MISSION & VISION
The purpose of “Arts for All” is to provide high quality art and science programming, instruction, and inspiration to families, schools, and individuals in the community. Using creativity, attention to detail, and quality materials, we strive to encourage and develop the study and execution of fine arts and science with the highest professional standards in a way that is unique and fun.
We offer fun art classes for school age kids during the school year, school holiday camps, community outreach, lively grownup painting parties, private grownup paint parties, office paint parties and staff development opportunities, children’s birthday celebrations, artist in the park sessions, school field trips, classroom visits, and so much more!
Gerald D. Byrd, Artist and Founder of Arts for All, Inc. The Institute of the Imagination
Gerald teaches most of the classes at the institute, with an occasional guest appearance from a local artist. Byrd is a 1996 graduate of The Atlanta College of Art and Design. During college he worked as a Walt Disney Store Cast Member, where he learned the art of marketing and people skills. He was an office assist in the business office of The Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center, and held weekend jobs with Kroger, Carrollton Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Department, and The Carrollton Housing Authority. He served as Governor’s Artist In Residence for Villa Rica Elementary School under Governor Zell Miller. He earned a Bachelors of Fine Art and worked for Carrollton City Schools until 2015. He created many creative programs for the school. The most successful was “The 3:00 Groove,” a program that was created by Byrd and funded by The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. The program lasted 13 years and provided quality activities to thousands of area children during after school hours. Gerald later served as Title I Family Engagement Coordinator, where he infused creativity into two schools and coordinated massive literacy programs with artistic themes. He has taught art throughout the community and sold his work to both private and corporate collectors. In 2014, he had a dream to start a nonprofit art program. He immediately piled art supplies into his car and offered free activities in area parks. The free program grew rapidly and soon after Byrd opened Arts for All, Inc. and opened The Institute of the Imagination, a non-profit community art studio. The institute serves as Byrd’s personal art studio and home base for Arts for All, Inc. Gerald’s artwork can be seen in many collections and at The World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta.
OUR HISTORY
Arts for All Inc. was founded in 2014 by Gerald Bryd. Gerald Bryd took a van filled it with art supplies and began coducting mobile art classes in areas of the community. The program quickly outgrew the van and soon after, The Institute of Imagination became reality. Now activities could be conducted in the comfort of the indoors. The Institute of imagination is the home for Arts for All, Inc. and the private studio of Gerald bry and the Artistic Affair. The program is built around the concept that our participants come to create, explore, learn and have fun. As Caregivers and ecducators, we strive to create and environment that is safe, stimulating and encouraging.
Arts for All, Inc., is a new, non-profit organization designed to provide high quality programming, instruction, and inspiration to families, schools, and individuals in the community at low or no cost. Long-time Carrollton artist and teacher Gerald Byrd describes the program, “Using creativity, input from our guests, attention to detail,and quality materials, we strive to encourage and develop the study and execution of fine arts with the highest professional standards. We address, educate, coordinate, and provide opportunities in the areas of visual and performing arts on a local level.”
“Our programs include the involvement of ambassadors both to raise awareness of the arts and to host fundraising events in order to provide immediate assistance to those who cannot afford tuition to our camps, workshops, and events. Participants who cannot afford the activities will be screened by our volunteers to qualify for free or reduced services.” Information provided in the screening will remain confidential.
Arts for All, Inc. serves the entire West Georgia Community. For more than a year their Pop-up Art Program has conducted “flash mob” style art workshops in city parks, schools, community centers, public housing developments, and libraries. Participants have enjoyed an array of free activities from expressive dance at the Lion’s Safari Park to mask making at the public library. The programs are averaging sixty participants per event. The Pop-Up Program does not publish a schedule because its intent is to surprise and delight the public with free art activities.
The Institute of the Imagination Located at 119 Bradley Street in downtown Carrollton, The Institute of the Imagination is the official headquarters of Arts for All, Inc. where a host of volunteer artists teach special community workshops and classes. Local sponsors provide scholarships for families in need. Proceeds from the workshops are being used to fund the free programming that the organization does in the community and also to purchase furnishings for the institute, pay overhead expenses, and build supply inventories. Longer-ranged, the organization hopes funds from the workshops will also pay visiting artists and hire a full-time staff.
