Page 32 - WilmU - Spring 2017

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The Creative Vision Factory is a peer-run program funded by Delaware’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, one of several programs formed by Delaware’s greater mental health system reform, says Michael Kalmbach, executive director and adjunct art instructor at Wilmington University. It’s a place to empower people by supporting the innate creativity within all of us.
It’s a place Kalmbach likes to be. With a background in art, he holds an MFA and worked as a high school art teacher. He’s also the founding
director of New Wilmington Art Association and has worked as an admissions counselor and assistant director of admissions at Delaware College of Art & Design. Kalmbach holds many community awards for his art advocacy work.
He’s also recovered from substance abuse, an experience he feels provides him with the unique background of understanding to be an asset to the work of this organization, which combines art advocacy with needs of the behavioral health population. He makes no bones about his past, and has talked about it in a
recent TED talk and at community speeches. He makes it clear that art has always been the anchor of his life.
“In my own experience,” Kalmbach says, “from being a high school student to being a high school art teacher, I always recognized that Ihadadeepneedtobeinthese spaces.”
He recognized that those high school students long ago and those now walking into The Creative Vision Factory each day have a commonality. “There’s almost a weight lifted off some of their shoulders as soon as they walk over
Jim Tulley is an artist who paints, draws and creates stained glass.