Arts for All’s Side by Side program helps students with special needs through painting

HORSE CAVE, Ky. – In Hart County, a group of students were recognized for their creativity in a unique setting.

Through Arts for All Kentucky’s Side by Side program, special needs students in Hart and Barren Counties have the chance to learn about the arts in collaboration with an art studio in Horse Cave.

The final project of it all includes pieces based on things they are interested in, with those works being displayed in a gallery setting.

For the director of this program, who is also a teacher that has worked with these kids for years, she shares what she finds most rewarding about her relationship with them. “The joy that they get from it, the excitement… every year I do it, I try to get different media, and this year it was acrylic paint pens… A lot of these kids have gone home and begged mom and dad to buy them, so… they worked with things that they normally wouldn’t get to use,” Jennifer Sims says.

We also spoke with one of students honored today, Edmund Mallory, who told us he was excited to paint one of his works, based on a city skyline, which relates to his love of travel.

The program runs through the first and second weeks of June each year and is open to students in all counties here in South Central Kentucky.