As a child, Bianca D’Arcangelo lived at Maritime Apartments in Bath. When the ArtVan pulled into her neighborhood, she found a sense of calm that could be elusive in her home with four siblings.

“I’m an artist now,” said D’Arcangelo, 27. “I think ArtVan really influenced my knowledge about how to use art to calm down.”

At the wheel of the ArtVan is Jamie Silvestri.

Silvestri used to work as an art therapist in clinical settings, including St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston. But she wanted to bring her work to kids before they needed more serious intervention. In 2004, she started a mobile program that brought her van full of art supplies directly to neighborhoods. Twenty years later, ArtVan is a nonprofit that travels to 15 neighborhoods in four counties. The program costs are covered by grants, donations or partner organizations. It is always free to the kids who participate.

“We’re really aiming and striving toward providing the resources and the tools for young people to move through those challenges in a way that brings them to wholeness and health and healing,” Silvestri said.

Jamie Silvestri is the founder and director of ArtVan, a mobile program that brings art therapy to children in underserved neighborhoods in Lewiston and Brunswick. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

The van arrives honking its horn. The kids can drop in to make the project of the week. It might be a mobile or a sculpture or a drawing. They use pipe cleaners and cardstock paper and yarn and hole punches. Silvestri will prompt them to think about a space that makes them feel cozy or encourage them to scribble out their anger.

“It’s very different than an arts education setting, which might show more about shading and how to build this or work like this particular artist,” Silvestri said. “That’s not where our focus area is. Our focus is for them to be explorative and free with the materials, so they’re getting their needs met.”

D’Arcangelo moved to Woolwich when she was 12 years old, but her family has continued to feel the impact of the ArtVan.

Her younger brother, Keegan Companion, is known around Bath for his sculptures made out of pipe cleaners. As an adult, D’Arcangelo moved back to the Maritime Apartments. She brings her 6-year-old to see Silvestri when the ArtVan rolls into the neighborhood. She’s shown him a colorful mural from her own days in the program. Silvestri had told the kids, “Paint something you would like to see.” Now, she is proud to tell Odin, “I helped paint that.”