LJWorld.com

Photo by Thad Allender

Van Gogh Mobile Arts artist Trever Fanshier, 15, puts finishing touches on his benches at the center located at 715 New Jersey. Students hustled on Wednesday to ready their colorful painted benches for the unveiling on Friday.

Eight weeks of work will culminate Friday when 21 teenagers unveil what they've done during summer vacation.

The teens have created custom-designed and intricately painted benches for businesses and organizations.

Van Go Mobile Arts' JAMS - Jobs in the Arts Make Sense - will conclude its summer Benchmark program with an unveiling at 5 p.m. Friday at the Van Go facility, 715 N.J.

Each of the 21 students, ages 14 to 18, employed in the program designed and painted a commissioned artistic bench for an organization.

The artists, working 22 hours a week during the summer, met with their clients one-on-one, developed plans and gained approval on blueprints and models before starting work on the benches.

"It's very much a design process that any graphics person would go through out in the business world," said Lynne Green, Van Go executive director. "It's a real-world experience."

The artists' friends and family, their clients and other community members are all invited to the unveiling, Green said.

Two of the benches will go to New York School and Central Junior High School as memorials for two children killed in a house fire last year. The other clients include schools, medical offices, restaurants and nonprofit organizations.

Most of the clients display the benches prominently at their locations, Green said.

"It's really Van Go's signature program," she said. "It's sort of the way we're known and also the way we get our kids recognition for the work they do."

Van Go, a nonprofit organization that employs at-risk Douglas County youths to produce artwork, also runs JAMS sessions during the spring and fall where artists create group murals and smaller projects.

Kirsten Bittinger, 15, said this summer was her third or fourth JAMS session but her first time creating a bench. She said her project went smoothly after she met with a woman from her client, Pediatrics Adolescent Medicine, to show her a plan.

"I was nervous," Bittinger said. "I thought they were going to change it all, but she said, 'It looks darling.'"

She said she had looked forward to the program because the bench would give her something to be proud of.

"I thought maybe my friends would see my bench out in public and say, 'Hey, Kirsten, I didn't know you made a bench,'" Bittinger said.

Green said confidence is one of the goals of the JAMS programs.

"It's about enhancing the self-esteem of our young people and showing them they can be successful in the real world," she said. "That said, the benches are wonderful pieces of functional artwork."