Today we’d like to introduce you to Yena Nam
Hi Yena, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey began when I was inspired to integrate community care with my passion for art and child welfare. Throughout high school, I’ve been contemplating how to take advantage of my artistic abilities to better my community, especially with a focus on underprivileged children. When I learned about the DFW community’s socioeconomic disparities, children with low access to education, and overall mental health crises, I embarked on a venture to provide access to the arts to those children who lack resources to pursue their potential.
In order to find children who are in need of guidance and resources for art, I reached out to diverse DFW child nonprofit organizations that align with Dreamer’s Palette’s mission. Over time, I was able to partner up with organizations, including Ronald McDonald House of Dallas, Community Partners of Dallas, and Genesis Women’s Shelter, which led me to establish a community-focused initiative, Dreamers’ Palette. This initiative’s mission is “to expose children to the joys that lie within the art world, invite them to include art in their future dreams and aspirations, and let their voices be heard in society through meaningful creative expression, valuing sincerity, equity, and inclusivity.” My hope and passion to widen the accessibility of arts education and empower children has spurred me to delve deeper into learning how children will best benefit from my initiative and ultimately brings me one step closer to my goal of helping children to unleash their potential.
I believe arts education is an underappreciated aspect of children’s learning, meaning that it can play a key role in encouraging children’s social-emotional development with creative freedom and leading them to uncharted pathways to discover their identities. Running Dreamers’ Palette for over a year now, I am confident that my initiative will serve to help children use art-making as a tool to explore questions of identity and community.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
From consolidating my ideas to establishing and running Dreamers’ Palette, my journey has definitely faced a host of challenges. First and foremost, although I was thrilled to begin structuring my vision into various actionable steps, breathing life into my idea and starting a whole initiative required two important factors: consistency and sincerity. Without a consistent endeavor in searching for local organizations to reach children in my community, I wouldn’t have been able to make my project come to life. However, consistency didn’t stop there. After launching Dreamers’ Palette, producing art kits and holding art workshops every month with consistency allowed me to build a concrete foundation for my work. More than consistency, however, being sincere to the purpose of my project and true to my own initial vision served as a cornerstone in expanding Dreamers’ Palette and always looking for more opportunities to positively impact children. While producing art kits and holding art workshops, tailoring them to match up-to-date interests of children and families was my biggest priority; Running a workshop that provides children moments of respite and psychological care was another priority. Through all the struggles I’ve encountered, I was able to experience moments of growth and fulfillment that continue to keep moving forward on Dreamers’ Palette to this day.
As you know, we’re big fans of Dreamers’ Palette. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
With the goal of furthering arts education in the DFW area, Dreamers’ Palette provides children-oriented art kits and in-person art workshops to children every month at various local child nonprofits, with Ronald McDonald House of Dallas being the primary location. This art kit is a one-stop-shop package that includes a printed blueprint, instruction pamphlet, and necessary supplies/materials for the art project. Its primary intention is to inspire children to create and explore art on their own and take advantage of creative freedom in their own unique ways. Throughout time, I hope that art kits help children learn about diverse aspects of art-making and empower them to be authentic to their interests and potential. Through today, Dreamers’ Palette has been producing 20-40 physical art kits to donate to local nonprofits and produced a total of 320+ art kits to this date. Furthermore, in order to expand the art kit’s reach, I’ve recently decided to create an online downloadable version of the art kit as a blueprint for children to whom I might not be able to donate physical art kits. All the art kit blueprints, pamphlets, as well as workshop stories are posted as blogs on Dreamers’ Palette website, and I can recount the behind-the-scenes as well as step-by-step processes through a consistent blog update. However, there are still a lot of local nonprofits and areas I seek to explore, and increasing awareness of the art kits through the website and Instagram is one of my next action items.
What matters most to you? Why?
From the time I started to explore my interest in bettering children’s education to running Dreamers’ Palette, delivering hope and happiness through the power of art was a guiding force in my journey. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be exposed to the art world at an early age, and I believe each and every child is entitled to resources and an outlet to unleash their potential and discover infinite artistic possibilities. Not only do I want children to use art as a means of creative expression and exploration, but I also want them to be able to DREAM and LEARN through art, just as I did when I was young. I want them to experience the same immensely everlasting impact of art, see themselves through the lens of hope, and always put themselves out into the world with courage, confidence, and authenticity through art. That’s why I decided to start this project—to get one step closer to my own dream.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dreamerspalette.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_dreamerspalette_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dreamers_Palette
