Artist and Non-Profit Group Partner on USA Tour for Children and Art

Los Angeles, CA, September 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- On the eve of her national tour, Across the USA from the Eyes of an Artist, visual artist Leisa Collins (http://www.leisacollins.com) reaffirmed her commitment to children and art education, forming a partnership with Free Arts for Abused Children (http://www.freearts.org), a group dedicated to providing opportunities for children to learn and create art. The alliance was inaugurated at the group’s LA headquarters with Leisa presenting an original painting entitled “The Loneliness of Abuse” to the Executive Director of Free Arts for Abused Children, Karrah Lompa. Leisa created the painting to communicate the emotional isolation and despair suffered by an abused child, and to stress the important role that the arts can play in healing a child.

Setting out from Los Angeles, the tour promises to be an action-packed adventure and a captivating view of the American canvas from the eyes of an artist. It will culminate in New York near the end of September. The journey marks the re-emergence of Leisa into the art world after two decades of global travels and social activism. The daily blog for the tour is www.leisacollinsartwithamessage.blogspot.com.

During the tour Leisa will capture the scenic beauty and people of America in original paintings while teaming up with Free Arts for Abused Children affiliate groups throughout the country on art lessons, kids art projects and other activities to raise awareness and funding for art education. Her website offers authenticated prints of her painting, The Loneliness of Abuse, with 50% of the profits going to Free Arts for Abused Children to support their ongoing projects for children and art.

“Today in the USA, over 40% of elementary school children don’t have art teachers. With every state in the nation facing financial crisis and budget cuts, art is often one of the first items slashed,” said Leisa. “This means that the community - that’s you and me - must do more to ensure All children are taught the skills of observing, imagining, creating and thinking.”

The first stop of the tour is the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona. Further stops will include Las Vegas, Death Valley, the Sierra Nevada Mountain Regions of Sequoia and Yosemite. Then San Francisco and the Redwood Forest followed by the city of Eureka, California. Then Salem and Portland in Oregon, Snowden in Washington, Boise in Idaho, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, The Badlands and Sioux Falls City in South Dakota, Minneapolis/St Paul in Minnesota, Green Bay and Milwaukee in Wisconsin, Chicago in Illinois, Lansing and Detroit in Michigan, Niagrara Falls on the US-Canada border, Buffalo in New York, Allentown and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Trenton in New Jersey, and the final destination of the tour – New York City.

Based in the USA, but international in scope, Leisa is now combining her activist and artistic skills under the motto of Art with a Message. The entire tour route can be found on the Art in Action page of her website, www.leisacollins.com, where you can also sign up for her weekly newsletter, Art in the Making.

Free Arts for Abused Children is dedicated to helping abused, homeless or at-risk children, as well as families living in crisis. Through expressive art programs Free Arts works to increase self-esteem and build positive character by unlocking the imagination and creativity of the victims of child abuse and homelessness. The Free Arts website is www.freearts.org.

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