Arts & Entertainment
FREE Artists Open Showcase at LICM
Duplicates of the artwork exhibited in "Chaos and Containment" will be available for sale through the organization, where benefits will aid victims from Superstorm Sandy.
Family Residences and Essential Enterprises Inc. (FREE) of Old Bethpage hosted a grand opening for its latest art exhibit, "Chaos and Containment," Monday afternoon at the Long Island Children's Museum (LICM) in E. Garden City.
FREE was founded more than three decades ago with hopes of providing community, residential and employment alternatives to families struggling with differently-abled individuals. Divisional director Susan Sorrentino said a resource like FREE is vital for integration today.
"We're pretty diverse and we serve from children at a very young age through elderly adults," Sorrentino said. "It used to be that if you wanted services outside your home, you had to leave and go to a residential school. With more things being offered as a community, we can offer more opportunities for families from in-home services to recreational programs."
Director of art therapy Ed Regensburg said the exhibit is a real stepping stone for the individuals at FREE as their work is displayed amongst typical community artists as well.
"This represents a very big step for us where the Long Island Children's Museum and FREE have joined forces to present a show that's a combination, fully integrated with artists from the community and artists with special needs," said Regensburg, whose been with FREE since 2010. There's no labeling who's who, so that's for you to figure out," Regensburg said.
"Anybody experiences feelings of pride and joy with something like this," he added. "They're proud. Their art is hanging in a place like this for the public. For anybody to get acknowledgement in this lifetime is a wonderful thing."
Nassau County Legis. Norma Gonsalves said she felt honored to be apart of Monday's opening and commended FREE for the work they continue to do for local residents with special needs.
"These artists have demonstrated how they're able to release their energy in a positive way," Gonsalves said. "It's consoling that today we're here in a time that there is a great deal of chaos and hopefully it is contained. Artwork comes to contain that chaos and I think the young artists who have performed today is certainly a tribute."
According to Sorrentino, duplicates of the artwork exhibited in "Chaos and Containment" will be available for sale through the organization, where benefits will aid victims from Superstorm Sandy.
"The name of the exhibition is so great and is so relative as to what's going on in people's lives the past month," she explained. "It's really important to give back and our artists knew this was a great way they could help. Everybody knows someone whose been effected and they really wanted to reach out and help the local community."
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