Jami Taback
Artist
Founder/Director of Kids at Risk: Adventures in Printmaking
Kew Gardens Hills
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:An artist her entire life, Jami Taback is the founder and director of Kids at Risk: Adventures in Printmaking. Through the program, which began about four years ago, Taback goes into schools and teaches the children how to make prints that are later put together to create a public mural to display at the school. She works specifically with children who have social or behavioral challenges.
“It’s a mentoring relationship,” said Taback, who has worked with about 200 children already. “I’m trying to ignite a spark in them.”
Taback became interested in doing such a project after meeting a former Golden Gloves boxer who was working with children who had problems. She eventually met that group of “I came to realize that this was what I needed to do, that from now on I was going to give all my time to these kids with problems,” she said.
PERSONAL:Taback and her husband Steven have been married for 36 years. They have lived in Kew Gardens Hills for about the last three years. The couple has two adult children.
When she was only five years old, Taback began studying art at the Victor D’Amico School of Arts, which was located at The Museum of Modern Art. “My mother saw that I had some talents and was interested, and she fostered it,” Taback said.
Throughout her life, Taback said she never thought of doing anything else as a career. She has been part of more than 40 solo exhibitions and group exhibitions. Taback predominantly works as a painter and printmaker.
PROUDEST MOMENT:“To date, what I’m doing right now I’ve very proud of,” Taback said. She said that as she works with the students and begins to reach them, she sees them become very productive and excited. She also said that she feels overwhelmed as she watches them produce their own art pieces.
“Their response blows me away. I’m totally taken with these kids,” Taback said. “They come from the worst homes, the most horrible situations, and somehow from this, they put that aside and they come in and they’re willing to give of themselves even in their darkest moment.”
BIGGEST CHALLENGE:“My biggest challenge is to get this program to all these kids and meet as many kids as I can,” Taback said. “That’s what I think about all the time - how to get them.”
Taback is trying to find more schools at which she can conduct her program and “bring joy and accomplishment” to the students. Interested schools can e-mail Taback at jtaback@nyc.rr.com and can find out more at www.jamitaback.com.
FAVORITE MEMORY:“I think my best memories come from relationships with people and experiences with others,” Taback said. She also said that traveling and seeing foreign cultures, archeology and artwork are imbedded in her memory.
INSPIRATION:“My inspiration comes from a lot of childhood habits and the teachers I met and all the early validation of myself being an artist,” Taback said. “I think that every day that’s what gives me my boost and tells me that this is right.”
