A local nonprofit offers students an opportunity to talk about bullying through artwork.

It’s a sunny morning at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School of the Arts in Seaside. There, in a spacious classroom, art teacher Wendi Everett and a three-member crew from You Will Rise – artists Paul Richmond, Brenda Scetterini Saglio and Scout Luketich – are setting up for the Art Against Bullying workshop.

You Will Rise, founded in 2012, is a nonprofit that moved to Monterey County when co-founder Richmond did. It offers anti-bullying art workshops to local schools – the idea being that it is easier to talk about hard topics through creativity.

The workshop starts with a brief video explaining YWR’s mission, but soon the students – about 20 sixth graders, three – to five-each at a table – embark on their first assignment. They are each given a piece of paper and asked to crumple it really well. The art room soon fills with laughter because it’s fun to crumple, to smash.

“Now try to smooth it out,” the instructors say. “Remove all the wrinkles.” Kids iron out the paper, some use markers as rolling pins, but the effort is futile.

“This is what happens to you when you get bullied,” the instructors continue. “We are never quite the same.”

Next, they are each handed a white template of a mask. “We all wear masks all the time, right?” Richmond says. “Decorate it in the way that it represents you.”

At first, there is a lot of pondering and looking around, but soon each table is all action. While the children work on their masks, the instructors ask them to define what bullying is or can be. The young artists are working unrelentingly and swinging their legs, but give surprisingly mature answers.

“When you are mean to other people,” one says. “Cyberbullying,” adds another. “Being toxic.”

Asked a follow-up question – “How does bullying make people feel?” – they name the emotions easily: depression, sadness, anger, confusion.

Finally, the students are asked to create an anti-bullying poster as a group. Two boys immerse themselves completely in the task of stapling the colored pages from the initial task together and end up with a big, rainbow poster full of slightly wrinkled but beautiful squares. Figuring out the right message for the poster requires more thinking – that will have to wait for the workshop’s second week.

To learn more about YOU WILL RISE AND THE ART AGAINST BULLYING PROJECT, visit youwillriseproject.com or email youwillriseproject@gmail.com