Where Everyday Magic Happens: Art, Dignity, and the Transformative Power of AmeriCorps

Service in Strokes: The Role of AmeriCorps Members

 Every day magic happens at Imagine Art. All I have to do is walk out the door and I see it...   It could be an interaction between somebody and their object and their craft. All of a sudden there is this profound moment where they realize something wonderful that they'd just never seen before...  It's about maximizing yourself as a person. It's an easy place to make that happen.

"Our members come to serve as artists-in-residence," said Rick Hernandez, Director of the AmeriCorps program at Imagine Art. "They serve as instructors and mentors. They work side-by-side with the artists and teach them new skills. Our real goal is to assist them in becoming job-ready… It's about getting them to the point where they not only can produce the art, but they can represent it. They can discern the quality. They can decide when it's finished."

Before AmeriCorps, the organization was overextended. "We had 60+ artists coming in daily to work in the studios, and we had two instructors… It was a capacity issue," Hernandez said. "The AmeriCorps program really changed our world in that sense because it gave us the capacity to truly be able to serve the artists and to focus on a goal."

Each year, about 25 AmeriCorps members support up to 65 artists with unique physical, intellectual, and psychological disabilities-adding not just hands, but heart and dignity to the mission.

"It's not just about learning to paint. It's not just about learning to mix color," Hernandez emphasized. "It's about studio habits. It's about understanding the business of the arts. It's about them being able to represent their work to a potential buyer. It's about them being able to archive their work, to inventory it, to recognize its value… Those are kinds of things that are happening between our members and our artists daily. That's the kind of engagement that is happening. The members are engaging the artists fully."

Finding Purpose at the Crossroads of Creativity and Care

Before she ever stepped into the Imagine Art studio, Kathryn Schulze was learning how to serve-not in a classroom, but at the grocery store and in strangers' living rooms, watching her mother offer kindness to women in crisis.

"My mom basically helped women in crisis pregnancies," Kathryn said. "She would go to the grocery store with them and help them use their SNAP benefits… We would go and collect clothes for them or literally just anything else they needed."

Even as a child folding donated clothes or tagging along on shopping trips, Kathryn sensed the quiet power of those small, faithful gestures. "It was really cool getting to meet the people that she was working with… Seeing my mom serving the community taught me that no matter what it is, it makes a huge difference… It's about the connection and the community."

So when Kathryn found herself unsure of her path after college-her sociology degree in hand and art still just a personal outlet-it was that early imprint of service that guided her toward AmeriCorps. "I always knew I wanted to do something helping a community," she said. "I had no idea that I could incorporate art into that… AmeriCorps had the perfect mesh of those."

What she found at Imagine Art wasn't just a job, but a place that would shape her voice, confidence, and future.

"The artists here have taught me to be more brave with my work and just to take risks," she said. "I'm inspired by them literally every single day." That inspiration has spilled into her personal art practice-prompting her to participate in art markets, receive commissions, and even show in galleries. "If I wasn't working here, I don't think I'd be nearly close to where I am now in my personal practice," she said. "Working here has just jump-started everything for me."

Beyond technical skills, Kathryn speaks of something more essential. "It's really taught me to trust myself," she said. "Now I feel like I second-guess less… I'm just trusting that I can do this, and I'm going to try this. If that doesn't work, that's fine-I'll try the next thing."

Having that intersection of art and service, is what really drew me to AmeriCorps... Seeing my mom serving the community, it taught me that it's about the connection and building those personal relationships and seeing the confidence just grow. Feeling loved and cared about is what really made the big difference... I wanted to keep it at that intersection of art and healing and art and growth and confidence building, which is really why I think what Imagine Art does is so cool because it is all of those things.

Kathryn and the Horse Painter: A Story of Mutual Transformation

One of Kathryn's first students at Imagine Art is a charismatic artist with developmental disorders named Steven Fisher, "known for his passion for horses and intricate depictions of them. Many of the colorful mares, colts, and stallions that Steven illustrates and paints, have elaborate backstories. Working mainly in watercolor on paper and acrylic on canvas, he has a knack for giving each horse a unique personality," according to his artist bio.

"He is also just one of the most gracious people I've ever met. And he's super appreciative and is always giving people words of affirmation. He's really encouraged me too with my own art," Kathryn said. "It's just been really cool to see him grow and gain confidence as an artist too. We've become good friends for sure."

For Steven, the feeling was mutual. "She's really friendly, helpful," he said. "She's helpful when I don't remember something, like not knowing how to shade that much, she helps… The support she gives is unique."

Steven, who's been coming to Imagine Art for more than six years, finds joy an dignity in the creative process. "I come for opportunities," he said. "It brings more audience. They really like my stuff I present. It makes me feel really nice to share with the audience what they want. I think it's the beauty of it. It's the best conversation with it."

Rick has noticed recent changes in Steven's skill and confidence:  "What I'm seeing right now is that the quality of his work, the quality of his brushstroke, the quality of his design decisions, the quality of his color choices-all of that is improving radically. And that's because [Kathryn] sits right next to him every day and one-on-one guides him… and the value of that, you just can't beat it. It's just profound."

 "There is this continuum of consistent attention and provision of valuable service that ultimately gets one to that place," he adds. "He's always painted well… But the quality of it that I've seen literally in the last couple months since she's been working with him is just extreme… And that has everything to do with Kathryn's interaction with him. It's about consistent, good quality attention and mentorship."

