Art therapy: RHM program helps shelter guests brush up on skills
Published 12:10 am Thursday, June 19, 2025
Karen Kistler
karen.kistler@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — After completing the New Tomorrows Building Bridges Through Art class, many of the Rowan Helping Ministries’ shelter guests discovered a talent they didn’t realize they had.
Keven Yates, who serves as the New Tomorrows coordinator at RHM, organizes classes for their shelter guests, she said, getting facilitators to come and provide classes. However, for this particular program, the guests go to Waterworks Visual Arts Center to participate in the art classes, which were facilitated by art instructor Cindy Morgan.
The outreach program, as stated in a brochure provided at the exhibit, “uses art and creative expression to help participants overcome the personal challenges that have led to their homelessness.”
“Art is therapy,” said Yates, “and it helps you focus because when you’re doing art, you can’t think about anything else. You’re focused on that. So many of our shelter guests have been through crises and it helps them to relax.”
And that is what several of the guests who had artwork in the show said about why they like to paint and why they would continue doing so now that they have gotten started.
James McNeair, who said he had never painted before and gave it a try when Morgan encouraged him, said that “it’s good therapy and it’s like a stress reliever. I think more kids and grown ups should get into art.”
For Andre Layton, who said he had been painting off and on, likewise said painting “relieves stress.”
“It’s so peaceful to paint,” said Courtney Oliver.
This program, which is a partnership between Rowan Helping Ministries and Waterworks Visual Arts Center, has been going on for close to 14 years, said Kyna Grubb, executive director of RHM.
She said that the guests have some amazing stories and that it was amazing to walk around and hear the stories of the guests, whose lives have been transformed through art.
Through the program, she noted that they have “also seen people who picked up their paintbrush for the first time and learned that they have a talent, and we have others who sorta had these dreams of being artists that were interrupted by life and now they’re having a chance to be artists again.” Therefore, said Grubb, she loves this collaboration among them, Waterworks, the N.C. Arts Council and Rowan Arts Council.
Leslie Cabagnot, who serves as grant writer at RHM, said they receive a grassroots grant from the Rowan Arts Council, which “helps pay for this shelter art program that we do every year in conjunction with Waterworks.”
Twenty-seven names were listed in the program as having participated in the class and provided artwork for the exhibit. A reception was held at Waterworks, 123 E. Liberty St., Salisbury on June 17, providing an opportunity for people to see the art and speak with the artists. There was also a brief program and refreshments, which were provided by the RHM program services committee. The artwork will remain on display through July 12.
Grubb told the crowd that the art is for sale with each piece costing $20 and the proceeds going back to the artists. She did note that any artwork not for sale would be marked.
The classes began in February and were offered for two hours, twice a month, concluding in May.
Morgan said that the classes were “very well attended by the guests who participated” and when she spoke to the crowd during the program, she said there was “a lot of talent in this cycle of artwork. It was so wonderful to see the growth of the people who participated in every class.”
During the classes, Morgan said they viewed the Masterpieces collection and other artwork in the gallery and used them for inspiration. They also watched several video clips, one of a woman who does black and white art and another who, she said, “defined her work as being an ancient language.”
Morgan said that the group “really did a great job. It was wonderful.”
She also credited Yates for being instrumental to the program making sure all the guests got the center.
Yates said that they had a good time coming together, and walked to the art museum together. “We had so much fun,” she said.
Some of the guests were reluctant at first to take the class, said Yates, but afterwards, were thankful they did, “because it did help them to refocus their energies to something positive” and added that through taking the class some learned they were artists, something they didn’t realize before.
“It was like it unlocked something they didn’t know they had,” said Yates.
Oliver said that about herself, that she had already come to that decision, but the more she painted and learned about artists during the classes, she started to remember, “wait a minute, you used to be a makeup artist, so why are you saying you’re not an artist?,” she said.
She was limiting herself to just makeup and had not considered that to be an art, but noted it has bright colors, texture, shimmer, flat colors.
“So it’s all the same, it’s just kind of your attitude and allowing yourself to be free,” said Oliver, adding that she has “actually fallen in love with painting now, so I’m going to continue to do it.”
She has plans to use the painting she had in the exhibit and use it as a model but do it in different colors that people might want to use as home decor.
Being colorblind, McNeair said he didn’t think he could paint, but gave it a try and when he started painting on the canvas, he said, “this feels pretty good, and the more I watched Bob Ross the more he inspired me.”
And now being there and having all these people see the work being displayed and saying how good it is, is surreal, said McNeair.
With a grin, Bradley Williams said he never thought he would have artwork in the same building as Picasso, and then also credited Bob Ross and William Alexander, Ross’ teacher, for inspiring him to paint. He grew up watching him paint on PBS, he said, and this has given him the “freedom to be creative” he said because Ross’ “philosophy in painting was that there are no accidents. You just kind of express yourself through paint as you want to.”
Williams is currently living independently but returns to participate in this program because, he said, “it’s sort of like becoming a fixture in the community. You plant some roots, and that’s where I started. I’m being authentic to myself. I was once homeless and now I’m not.”
He said taking that step up and out is good and perhaps he can inspire others that might find themselves in the same situation, that “they can go through what I did and get free that way.”
A builder by trade, Stephen Koon took part in the art class, something he had not done before, noting that he has done lots of house building and historic restoration in Gold Hill but not art.
He shared that he had previously had a home in Winston-Salem but had not been in this area in a long time. He had a home in the mountains, he said, and lost everything in the recent floods. In order to get documents that were lost, he had to return to where he was born, which is what brought him back to this area and was homeless.
Being involved with the classes though he said was good and that “art was fascinating” and now he has a new talent he didn’t realize he had.
In addition to the artists, a support system was in attendance who came to see their work. One such was Solomon Tafar, who said he worked for RHM and wanted to support them.
Another was Sheila Prevatte, who serves as the secretary at RHM and said she had bought a piece of art last year that she had enjoyed and came again this year to support the event.
Pat Murtaugh, who volunteers at RHM, along with Adrienne James and Marina Bass, said they were fans of Morgan and do quilts and crafts, but on this day, they said they came to support the program.
The exhibition has lots of different types of mediums and lots of stories behind them, and when asked what it is about art that touches people, Williams said it is “a very deep and personal subject. It can be a lot of things to a lot of different people” and you can have as many opinions about it as you have people.
Participating artists listed were as follows
• Kimberly Barnhardt
• Mary Ann Beason
• Frank Belton
• Kristin Branch
• Dawn Chambers
• Jayne Cromie
• David Cross Jr.
• Jeremy Fulcher
• Richard Garrison
• Lynn Gminder
• Joshua Harrington
• Brian Kelly
• Stephen Koon
• Andre Layton
• Keosha Long
• James McNeair
• Johnathon Morrison
• Courtney Oliver
• Dale Perry
• James Pruitt
• Derrick Ross
• Mel Simpson
• Alvis Smith
• Willie Smith
• Bradley Williams
• Jennifer Wilson
• Keven Yates
