Art with a Heart
Monica McColm has extensive experience in education, currently serving as an Art Educator at Art with a Heart since July 2017, where Monica delivers standards-based art instruction and co-leads a leadership development program for middle school scholars in Baltimore City. Prior to this role, Monica worked for Howard County Public Schools for 30 years, holding positions such as Instructional Team Leader, where responsibilities included coordinating curriculum planning and leading instructional program evaluations, and Reading Specialist, focusing on diagnosing literacy needs and creating community literacy programs. Monica earned a BS in Education from the University of Maryland and furthered studies at Loyola University Maryland.
Art with a Heart
Art with a Heart’s mission is to enhance the lives of people in need through visual art. With art as its vehicle, Art with a Heart provides Baltimore’s vulnerable children and youth with access to positive and productive programming, caring and nurturing adults on a consistent basis, and the chance to embrace new ideas and skills. Art with a Heart works to make participation in its programs a transformative experience, emphasizing for its participants that their new ideas and skills can be a foundation for creating change in their lives. In addition to more than 14,500 annual core programs, Art with a Heart offers the following complementary initiatives: • HeARTworks - a workforce development program, uses art as a vehicle to teach job skills • Art to Market - teaches job program participants and volunteers to create marketable art which is then displayed and sold to the public • Apprenticeships - encourages qualified participants who have graduated from the job program to earn money while assisting in HeARTwares and targeted sites • Arts Integration - provides engaging visual art programs to supplement academic curricula in elementary/middle schools • HeARTwares - Art with a Heart's social enterprise/retail store • Public Art Projects - often in the form of mosaic murals by community volunteers • Community Service and Service Learning • The Art of Leadership - introduces and/or reinforces leadership competencies to provide students the skills to help solve community problems and enhance their civic participation.