Tim Chambers Fine Art (TCFA): Teaching Art One Mind, One Heart at a Time
Tim has an ambitious vision for making a difference with his art that goes far beyond his beautiful canvases. Following is his vision for reaching people through his his other gift- that of teaching. This vision is being manifested through Tim’s online school IguanaPaint Academy of Fine Arts.
Following are interview questions from Chase Bank/Living Social’s Mission: Small Business competition. You’ll no doubt be inspired and touched as you read what’s on Tim’s heart.
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Q: Tell us about your business; how successful is it and why is it unique?
Headquartered in northern Virginia, Timothy Chambers Fine Art (TCFA) was founded nearly two decades ago by renowned artist Tim Chambers. Originally purposed in offering oil, pastel, and charcoal portraiture, TCFA has expanded its horizons to offering art workshops and art instruction to youth. Art is a tool of creation and self-expression, a means of responding to the world and life around us. In a world marked by uncertainty, the formative years of a child can be difficult especially without a way to express oneself. Yet, despite this inherent value, schools nationwide have had to cut back on vital programs such as art. Not only is art education inaccessible for many youth, but access to even basic supplies such as paint & paintbrushes, markers, and colored pencils, is out of reach.
TCFA aims to provide that missing artistic outlet to youth. Even with limited resources, TCFA has been able to provide monthly workshops to public, private, and home-schooled children in the northern Virginia area for the past two school years. In the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, TCFA teamed up with two liberal arts colleges (Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, VA, and Lees-McRae College, Banner Elk, NC) to provide week-long intensive art teaching to high schoolers from around the United States. TCFA provides these workshops free to children whose families cannot afford them.
What makes TCFA unique is our founder, Tim Chambers. There are many art programs out there, but few with teachers whose work is the caliber of Tim’s. Students and parents have stated that seeing the quality of work that Mr. Chambers himself has created has resulted in enhanced respect for his teaching. But not only is Tim a great artist, he is a gifted teacher. As one student shared, “Mr. Chambers is a phenomenal teacher…very talented and so good at breaking down the drawing process into small steps.” Students learn true art skills when they study with Tim. TCFA believes that children grow in stature and confidence by learning viable skills rather than encouragement alone, and our workshops produce measured improvement in draftsmanship, shading, color, texture, and more. We also make extensive use of great art history, so students learn from good examples of art as well as art appreciation.
There is one other aspect that Tim brings into his teaching, and that is his heart. Tim is gifted with incredible vision, yet he has had to deal with Usher Syndrome, a degenerative eye and ear disease (see ‘Additional relevant information” below). As a result, TCFA has a very personal, empathetic worldview on teaching art. We celebrate art as a gift to respond to the gift of life we are given each day. Art provides a wonderful opportunity to add joy to the world we live in. It is not merely a toy, or a new gadget, but an expression of peoples’ minds and hearts. TCFA seeks to equip children with real tools to provide real responses to life in all its fullness.
How is your business involved with the community you serve?
TCFA has led art workshops for children the past three years in northern Virginia, teaching students real skills through both monthly workshops (“ArtShops”) and week-long sessions (“ArtCamps”). Students learn the fundamental skills of drawing and painting through group lessons and one-on-one in-class instruction.
Outside the United States, Tim ventured to Belize with a community relief team in June of 2010. Amidst community service, TCFA coordinated an art camp for Belizean children, working with Dick Blick Art Materials to raise enough donations for a dozen boxes of art materials used for the camp, leaving behind plenty of materials for the young Belizeans and their schools to use once the relief team had left. For many of the Belizean children, who are often orphaned or abandoned to a life on the streets as young as three, this was the first time they had seen real paint! Yet, it was inspiring to see their joy as they quickly learned to draw and paint.
In addition to the workshops and summer camps, Tim Chambers taught two online art classes to sixty-five children (some as far as Singapore) during the 2011-12 school year. TCFA is expanding the online curriculum to reach more students worldwide, again aiming to provide the classes free to needy and impoverished students. TCFA believes every child should have the chance to learn.
The success of a business like TCFA cannot and should not be measured by any number other than one. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach or assembly-line offerings often adopted in today’s fast-paced world, TCFA finds value in impacting one child at a time. By working alongside children, encouraging them and equipping them with art tools and skills, TCFA has given them a means of expression and a newfound confidence in their own abilities and creativity.
What would a grant mean to your business plan and how will you utilize the funds to ensure long-term growth and stability?
The reason TCFA is seeking this grant is to realize what we feel to be an amazing and unique vision. Anyone that has heard our goals has smiled in awe and said “that would be wonderful if you can do this. Lives will be changed!” We have started small, working within our community and in various other places as opportunities have arisen. But to really reach out, to reach children in the inner cities through onsite and online instruction, we need the capital to do so.
