Description
Creative + fun Fall Art Afterschool in the studio, 2023!
This Fall 2023, we are excited to offer families a series of Art afterschool workshops.
We are starting to order new materials, brainstorm new curriculum and project ideas, and think through this special season to create some amazing art with your children! We are again running our Wednesday series (you sign up for the month) and adding in one-time Friday evening workshops. We are adding a Thursday Art Afterschool in September, and if there is interest we can continue, so stay in touch about that! If you don’t get your top choice, be sure to sign up for our waiting list on our contact form.
Wednesday (+ Thursday) Art Afterschool
Time: 3:30 – 5:15pm
Ages: 6 – 12
You sign up for the month! Each of our Wednesday Art Afterschool workshops, on the last meeting time, will close the month with a mini exhibition! You will get to celebrate their creativity and see the Artwork your children have created! We are so excited to integrate this into our weeks again, children are always so proud, and it’s a great way to reflect as a community. Children will present their work to the grown-ups picking them up, and then you can take it home.
Friday’s Art afterschool date night
Time: (6:00 – 8:00 pm in September, 5:30 – 7:30 in October + November)
Ages: 5 – 12
You sign up for individual Fridays! We will continue the weekly theme in the studio but pull out some super fun making for these, to keep the joy and fun going. Fridays will include a hearty yummy snack time, for instance – organic oranges + popcorn. Children are welcome to wear their cozy studio clothes or jammies!
september
Wednesdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $150
13th, 20th, 27th
Thursdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $150
14th, 21st, 28th
Fridays: 6:00 – 8:00 $55 each
15th, 22nd, 29th
october
Wednesdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $200
4th, 11th, 18th, 25th
Thursdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $150
5th, 12th, 19th
Fridays: 5:30 – 7:30 $55 each
20th, 27th
november
Wednesdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $200
1st, 8th, 15th, 29th
Thursdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $150
2nd, 9th, 16th
Fridays: 5:30 – 7:30 $55 each
3rd, 10th, 17th
If you want a super creative, tended + curated, engaged, calm, safe, and fun space with non-stop art mediums, this is it! Our mixed-age after-school workshop series for kids is a great way to support the young artist with playful, fun, independent, and guided time in the studio!
Each month we will bring in new ideas, artists, themes, or provocations (creative questions) plus new art mediums to work with! We create our curriculum guided by the interests of the children, the time we are living in, and greater questions that connect to co-creating a better world for all. A range of traditional and also natural or post-consumer materials, craft, sculpture, installation, 2-d work (painting and drawing) and more will be explored. We make a lot of art! Some processes, some craft, all art – we mix it up intentionally and also integrate time for collaborative creative choice, looking at our amazing books, and always some play choice for younger children.
what to expect Each afternoon, children come right into an engaging, meditative art activity with beautiful materials at the big tables! When you arrive – quiet music on, the children take off shoes, put things away in a cubby (we put their name up each time), wash their hands at the art sink – and then are ready and can get right to work! After that, some free choice until all are ready and we gather up for a caring welcome on the circle sun rug to welcome the afternoon and sometimes a bit of singing, talking about an artist or method, thematic movement/yoga, go over the projects for the day (usually 3 at different stations) and the children keep at it! It’s a busy and fun time for them, and they seem to really respond to all the individual choices and creative freedom. We set up our projects, and the studio, to empower them to grow in their creative thinking and skill level, all the while also following their lead to shift and add to projects and artists.
For Art Afterschool Wednesdays – the flow will be a tad different, and on the last day of each month we will have a sweet art show where we set up the children’s art, then you take it home.
For Art Afterschool Fridays (date nights for grown-ups) – we will serve a healthy snack. Please have dinner before!
teachers Lead teachers include Christina Bechstein with the creative art teaching team and visiting artists. We always have 2 teachers, and sometimes even 3 with a teaching intern! We all work together. We as artists, art teachers, creatives, and art therapists are invested in creating safe and nurturing whole-heart, joyful spaces for children, and are very skilled in many pedagogies and with years of teaching experience in private and public schools and also college-level. We work to set up a caring and super creative environment, and see it as a complete honor to support the individual voice and creativity of your children!
*extra info
before afterschool starts!
> We will send you a welcome email before your art afterschool, reminding you of anything you need to remember or bring.
> Each parent/guardian must sign our online forms (including media form, release form, and other important info).
> Come ready to have fun and become a part of the studio! It’s always good to wear clothes it’s OK to get dirty too. We will detail all of this in our welcome email.
waiting list
Please make sure to view our waiting list inquiry form on our contact page and submit your afterschool choices if you would like to be on our waiting list! We also will continue to add in 1-time workshops, so get on that list!
healthy community
For the safety and health of all, we have a robust Covid process, which we will need everyone to adhere to in order to have a safe community. Currently, we are not wearing masks in the studio, but we encourage our community to test frequently and wear them if any concerns. We ask that everyone work with us to make sure your children come healthy to the studio. We will revisit our Covid and healthy community policy as we go.
our space
Our space is fun and joyful, bright and renovated, known as Love Lab Studio. The design is thoughtfully curated for the needs of the children. We are located at 26 Brackett Street, a mixed residential and retail neighborhood in the West End of Portland, at the edge of a beautiful park and playground and a nearby urban food forest.
some of our values
With backgrounds as studio/craft/public artists and designers, certified art teachers, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf inspired/trained, advanced degrees, service learning, college teaching experience, contemporary art education pedagogy of all kinds, and more. Some of our values include:
* The whole child: social & emotional development, inclusion within a deeply caring and welcoming community
* Child as a communicator + poet: language development through participation, listening, art
* Child as co-creator: project-based, hands-on, individual learning and collaboration
* Child as informed citizen: community member, global + ecological participant. We care for each other, and work to develop our ability to do that better all the time.
* Child as artist: centering arts, creativity, imagination, joy + healing in all we do!
We look forward to seeing you at the studio!