The sign over the door says Maria’s Children Art Rehabilitation Studio, in a childish and colorful font, an oasis for the eyes, unexpected in the gray November of Moscow, Russia.

Open the glass door and descend the stairs, step over the boxes stored along the wall, you can steady yourself on the wheelchair lift rail, at the bottom follow the corridor past the kiln to your left.

Below ground you are greeted by the familiar sight of an active Artist’s studio. Shelves upon shelves of materials and rolled up prints, ceramic projects are drying on a rack. Leaning in, you examine a small cottage fashioned from clay, complete with a tiny garden overflowing with small ceramic flowers and delicate shrubbery. A giant grubby fish tank, with 1000 fancy tailed guppies in it, catches your attention as the iridescent mosaic darts back and forth begging for food.

It’s warm and smells like cooking food. You hang your coat and hat with the others and follow the sounds of busy children deeper into this collection of rooms. In the Project Room every wall is painted like a colorful mural, the ceiling hangs with a variety of crafted mobiles, one that is crafted to look like a clown hanging from balloons. There are origami animals, stacks of frames and mats, boxes of fabric, a sewing machine and a dozen handmade dolls on a shelf.

In the center of this room is a great table with six kids sitting around it. Two of them are sewing seed beads into the image of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, carefully following a paper pattern and selecting the proper color for each pixel. Four others are constructing clay animals with the help of an older woman with a kind smile and warm eyes. She sees you and greets you in Russian.

You don’t speak Russian but that’s okay, they were expecting you. Another woman in the room, who is presently teaching a boy with no fingers to play the piano, says something to an undersized boy who leads you out of the room, introducing himself as Alosha. He looks to be eight or nine, but he has known 14 years in state homes.

Alosha leads you into the small kitchen and starts an electric kettle. There are several teenage girls chatting while peeling vegetables for a huge salad. He is now washing a mug at the sink.

Suddenly the children are all talking to you at once and Alosha explains that you don’t speak Russian. The girls laugh and practice their foreign language skills, asking how you are doing and if you like Eminem. The room smells like roasted chicken, rice is boiling on the stove.

Alosha hands you a cup of tea and motions for you to stay there, as he enters an office in the back. Moments later a young woman emerges and introduces herself as Mahri, she is the accountant for Maria’s Children answering the phones and keeping the books. The founder is out on an errand.

She fixes a cup of tea for herself; she knows enough of your language to explain the studio a bit. You learn that the children are all on hard times, either suffering from impoverished state care, some from disabled group homes or even from the streets of Moscow. The studio serves food and art lessons to perhaps 60-100 kids every week. The organization started in 1997 with a few kids; those first kids are now grown and serve as teachers and activity leaders.

Mahri leads you past the coat rack to a wood paneled Painting Room with another huge wood table in the middle; it looks like it might have been a ping pong table at one point. Near the ceiling is a street level window, outside you can see an army of shoes and ankles passing by on the busy Moscow sidewalk.

In the studio the students come to learn art, and in the process build healthy family-style relationships over a warm meal. Much of their art is sold at auction to help fund the studio projects. Many of the kids choose where the money goes, donating toward medical care, job training classes and even donations for global disaster relief. They also produce greeting cards and calendars to help raise money. As a result they learn that their actions can bring about a better life for others.

In the painting room several teenage boys are taking turns picking an electric guitar while two girls, sharing an Ipod, are concentrating on painting. You see one is engrossed in a lakeside landscape; the other is working on an enchanted ballroom of dancers on a checkered floor. She stops to blow a kiss to Mahri, her sister.

You learn that many of the children are not true orphans; they often have parents that exert control in their lives, for better of for worse, often blocking adoptions and sometimes even taking the child’s government supplied apartment as they age-out of state care. Many orphans in Moscow live on the street and turn to sex work and drugs, many commit suicide.

The studio works to train the kids socially and economically, so they can make healthy choices and make a living. They strive to teach them the skills they will need through the mechanism of community service and helping others. Maria believes that teaching these unfortunate children to help others on hard times instills in them a feeling of self worth that they cannot find in the orphanage system.

There is a commotion at the door and several teenagers enter with some bags and boxes; the kids in the room with you instinctually clean up and clear out. The piano student brings in a stack of plates you help to set the table. The salad arrives in a huge bowl as Maria enters the studio.

Maria is wearing striped socks and brightly colored clothing, with a purse shaped like a smiling sun and a floppy hat; all the children with her are dressed as mismatched clowns. They are returning from an excursion in the burn unit of a local hospital, cheering up the patients with stickers and face paints, balloons and juggling.

The orphaned children with her are all grins and business as they go about preparing for Dinner. Maria goes into the Project Room and the children eagerly show her their art.

You see that Maria is tall, with long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes, they shine at every child in the room. She projects a certain warm energy that fills the studio, her arrival signals the start of the evening meal and the tornado of activity sweeps you up.

Soon Losh is handing you plates and you are scooping salad and passing them on. Within moments the wood paneled room is transformed into a dining room and you are shoulder to shoulder with the other guests.

Maria is the heart of this project and her vision transforms the productive energies of youth into a serious contribution to the community. Her studio serves as a home and family for children who have neither. Using Art and love Maria’s Children Studio speaks for those without a voice while teaching them to advocate for themselves and be heard.