Description
Creative + fun SPRING art afterschool in the studio, 2024!
Wednesday + Thursday Art Afterschool!
Time: 3:30 – 5:15pm
Ages: 6 – 12
You sign up for the month!
This spring, we are excited to again offer families a series of Art afterschool workshops!
Some fun spring art themes we’ll be exploring > woven collaborative sculptural bird nests (super giant + very tiny individual ones with added felt), individual paper-mache + mixed media birds, drawings of Maine birds in different methods and then burnished on wood Audubon houses, hand-sewn spring art journals with outside prompts, mixed media flower seedlings from recycled materials, hand-dyed silk + batik process, and starting some portfolios and painting techniques to launch as March is youth art month!
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 + Thursday series (you sign up for the month). Be sure to sign up for our waiting list on our contact form if it’s sold out. Because we sometimes have spring snow (or sniffles) here in Maine – we are making sure to have studio days we can offer to everyone as make-up classes.
Each month, on the last meeting time, will close 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 all the work home. If you would love to attend one of our workshops this but its difficult for your family financially, please reach out as we have limited scholarship coupons to share and if we can help, we will.
April
Wednesdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $100
3rd, 10th
(or)
Thursdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $100
4th, 25th
May
Wednesdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $200
1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd
(or)
Thursdays: 3:30 – 5:15 $200
2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd
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, (often shifting as we go with emergent curriculum), the time we are living in, and greater questions that connect to co-creating a better world for all. (See our themes above.) 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. We also always work on one larger collaborative public project that seems to bring the children lots of joy.
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 at the big long table! 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. At the end of each month we set up a little art show and the children show you their work, then take it home after!
teachers Lead teachers include Christina Bechstein with the creative art teaching team and visiting artists. We always have 2 teachers, and sometimes even 3! Besides our lead teachers and Love Lab Studio assistants, this spring we are also working with amazing upperclass Maine College of Art Students and Masters of Art Teaching Students. We all work together, and as teachers are trained to create a respectful, fun environment. 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.
> A reminder of a few things: please no nuts in the studio, no devices (or if you need to keep in backpack in cubby), and if you don’t feel good that day healthy wise or there is bad weather don’t worry we will have make-up classes this spring! If we will cancel due to weather, you will receive an email and also a text.
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. We do run an air filter and are super into hand washing. We also have childrens masks – if you ever need one don’t hesitate to ask.
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, next to the cute cafe “Smalls”. The street parking is free, and we are here to make your drop off and pick up as easy as can be.
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. We integrate trauma informed and expressive arts practices into the studio, and reflect and refine this as we go to do our very best for your children.
* 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! – Christina