Photo By Janecze Wright | Lindsey Schmidt and her children Paisley, 8 and Leighton, 6, enjoyed their first visit...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas -- “You don’t have to be super artsy, just come in and use your hands,” said Christine Riopelle, recreation assistant and volunteer at the Apache Arts and Crafts Center on Fort Hood.
Touted as the “most hidden gem on Fort Hood,” the center encourages getting hands-on with a wide variety of projects and disciplines sure to appeal to the novice as well as the expert arts and crafter.
The center consists of three shops: woodshop, ceramics and pottery and multi-crafts. In addition to the three main shops, the center also has a general art room which can be used for drawing, painting and other art disciplines upon request and approval.
Try something new with “Intro to Leather Work,” heat up your creativity with “Laser Engraving 101” or shape your imagination in “Ceramic Mold Pouring Class.” The center boasts a variety of classes to appeal to crafters of all levels.
The center also schedules events like Saturday’s “Crafting with my Gnomies,” where craft enthusiasts created gnomes for Valentine’s Day.
In addition to the many traditional arts and crafts classes, the center offers the “Resiliency Through Art” program to provide Soldiers, veterans, family members and DoD civilians a quiet, safe space to be exposed to and learn arts and crafts to help reduce stress, increase focus and develop tools to cope with the stresses of military life.
“A lot of Soldiers are stressed, they are going through deployments, their spouses and family members are dealing with training and deployment,” Riopelle said. “It helps keep morale up, creates a better mental health environment and it builds better community.”
Riopelle explained that the program is not quite art therapy, but focuses more on the process of getting Soldiers engaged with art.
“They use their hands, and it allows them to vocalize and get in touch with emotions that they cannot articulate normally,” she explained.
Mark Wilson, center manager, says the program represents a safe space for Soldiers, family members or anybody that works on Fort Hood to come and take a break in a stress-free environment and relax. He noted that the resiliency room has small projects that can be done as stress relief or to help with out-patient rehabilitation.
Lindsay Schmidt and her pint-sized painters, Paisley, 8, and Leighton, 6, visited the center for the first time Saturday and had nothing but positive reviews. She said there were lots of different options, that her kids got to pick out their own animals from a selection of over 600 ceramic statues, that the cost was very reasonable and the center is a great resource to have on post.
“Fort Hood has a very high number of families who need these additional resources and things to do local if they’re not from this area and they don’t know about resources out in the community,” she explained. “It’s really beneficial to have these options here, on post, to do for themselves or community building and all of the other options.”
The center can support small functions and events like birthday parties, club meetings and small events with up to 10 attendees and they are always looking for volunteers to teach a craft or help around the facility. Visitors are encouraged to come by anytime the center is open for an impromptu tour or to just get information.
Visit https://hood.armymwr.com/programs/apache-arts-and-crafts-center for more information.
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2023 17:27 |
| Story ID: | 439679 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Apache Arts and Crafts Center remains hidden gem, by Janecze Wright, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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