Description
Art After-School Winter 2023:
Wednesdays > 3:30pm – 5:15pm
Thursdays > 3:30pm – 5:15pm
Fridays > 4:00pm – 5:45pm
If you want a super creative, tended + curated, engaged, calm, safe and fun space with non-stop art mediums plus play options 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 process, 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. This fall we are excited to rework our creative building area with all-natural and post-consumer products like corn husks, felt, wool and bamboo scraps – the children love this area!
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 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.
WHO mixed age group ages 6 – 11
WHEN
> Wednesdays 3:30 – 5:15pm
> Thursdays in January only, 3:30 – 5:15pm,
> Fridays 4:00 – 5:45pm (Fridays are later to accommodate children from different schools!)
You sign up for the month!
JANUARY
Wednesdays: 4th,11th, 18th, 25th
Thursdays: 5th, 12th, 19th
Fridays: 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
FEBRUARY
Wednesdays: 1st, 8th, 15th
Fridays: 3rd, 10th, 17th
MARCH
Wednesdays: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd
Fridays: 3rd, 10th, 17th
TEACHING TEAM Lead teachers include Christina Bechstein with creative art teaching team and visiting artists. We always have 2 teachers, and sometimes even 3! We all work together. We as artists, art teachers, 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!
WHERE At the studio! – Love Lab Studio @ 26 Brackett Street, Portland Maine, adjacent to a beautiful city park and nearby playground. We are located in a mixed residential and commercial area, and usually, there is ample parking available. We are located across from “good medicine” a space for healers and doctors, and we are right next door to the sweet new cafe “smalls”, and diagonal to the lovely Harbor View Park.
PLEASE BRING For art after school, please have children bring a water bottle, a little sweater, an extra mask, and a cozy pair of slippers or socks, or when it gets warm bare feet are fine. We are asking that all families consider trying and switching to a KF94 or N95 mask for children if they haven’t already. Prior to starting class, each parent/guardian must sign our online forms that will arrive in your welcome email! It’s a great idea for all children to have a snack prior to arriving.