HAZLET — For years, therapists at Amanda’s Easel have used art as a way to heal children who have been abused. With the help of a $450,000 state grant, the organization was able to expand the site from one room to three, providing room for art, dance and play therapy areas, as well as a waiting room, an office and storage space. The art therapy program is part of 180 Turning Lives Around, a nonprofit agency that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Laura Greenstone, assistant coordinator for Amanda’s Easel, said the art therapy program is beneficial to both children and parents. Decorating one wall of the art therapy space was a brightly colored mural, created by a group of 10 Henry Hudson Regional School students, who also helped clean out the new spaces and built storage cabinets and spaces in the middle art therapy space.

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Alec Firrincieli, 7, draws a space monkey during the painting class, a part of the fine arts summer camp at the Carrollwood Cultural Center. CARROLLWOOD - Two days into a weeklong summer fine arts camp, the group of 34 students finished a rendition of a song from “Annie” and broke off to explore other artistic talents. Students spent the morning in chorus and theater class and then rotated into 35-minute courses in dance, piano, painting, printmaking and pottery. Next door in the painting class, teacher Mary Ellen Bit- ner had her students personalize a portfolio to hold their artwork and then draw pictures of puppies with charcoal sticks. Throughout the class, Bitner walked around helping the students smudge their black lines while working on her own charcoal puppies on the easel.

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