Tim's Journal: Kevin Garvey and the Power of Art

“Life takes funny turns,” Kevin Garvey mused, as he kept one eye on his art students at Bridgeway Rehabilitation’s Partial Care Center in Elizabeth. Garvey has been an art instructor there for the past 10 years, and is getting ready for his students’ next exhibition at Kean University.

Soon he would be moving swiftly about the room from one student to another, offering feedback as they complete their projects.

“Rich, what do you need?” he asks.

 “Those things you’re looking at are right up your alley.”

A student asks: “Do you want me to do it this way, or this way?” He quickly replies, “What do you think?”

He isn’t held back by the cane he uses to get around.

“Early in my life I was an artist, but then I got busy doing other things to make money,” he said. He went into landscaping but an accident left him disabled, so he found himself at the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. There, tests showed he had an aptitude for art. The DVR paid for four years of studying art at duCret School of Art in Plainfield.

He soon found a home at Bridgeway, where he teaches 25 students every Tuesday and Thursday from 1 to 3 pm.

The opening for their exhibition will be at 4 pm May 21 at Kean’s James Howe Fine Arts Gallery in Vaughn-Eames Hall. The exhibition runs through May 30.

“Being disabled myself I can relate to people with disabilities,” Kevin said. “I’m able to connect.”

Virginia Erazo, one of his students, describes Kevin as “patient and kind.” She said doing art helps her focus and concentrate.

“I’ve been doing art since I was a kid.  My sister and I used to have our own drawing contests. Kevin has helped me to improve my artwork.  When I’m done, I pat myself on the back,” she said. “I’m glad that Bridgeway has something like this.”

The art program was the brainchild of Dave D’Antonio, Bridgeway’s Partial Care Program Director, and Debra Brown, a Team Leader. Bridgeway gets funding for the art program from a grant from Union County.

“The purpose of the program is for people that might want to use art to have something to do outside the Partial Care program. Art can be a wellness activity. For some, it becomes a hobby,” Dave said.

“Some people come into the program very interested in art, while others start off not even being able to draw a stick figure.  But a couple of months down the road, they’re doing amazing work thanks to Kevin,” he added.

Debra noted some of the other benefits for participants in the program. “In art they are faced with problem-solving, and there’s a social benefit to interacting with the other people in the class,” she said.

Those are some of the goals Bridgeway tries to achieve at Partial Care, which has provided services in Union County since 1970. The focus is on helping persons served to connect with roles that they value, such as student, worker, mother, voter and to help them integrate into the community to the greatest extent possible.

Dave pointed out one more bonus from the art program: improved self-esteem. “They can go from being a person with a mental illness to telling people that they are an artist,” he said.

Two students that Kevin has taught have gone on to be professional artists.

“My dad said I could never make a living being an artist,” Kevin recalls. But as he says, life takes funny turns.