“Lifenet Texas was honored to serve as a host site for the Dallas LOVE Project. Our partnership with 29 Pieces began as an exercise in therapy for the children we support through our Young Minds program. However, our adult clients were instinctively drawn to it and it grew into a learning experience for the thousands of men and women we serve who are living with a mental disorder. We ended up with a collection of more than 200 unique pieces of LOVE art – each revealing a personal discovery of a love inspired by inner peace. We were amazed to see how quickly our clinic became a home of happiness.
We’re so thankful to Karen Blessen, 29 Pieces and the entire Dallas LOVE Project team. A year later, we see how the impact of this project supports our mission to rebuild lives.”
— Russell Cook
Director of Marketing and Communications
Lifenet Texas
“Keller ISD will be hiring seven or eight more art teachers – and we attribute the increased student interest in art to the excitement that students felt last year about 29 Pieces’ Dallas LOVE Project.”
— Kim Blann
Director of Fine Arts
Keller ISD
“I think that 29 Pieces: Dallas LOVE Project is an illuminated way to look at a dark piece of history, provide a wonderfully effective and memorable teaching opportunity – and help provoke conversations on many levels about why and how we remember and reflect upon the past and how it remains potent now and into the future! And to have something tangible at the end of that process!”
— Nicola Longford
Executive Director
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
“Asking students to look beyond their individual concerns into support for others is a tall order that 29 Pieces Education facilitates. The LOVE Project lesson was educational on several levels (history, civil rights, Dallas, legacies) and was a true favorite among my students. 29 Pieces Education puts context on ideas that are often cheerfully discussed and forgotten.”
“I push for personal work from my students – what are you communicating? What feelings and ideas will you express? This program sets up parameters, offers examples and context.”
“We would like to train Special Ed teachers, advisory teachers, and art teachers in 29 Pieces Education – who would reach 400 (High School) 300 (Middle School) 500 (Elementary).”
— Lynn McClain
Uplift Education Peak Preparatory
“Asking students to look beyond their individual concerns into support for others is a tall order that 29 Pieces Education facilitates. The LOVE Project lesson was educational on several levels (history, civil rights, Dallas, legacies) and was a true favorite among my students. 29 Pieces Education puts context on ideas that are often cheerfully discussed and forgotten.”
“I push for personal work from my students – what are you communicating? What feelings and ideas will you express? This program sets up parameters, offers examples and context.”
“We would like to train Special Ed teachers, advisory teachers, and art teachers in 29 Pieces Education – who would reach 400 (High School) 300 (Middle School) 500 (Elementary).”
“I see myself using this lesson (COMMITMENT) to start the year off as a way to set the stage for good character and expectations. We can change the world one person at a time. Each student can learn that they have huge impact good/bad on the world each day. Character traits can be used to help with classroom management. The program connects behaviors to outcomes, especially with problem resolutions. It could change the way we look at solving problems from “what they did” to “what can I do better.”
— Debbie Stein, Gill Middle School, 4th
“Many of these children have been highly traumatized in their lives and 29 Pieces’ creative programs help traumatized children feel better about themselves and gain coping strategies.”
— Janet Perera, Guidance Counselor, L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary
“I really like that the LOVE lesson is associated with Valentine’s Day but adds a much deeper understanding of the word “love.”
— Beverly Daniel, Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership
“The hands on activities and the use of materials/tools really motivated my students to do their work. I remember one moment when they were so engaged, creating the faces of their peacemakers. The room was so quiet.”
— Victor Chacon, L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary
“Teachers were a bit nervous about going right into 29 Pieces’ LOVE Project right at the beginning of the school year, but in the end, they felt that they learned more about their students in this one project than what they usually learn in a whole school year.”
— Kim Blann
Director of Fine Arts
Keller ISD
“All of the 29 Pieces Education lessons should be required for Dallas ISD schools.”
— Maria Teresa G. Pedroche
Head of Community Engagement & Connections
Dallas Museum of Art
“29 Pieces’ Dallas LOVE Project brought a unique opportunity to our teachers, students and families, because siblings in 4th grade and 12th grade were working on the same project, and that has never happened before. That gave families and children something to relate to with each other.”
— Kim Blann
Director of Fine Arts
Keller ISD
“29 Pieces Education lessons support our work in social and emotional learning at Salesmanship Club’s Jonsson School and they will do the same for any school.
— Sandy Nobles
Director of Education
Momentus Education
“To see an art project in play that is bringing this creativity out is just phenomenal to watch. The children were totally engage and it was exciting to see that development of learning in them through art.”
— Lea Beach,
Former Principal of L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary School
“YES! Our kids need a program like 29 Pieces Education. They have a lot to deal with in their homes neighborhood etc. I know MANY of our students have a bad home life. I think your program would really help them. First and foremost, it is about the students. It pertains to them, their life, their hopes, fears, dreams, etc.”
— Rita Childress,
CF Carr Elementary/Dallas ISD, Pre-K-5th
“They (students) definitely absorbed more, because any time kids can use their hands as they are learning, it seems to solidify on a deeper level rather than cognitively trying to memorize things.
— Dr. Kelly Jameson
Guidance Counselor
Parish Episcopal
“As a teacher (DISD) I feel I have to teach the students values, respect, etc. before I can teach them content (educational) effectively. This program does that. The 29 Pieces Education program is teaching Character Traits. This student directed hands on program can easily replace the old program.”
— Debbie Stein, Gill Middle School, 4th
“The HEROES AND HEROINES lesson works because it is introducing and encouraging social awareness in students, also exposing students to more than one way (other than fighting) to accomplish human justice.”
— Peggy Lee Cooper, George W. Truett, 1st-5th
“The parallels between how great Peacemakers accomplished great things, often with few resources AND having students be challenged in a similar way through their art making is genius! I just love the project activity and students will as well because it uses such a variety of materials –they love choices!”
— Lisa Ricciardelli, Austin Elementary School, K-5th
“I love introducing people to history, as in the GREAT PEACEMAKERS LIKE YOU AND ME lesson. Society seems to get short changed due to test prep sort of teaching, so these short lessons are enriching and exciting for students as well as teachers.”
— Jennifer Hart, G.E.Dealey Montessori, 1st-3rd
“This is a terrific example of collaboration, project based learning, technology and the inspiration of a vision, plus the natural creativity of children when they are given the freedom to express themselves through art. May the partnership continue!”
— Diana O’Connor, Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School