Twenty years ago, Jane Joy was working with special needs children and youth who were in custody. While he was working she came to a realization–more children needed to have positive influences in their lives, and an outlet to express themselves. That inspired her to create her nonprofit called Joy Foundation.

The foundation not only works with youth, but with adults as well.

“My mom is an artist herself,” said David Joy, Jane’s son. “She’s seen first hand the positive impact that art has had on youth.”

Joy Foundation’s main mission has been to help provide youth with confidence, overcome adversity, discover their talents, and to give youth the opportunity to explore the arts.

“We work with the Davis County courts by helping youth and adults get their community service hours through programs and events,” Jane said. 

Joy Foundation has provided art, music and photography classes, filmmaking and recording workshops and veterans programs. The foundation hosts a free open mic night where local musicians and poets can come to showcase themselves. It happens on the first and third Saturday of every month at 8 p.m.

“Our most recognizable event is our Bountiful Chalk Art Festival,” Jane said. “It’s sponsored by Bountiful City, Intermountain LDS Hospital and Alta Bank. We couldn’t do this festival without their support.”

Every summer, Bountiful’s Main Street is filled with artists and spectators as an explosion of color fills the sidewalks. Everyone from professional artists to budding youth and adult artists display their talents through chalk art. This year’s festival, which ended last Saturday, saw more than 200 artists at work, “and we were completely booked,” said Jeremy Holt, who oversaw the festival. Work began on Wednesday morning when artists were assigned their squares. They started their drawings on Thursday and awards were presented Saturday morning (see list of winners accompanying this story.

“There’s a lot of excitement in the air during the festival,” Holt said. His 10-year-old son participated in the festival one year, and Holt recalled “watching him create his own art, and being surrounded by all of these artists will always remain one of my favorite memories.”λ