Kathryn reflects that her own sense of purpose has grown alongside Steven's. "The clients, the artists we serve, they give you unconditional care and respect and love and make you feel good about what you're doing no matter what," she said. "It's shown me that just showing up and doing good work, as long as your intentions are good and to serve and you really want to help, that's enough."

Trust as a Pathway to Leadership

John Molina doesn't just make art-he makes things happen.

"I paint, and I make my own coloring book and stickers, and I help in the kitchen over there," he said. "I'm on the board with Debbie… and I've been working on different paintings, different abstracts," said John, who uses "circles, spirals, scratches and negative space to reveal the undercurrents of how his artistic mind works," according to his artist bio. " I do flower people paintings. I do big ones and little ones."

His days are full-organizing events, tracking outings on the calendar, networking potential collaborations, even curating his own shows. "Before TOMS Coffee closed, I did a show there all by myself," he said, referencing a local cafe. "I was there until 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock setting up, and then I had to pull everything out, and they let me do it there."

John also values the partnerships with AmeriCorps. "A couple of AmeriCorps members… taught me how to do the base of the painting," he said. "Because when I do big paintings… if somebody asks for a three-foot one, they have to make sure that I'm ready to do it."

His mantra is simple but profound: "I trust them because they help me, and they trust me… We do everything we need to do for each other."

 ​I paint, and I make my own coloring books and stickers... I trust [AmeriCorps] because they help me, and they trust me. And when I trust them, they trust me, and we do everything we need to do for each other.

From Passing Time to Building Purpose

Before he was participating in Imagine Art programs, he was in programs that were not suiting his needs... The social interactions were also not as enriching as he needs for his own satisfaction and personal growth. So we were delighted that Imagine Art filled those needs in spades and provided him with creative outlets... It really took his daytime activities to a new level of enrichment, social benefits, and opportunities for growth.

John's journey has not gone unnoticed by his sister, housemate, and guardian Caroline Molina-Ray. A decade ago, they were searching for a place that could offer meaningful engagement-not just custodial care.

"Imagine Art came into our lives at just the right time. It was really a godsend," she said.

Today, John is not just an artist but an entrepreneur and community leader. One of Caroline's proudest moments? The day John published his first coloring book. "It makes for a nice gift. Interspersed among the images… are John's favorite sayings, and they're very uplifting," she said. "'You're my friend and I love you' is just placed in the book as an affirmation."

Caroline credits AmeriCorps for amplifying that impact. "It's clear from their focus on serving individual clients, as well as the larger community, that they do this as a labor of love. It's more a lived experience of giving," she said. "We wouldn't be able to see the benefits in the lives of the clients at Imagine Art unless we had such a dedicated and talented group of AmeriCorps members."

Caroline has a deep appreciation for the AmeriCorps members devoting their time and talent to support artists with disabilities. " They do it by sitting one-on-one with the artist, helping them to develop their skills, helping them to develop new ideas for their art, helping them to refine the artistic abilities that they already have. They do it by helping artists interact effectively with each other and with other members of the community. So they help artists build social skills and communication skills. They also accompany the artists into the community on field trips, on outings, and help the artists discover how art is integrated into the real world."

One story stands out in her memory: "We got a little nervous not knowing exactly where we were," she said of trying to locate a field trip site. "We called the AmeriCorps member… and [she] walked to us and physically ushered us to the right spot. That's, I think, symbolic of AmeriCorps members playing a leadership role, playing a role as guide, but also just helper and support and trusted friend."

The Bigger Picture: Art as Infrastructure

Beyond the individual stories lies a broader truth: the arts have economic and social power. According to a recent report by the Texas Cultural Trust, the arts and culture industry has grown more than 30% in the last decade, generating $6 billion annually for the Texas economy and contributing nearly $380 million in state sales tax revenue.

"One of the things that people don't understand is the value that the arts have on a community from perspectives outside of just engagement," said Rick, who led groundbreaking economic impact studies as former executive director of Texas Commission on the Arts.

It's a clean, safe, scalable engine-and Imagine Art is proof that it can also be inclusive.

"Most of our artists will never leave here," said Rick. "This place is forever for them… This truly is a community. It's not just a place where you come to learn something and then leave."

Rick has spent a lifetime championing the arts as public infrastructure. "Everybody's enjoying it in some way or another and don't even know it most of the time because they don't understand the source of what it is that they're enjoying," he said.

And at Imagine Art, "everybody involved becomes a beneficiary of this activity."

A Studio Where Lives Take Shape

Back in the Imagine Art studio, it's just another day. Paintbrushes are rinsed. Critiques are held. Someone laughs over a half-finished landscape. Someone else leans over a communal table to adjust the edge of a canvas.

It's not flashy. It's not headline-grabbing. But it is, as Rick puts it, "everyday magic."

"All I have to do is walk into one of these rooms, and I see it happening," he said. "It could be an interaction between somebody and their object and their craft, that all of a sudden there was this profound moment where they realized something wonderful that they'd just never seen before."

In that moment-in that revelation-is everything: the artist, the mentor, the system transformed.

This is Imagine Art. This is AmeriCorps. This is what happens when service meets soul.

Interviews, photography, editing & prompting by Joshua Winata

Text generated with ChatGPT and Claude​