes. The 12 year old girl who worked on this piece claimed that she was a singer, but not an artist. By the time she was finished, she had changed her mind. The symmetrical balance and beauty of the piece was undeniable.

UV: What kind of effect have you seen this program have on the children involved?
LS: Our art program was one of many weekly activities at the Henry Robinson Center. Ken Addison and I tried to compliment their goal to provide a dependable safe space to play and learn and maintain respect. The students that came to our classes learned new skills such as painting, clay pottery, wood sculpture, and quiltmaking. Students got more hands-on assistance from teachers and volunteers. Time after time I saw students amazement at what they created. Most older kids helped out the younger kids. Many worked on projects together. I think the kids really treasured this time to work together!