What would the grant do for our vision? It would enable us to give more students worldwide the chance to explore and learn art through our top-flight art curriculum. It would enable us to offer still more workshops for free to students in the U.S. and abroad who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend (we already offer free tuition in every event we lead). It will enable us to coordinate with existing schools, charities, and ministries to provide art workshops to children who long to create but don’t have the opportunities in their schools or homes to learn.
A grant would enable us to offer paid art internships to top students from our workshops worldwide. An annual three-week advanced drawing and painting intensive will be offered for students that exhibit exceptional ability in our travel workshops. This is a golden opportunity for these students to really grow in their skills. It also will provide a taste of what it would be like to study their art full-time in a college or apprenticeship program.
Another exciting goal we have is to produce local and traveling exhibits of student work from various workshops around the country and the world, including the work of the interns at our annual advanced drawing and painting intensive. Accompanied by a printed book displaying the work of students, we want to raise awareness of the treasure of talent residing in inner cities and impoverished nations.
Building upon the release of a publication, we will then go a step further, connecting with galleries, businesses, and art material suppliers to provide an outlet for talented students to eventually earn income from the development and use of their creative gifts. We believe by teaching students skills, encouraging them and building confidence, students will then take the steps to be productive with their skills, pursuing education to continue developing their talents.
The grant from Chase’s Mission: Small Business will provide the funds to plan, execute, and promote this vision, reaching far beyond the present to building a better future for kids and families that currently may lack the hope to press forward and make a difference. We are very excited to see this flourish in the lives of students everywhere.
Describe the talent on your team and how they make your business successful.
Originally from Chicago, owner and founder of TCFA, Timothy Chambers has exhibited giftedness in art from a very early age while being trained by his father, professional artist William T. Chambers. Winning the top award and coveted magazine cover for the 1981 National Scholastic Awards with his lithographic print “Changes,” Tim went on to receive scholarships from the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University, Washington University in St. Louis, Hamline University, and the Harris School of Art. Ultimately, Tim found the instruction he was looking for through a variety of private tutelages and apprenticeships from artists including Richard Lack (in the Boston atelier tradition), Irving Shapiro (at the American Academy of Art), Cedric Egeli (Annapolis, MD), Sebastian Capella (San Diego, CA), and finally Henry Hensche (at the famed Cape School of Art, founded by American painters William Merrit Chase and Charles Hawthorne). After his years of apprenticeships, Tim went on to form TCFA and was accepted for representation by Portraits, Inc. and Portraits South, the two largest portrait brokers in the U.S.. During his time as a self-employed small-business owner, Tim has won several national portrait awards and gallery placements while providing for his family of five on a portrait commission basis.
Throughout his teachings through TCFA, Tim has been described as having “a unique ability to correct and encourage at just the right ratio for each child.” One student said of Tim that he is “gifted with an ability to look into your students’ hearts and communicate their given abilities.”
Tim’s teaching expertise extends beyond simply making each student feel valued, but results in actual artistic improvement in his students. One parent said of Tim’s teaching that, “I can truly see the difference that Mr. Chambers’ efforts have made reflected in my daughter’s latest works done on her free time.”
Other staff members of TCFA include Kim Chambers and a solid office admin and web development team. Kim oversees the day-to-day admin tasks, promotion/marketing, and scheduling. Kim has been with TCFA from its beginning, and thus is familiar with the art life. Stacey has career experience in organizing, planning, marketing, and research, and will continue to play a key role as TCFA moves forward.
Additional relevant information about Tim and his vision
Perhaps most amazing is that Tim has struggled since birth with an incurable rare genetic disorder called Usher Syndrome, which is the leading cause of deaf-blindness. He has lived with his deafness since early childhood, and has dealt with limited vision since he was diagnosed almost nineteen years ago with Ushers Syndrome. The vision impairment associated with Tim’s Usher syndrome is called Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and has resulted most significantly in night blindness and a lack of peripheral vision (essentially tunnel vision). He has learned to overcome losing most of his hearing and sight. His doctors have said that it is remarkable how Tim compensates for what he is lacking, making the most use of what he does have.
He understands the struggles of doing things that many take for granted and of being misunderstood. Life is hard, and not always fair. We have to find a way to rise above the obstacles, to press on, to discover things that are true, right, of good repute and worthy of praise. It’s not easy, but the rewards are worth it. Through the struggle we can see, as Tim learned, that each day is a gift, an opportunity to press on to make the most of what we are given. He teaches his students not only the skills of art, but of learning to see with their own eyes. Rather than merely tell students what to do, he teaches them to seek solutions to the ever-present “puzzles” that need to be solved in art projects. They learn to ask questions that will yield the answers. By this method, students own their progress and thus continue growing on their own.
Tim’s vision for TCFA to reach the forgotten and those without is no doubt a result of facing his own challenges. This is perhaps why he is endearing to his students, for he is both their teacher and friend. TCFA makes an impact on students’ hearts and minds, both in the short term and the long term. This is how we build hope through art. A person who has joy and hope is indeed a beautiful work of art!
Tim painting a color study for one of his portraits.