About Us
From Studio Practice to Youth Justice
While Journey Allen's creative practice is rooted in mural painting, community-based arts, and sculpture, it has always been guided by a deeper question: How can art transform the way people see themselves and the world around them?
That question led beyond the studio and into community, where creativity became a vehicle for healing, leadership, and restoration. In 2023, Journey founded Spectrum Arts NOLA to pilot an innovative arts-centered homeschool initiative that blended visual arts, entrepreneurship, mindfulness, public art, and environmental learning for emerging teen artists.
During that same season, while teaching at the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center through Arts New Orleans, Journey witnessed firsthand the profound need for restorative spaces that extended beyond traditional arts education. As Spectrum's work deepened, it began cultivating Mindfulness Retreats within the facility, weaving together creativity, wellness, and community care.
The successful graduation of Spectrum's final homeschool cohort in 2026 marked the completion of one chapter while creating space for another. Today, Spectrum Arts NOLA has expanded its focus to serve system-involved and system-impacted youth through a growing philosophy of mindfulness, environmental stewardship, and creative leadership, rooted in the belief that caring for ourselves, caring for others, and caring for the world around us are inseparable acts of restoration.
Spectrum Arts NOLA
Spectrum Arts NOLA is a New Orleans-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to cultivating mindful stewards through creativity, wellness, environmental stewardship, and restorative practices. Guided by the Mindfulness Steward Leadership Model, Spectrum transforms underutilized spaces into restorative learning environments where young people develop leadership, environmental literacy, and a lifelong commitment to caring for people and place.
When Spectrum Arts NOLA began facilitating Mindfulness Retreats at the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center our work focused on helping young people develop practices that supported emotional regulation, self-awareness, physical wellness, and creative expression through mindfulness, movement, sound healing, visual arts, and community building.
As relationships deepened, one truth became increasingly clear: while mindfulness practices offered moments of peace, the land surrounding us held the potential to become something far greater. A collection of 8 unattended garden beds that had aged over the course of a decade, were reimagined as the foundation for a living classroom where restoration was not simply discussed, but practiced with our own hands. Through the dedication of our Spectrum Team and the curiosity of the brilliant youth in the mandated care of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, The Garden of Forgiveness was born.
The Garden of Forgiveness Framework: Landscape as the Language of Justice
MISSION
Spectrum Arts NOLA cultivates mindful stewards by integrating creativity, wellness, environmental stewardship, and restorative practices that empower young people to care for themselves, their communities, and the living world. Through multidisciplinary arts education and intentionally designed learning environments, we create pathways for healing, leadership, cultural connection, and lifelong stewardship. Rooted in the belief that environments shape identity, our work transforms spaces into places of belonging where system-impacted youth and their peers discover their capacity to restore, lead, and contribute something meaningful to the world around them.
VISION
Cultivating stewardship through the Garden. Walking with purpose in the world.
Our Work
WHO WE SERVE
System-involved and system-impacted youth.
HOW WE CULTIVATE
The Mindfulness Steward Leadership Model.
WHERE WE PRACTICE
The Garden of Forgiveness, a living ecosystem of learning at the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center.
WHY IT MATTERS
We're cultivating young people who walk with purpose in their homes and communities.
WHERE WE'RE GOING
Community campuses, reentry pathways, diversion programming
The Mindfulness Retreat
The Mindfulness Retreat is Spectrum Arts NOLA's foundational leadership experience and the birthplace of the Mindfulness Steward.
Designed as an immersive, six-session, multidisciplinary journey, the retreat introduces students to a rotating series of mindfulness practices including Kemetic Yoga, Sound Healing & Chakra Alignment, Physical Fitness, Visual Arts, Mindful Nutrition, and, beginning in 2026, The Garden of Forgiveness. Together, these experiences invite students to cultivate self-awareness, resilience, creativity, and a deeper understanding of stewardship.
As students engage in each discipline, they begin to discover where their interests, strengths, and passions naturally emerge. From that discovery begins the Mindfulness Steward Pathway, a leadership model that transforms participants from learners into teachers.
THE MINDFULNESS STEWARD PATHWAY
Kemetic Yoga & Journaling with High Heal Doula
Physical Fitness with Coach Kev
Sound Healing & Chakra Balancing with SOL AbDALLA
Gardening with Lisa Hobson
Mindful Nutrition with Upendo na Kushindana
EXPLORE
Students experience each mindfulness discipline through the retreat's rotating workshops, discovering practices that support personal growth while identifying the area that resonates most deeply with them.
TRAIN
Students who choose a discipline become Mindfulness Stewards in Training, working closely alongside facilitators to develop knowledge, technical skills, and confidence within their chosen practice.
CO-LEAD
As their understanding deepens, students begin assisting facilitators, gradually assuming greater responsibility while mentoring and supporting their peers.
LEAD
During the retreat's final rotation, Mindfulness Stewards independently facilitate workshops, guiding fellow students through the very practices that first inspired their own journey.
CERTIFICATE
The retreat culminates in a Garden-to-Table Celebration, where the Mindfulness Steward of Nutrition leads participants in preparing and sharing a meal harvested from the Garden of Forgiveness. All students who complete the Mindfulness Steward Pathway receive a Mindfulness Steward Certificate for dedicating a total of 24 hours to a specific mindfulness practice before advancing to earn an Urban Agriculture Certification through Spectrum's partnership with the Southern University Agriculture Research & Extension Center.
Visual Arts/Mural Painting with Journey Allen
Garden-to-Table Stewardship: Harvest ingredients from the garden, prepare a meal for the entire cohort, compost food scraps, share a portion of prepared foods with local community fridge.
Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Journey Allen
Interim Chair
Founder/Chief Visionary Officer of Spectrum Arts NOLA-Visual Artist, Muralist, Arts Educator
Delise Hampton
Vice Chair
Garden Manager at The Materials Institute- Wellness Educator, Recording Artist, Doula, Lyricist
Nicolette Davis
Treasurer/Secretary
Computer Analyst & Software Developer
Members
Lee Reisman
Director-at-Large
Director of Family Services of Columbia Jewish Federation