For my project, I focused on child development. Over the last few years of our world evolving in the Covid-19 pandemic, isolation became an unfortunate but necessary action for people to take. Now, two years after the start of the pandemic, many educators and parents are seeing social, emotional, and educational development struggles in young children. Now, although I can’t fix the entirety of the Covid-19 pandemic, I wanted my project to focus on the young generation which has been impacted.

This led to me creating Mari's Mindful Masterpieces (also known as MMM), an Instagram account showing tutorials on open-ended exploration art projects which parents can do with their kids at home. Open exploration art involves giving children guidelines, but not rules or restrictions when it comes to creating. This allows children to let their minds make whatever they feel and express themselves through art. These projects we’ve selected and cultivated will help with communication skills, out-of-the-box thinking, problem-solving, self-expression, cultivating emotional resilience, overall emotional states, and motor skills. All of these things have been impacted in some way due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and my goal for this project is to help give parents a fun, engaging, and easy way for their children to improve on these important skills through art therapy.

Along with the Instagram account, my team and I hosted an event at Pretend City Children's Museum in Irvine. We set up two of our projects in their art facility to get hands-on experience with the kids as they create. This allowed us to see the immediate positive impacts of my project!