Local Philadelphia Organization Brings Student Art to Life

To celebrate the influence of print, each year on International Print Day, Oct. 21, organizations worldwide take 24 hours to highlight all that is possible through print. This year, Canon Solutions America highlights its customer Fresh Artists, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and how it celebrates International Print Day every day of the year through art and graphic design.

Founded in 2008, Fresh Artists showcases how art can help change lives through vibrant colors and graphics. The Fresh Artists team educates students through art, creating an environment that inspires those in the community to explore their creativity.

“Our philosophy is simple–great art doing good–and we accomplish this by empowering young lives through art and philanthropy, advocating for quality public education for all children by installing giant reproductions of children’s art in highly visible and unexpected places, and delivering art supplies and innovative art programs to schools struggling with massive cuts in arts funding,” explains Barbara Chandler Allen, founder and president, Fresh Artists. “We truly love what we do, and the smiles on our students’ faces make everything worth it. Canon’s equipment is able to help bring the students’ artwork to life, and without it, those smiles would not be possible.”

Fresh Artists takes printing beyond simply installing scaled-up reproductions of the children’s art. The company’s ground-breaking career exploration program, Cool Jobs, introduces more than 600 middle school children to highly successful people with jobs in wide-format printing and leaders in vehicle wrapping.

Additionally, its hands-on studio workshops, BIG ART, take middle schoolers and high school teens through the entire print process of image capture, scanning, color correction, inkjet, and dye-sublimation printing, as well as finishing and exhibit fabrication and installation in corporate interiors. Through this program, Fresh Artists helps showcase attainable, enjoyable careers to its students.

To date, Fresh Artists has curated a collection of over 2,300 artworks created by students, positively impacting the lives of millions of young people and delivering more than $2.5M in art supplies to classrooms across the country.