April 2, 2016 is World Autism Awareness Day – the Art of Autism seeking videos with the theme of #AutismSweets

Cakes from around the world celebrating autism will be revealed on Saturday, April 2, 2016

Over 100 cake decorators from around the world have come together to bring autism acceptance and awareness through a social media project on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in a project titled SugarArt4Autism (#SugarArt4Autism). The Art of Autism is seeking videos in a separate project called #AutismSweets.

Each cake decorator proudly honors those with autism and their family members by creating artistic creations drawing from inspiration including art of autistic artists, therapy tools, books, and loved ones on the autism spectrum.

Organizer Dina Nakad of Beirut, Lebanon, says “I am in awe of all the beauty that came to life through the different completed pieces, some based on exquisite art made by kids and adults on the spectrum, others based on personal experiences with ASD and yet others based on therapies, books and movies.”

Suzy Khalaf, a New York based cake-artist, and another director of the project states “We can only hope to make a dent in Autism Awareness . . . to show that the Spectrum is as broad as any rainbow and most importantly, that Autism isn’t a choice but acceptance is.”

Dina says of the cake she created called Emotion Therapy (which will be revealed on April 2), “I decided to do a therapy-based piece, using flashcards that show emotions – used to teach kids on the spectrum about facial expressions such as “happy” “sad” “mad” “excited” “silly” – I used black to reflect how parents feel when they first receive the diagnosis for their child, when everything around them seems to stop and they think there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The rainbow-colored butterflies represent the hope that parents get from all kinds of therapies but mainly from the love, hard work and perseverance of every person who is involved in that child’s life. Things become bright and colorful again.”

Many of the cake creations were inspired by art of autistic artists. Some of the cake decorators were inspired by their own children’s art. Claire Potts was inspired by her son Jamie’s art. Her cake will also be revealed on April 2 with all the other cakes.

Flowers by Jamie Potts

Dina collaborated with Debra Muzikar, co-founder of the Art of Autism, an international collaboration of creative people on the autism spectrum, to unite cake decorators with artists. The cake decorators found the art through looking at the online galleries on the Art of Autism website and their Facebook pages. Debra’s son Kevin, a 21-year old artist from El Cajon, California, inspired the cake art below.

Sim Greg of Singapore states, “It was a struggle to come up with my design until I saw Kevin’s painting “Greece” and then it was like a puzzle coming together and it all clicked and fell into place. The bottom tier is my interpretation of Kevin’s gorgeous painting…” Sim has two more tiers which have different representations which will be revealed on April 2.

All 100 cakes will be revealed through social media on April 2, 2016, World Autism Awareness Day. The cake artists will change their Facebook and Twitter banners to reflect their creations and to bring awareness to autism.

SugarArt4Autism wants to highlight organizations that help autistic people as part of this project. She asks people to make donations to these nonprofits:

The Global Autism Project – globalautismproject.org
National Autism Association – nationalautismassociation.org
The Art of Autism – www.the-art-of-autism.com

These organizations focus on services and advocacy to empower autistic people to reach their potential.

The Art of Autism seeking videos for #AutismSweets

The Art of Autism has created their own Autism Awareness Campaign titled #AutismSweets, honoring #SugarArt4Autism. As part of this campaign we are seeking short videos from around the world. Please start videos with your name, country, and organization and feel free to show your own expressions (art, poetry, dance, or whatever) as part of the video and answer these questions.

1) Why is autistic expression important?
2) The Art of Autism believes in autistic expression in multiple ways, we used cake this year! What other expressions can we learn to accept? Why is it important?

These two projects will rely heavily on social media sharing.

SugarArt4Autism
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SugarArt4Autism
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sugarart4autism
FB: http://www.facebook.com/SugarArt4Autism (Their Facebook page will come up on April 2, 2016)
Hashtags:
#SugarArt4Autism
#ArtMeetsAutism
#AwarenessIsAcceptance
#AcceptanceGoneViral

The Art of Autism
Twitter: artautism
FB: www.facebook.com/theartofautism
Hashtag #AutismSweets

Please send your videos to submissions.the.art.of.autism@gmail.com

Publicity or Questions about #AutismSweets email Debra Muzikar theartofautism@gmail.com. Contact SugarArt4Autism at SugarArt4Autism@gmail.com for questions about the cake project.