Innovative Self-Expressive Artist Studio | Lucinda Jones
Lucinda Jones is a quiet powerhouse, one of those humble people whose actions speak louder than their words. As a young artist and educator, Lucinda has already made a lasting impact on the Oklahoma City community by painting public murals, teaching technical programs, and providing art education to underserved youth through her non-profit Innovative Self-Expressive Artist Studio (ISEA) Inc.
With a background in culinary arts and a bachelor's in Arts Administration, Lucinda has built a career out of her creativity, helping youth learn about all sorts of art and creative expression. While working with secondary school students during the day at Metro Tech, teaching technical skills, Jones discovered that the after-school enrichment options were limited.
“When I was building relationships with these students, I learned that there weren’t many after-school, extracurricular activities to help them further themselves. From there, I started a non-profit based on my experience and interactions with my students. I knew my strong points were arts and food, and I wanted to merge those. Even though they are two separate entities, you can see them as one creative outlet. Currently, I offer visual and culinary arts separately.”
Lucinda started ISEA Inc. in 2017, starting with research and allowing the organization to grow slowly and organically. Today, Lucinda says ISEA is in the “seed stage,” just starting out and slowly building momentum. She is focusing on establishing a board of directors and creating programming that is convenient for other organizations.
“The current goal of ISEA is to travel to different schools and organizations and partner with them, proposing what my organization offers, providing visual and culinary arts.”
ISEA is set up to offer after-school programming in culinary arts, visual arts, or a little bit of both. For example, ISEAs first partner was Peppers Ranch Foster Community, where Lucinda would meet with their children once a month to provide two-afternoon sessions. “I switch off and provide visual arts one month and culinary arts one month, so they have the opportunity to be exposed to both creatives.”
As ISEA builds momentum, Lucinda wants to partner with another organization in the next few months. Eventually, Lucinda would like to partner with public schools to offer after-school programming there.
Why is ISEA valuable to you?
“This is very valuable to me because I believe I was blessed with gifts, and I want to use those gifts to give back and contribute to the youth and allow them to gain knowledge from my experiences, my education, and my lessons. Just to be that to youth so they can adopt and consume the knowledge of art. I take it as I am planting a seed. I want to plant a seed so it can grow and flourish. I want them to take the skills I taught them, and they can use them in their future.”
What impact do you expect this project to have on the community?
“Empowerment. Most important is community leadership. As a young individual, the leadership you receive can play many roles. I hope to impact the community with empowerment, leadership, and team building.”
Lucinda hopes to empower youth to find their voices, their power, and their community. Through serving as a positive leader and role model, Lucinda can model what owning your voice and being empowered by your art can look like.
What are your plans for ISEA in the future?
In 2023, Lucinda hopes to partner with at least five new organizations, sharing her programming with more youth.
“Knowing that I can reach as many youths as possible, that is the ultimate goal for this business. Knowing that I have made an impact. I will know that through testimonies from my students because this comes from the heart and the experience.”
Lucinda is in it for the long haul, knowing that the long-term impacts will be significant, even if the short-term impact isn’t realized. “Working with youth, sometimes you don’t see the impact for many years down the line.”
Extensive research supports the importance of teaching art to young people. Art education and opportunities for creative expression are linked to increased social-emotional health, stronger academics, better memory, improved fine motor skills, and more. According to this article from Seneca Academy, “Art instruction helps children with the development of motor skills, language skills, social skills, decision-making, risk-taking, and inventiveness.”
When asked what Lucinda enjoys in life, she responded:
“I just really love giving back. Giving back to the youth, I find passion all over, honestly. Both my parents were teachers, and my grandparents were educators too. That would be my biggest passion.”
In addition to teaching and making the world a brighter place, Lucinda loves all aspects of the arts: dancing, murals, listening to music, cooking, going to museums, etc. Mixed media is her art medium of choice, using different recycled materials, different papers, acrylic, and oil paints and creating portraits of people. “I value people because we are all different. I like to look at the features of individuals and examine our differences even more.”
You can learn more about ISEA and Lucinda by checking out her ISEA Studio website or find her on Facebook or Instagram. The Let’s Choose Love Mini-Grant was ISEA’s first grant, providing seed money to purchase art supplies.
