Art Classes for Abused Youth Find New Home

Heartworld, a nonprofit art therapy program for abused youngsters that faded away last year after the lease on its headquarters expired, now has a permanent home at the Mid Valley Youth Center in Van Nuys.

The program was founded by Calabasas collage artist Anne Nathan-Wlodarski two years ago. Using space donated by the city in a Chatsworth warehouse, Nathan-Wlodarski helped troubled children express themselves by teaching them to draw, paint and sculpt.

In September, 1993, the city’s lease on the warehouse expired, leaving Heartworld without a home. But two months ago, Nathan-Wlodarski was hired by the Mid Valley Youth Center, a temporary home for displaced children and wards of the court, to provide art therapy services to the 80 young residents of the center and other troubled youth from around the city.

“When you help a child to become creative, that child will become a better student. He’ll use that creativity in the other subjects,” Nathan-Wlodarski said.

She described Heartworld as a blend of psychology and art. “Some of these kids are incredibly talented, but you have to draw it out of them--you have to help them make the effort and understand it’s OK to express.”

On Friday, Nathan-Wlodarski coached a group of seven teen-age girls as they created Christmas decorations for a ceremony next Friday at the center to honor teen-agers who have performed valuable community services.

Carla, 14, from Van Nuys, made a beeline for the table in the center of Heartworld’s new studio space in a large room on the second floor. She seized a purple marker and began coloring an angel.

“I color or I draw and it calms me down,” she said.

Nykieysha, 14, of Los Angeles, also looks forward to the art sessions.

“I’ve always liked art, from the time I drew my first animal when I was a kid,” said Nykieysha, who wants to become a veterinarian or an artist.

But Qwendolyn, 16, of Los Angeles, said she doesn’t particularly enjoy art. “The things I do don’t come out right. Everybody will laugh at them.”

Peggy Wilson-Jordan, director of the youth center, said such a reaction is not uncommon.

“A lot of these children have learned only negative ways to express themselves to each other, to the world. Heartworld is giving them a chance to express and ventilate their feelings in a very different way. It gives them something they can call their own.”