Ayaka Hibino
Wayne State University student, Ayaka Hibino reflects on her ArtsCorpsDetroit experience at the Mariners Inn. Ayaka, and other students, renovated the lobby and directed Mariners Inn clients on a face-mask project.
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Please describe your service-learning experience.
My first experience with service learning was through the Seminar: Art as a Social Practice, held by Mame Jackson at Wayne State University. Through this seminar, I was connected with Mariner’s Inn, a treatment/rehabilitation center for men. With a group of a few other students from the course, we helped renovate the main lobby, and also held a few workshops with the men there. The main project that I had planned and directed there was a mask workshop that consisted of taking plaster molds of each person’s face, in which they then painted in ways that revealed self-reflection and embracement. The masks were later exhibited in their client exhibition held at Swords into Plowshares, Portraits From The Soul.
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What did you learn about yourself and others?
Through this opportunity, I was able to feel the genuine power of human interaction, and the inspiring effectiveness of art as a bridge. I realized that when placed within the context of art, communication unfolds into a much more intimate language which can reveal so many more intricate subtleties that may be lost or overlooked otherwise.
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To what extent has the experience impacted your decisions, personally and professionally?
This experience was inspiring to me on many levels. Since then, I have broadened my respect and understanding for the infinite possibilities that art possesses, and has also lead me to the current position that I hold within ArtsCorpsDetroit. Working with ArtsCorpsDetroit, I realize how vital art is to the advancement and growth of our community, and intend to participate in continuing this movement to a more creative and socially aware community.