In
nasty weather like this, I really appreciate an occasion to take the kids out
of the house for a great activity. If you feel the same and have kids between
walking age to around 10 or 11, you’re in luck: the Art With Kids program downtown
on Wednesday afternoons from 3:30 to 5 is just what you need.
Working
artist Cindy Waters facilitates this fun variety of art projects weekly at the
Do-It-Yourself Arts Collective at 67 Toronto Street (across from Meineke). The
program runs on a drop-in basis; no pre-registration is required and you can
attend as many or few weeks as you like.
It’s
great for the whole family. Kids dive into something new and artistic, with
materials they may not have at home. (Or maybe they can do something messy,
that you’d rather they not do at home!) They can draw inspiration from each
other, or from the ever-changing selection of fresh, local, eclectic art on
display on the studio walls.
Parents
enjoy a coffee or tea and a chat while their kids are hard at work (or play)
creating little masterpieces. And did I mention the healthy snacks? There is
always a selection of fresh fruit & vegetables with crackers and juice, and
sometimes even Cindy’s fresh baked goods.
Best
of all, it’s only $3 for one child, or $5 for the whole family – which includes
art & materials, snack, juice, and hot beverage! Allowances can be made if
affordability is an issue, but since this is a non-profit activity, donations
of art supplies or materials are always appreciated. Cindy volunteers her time
to plan and run the program; as she says, “It’s soul work, I give it for free
because it makes me feel good.”
Each
week of the session is a different project; at our last two sessions, my girls
enjoyed making collages and fancy Valentine cards, and we saw some beautiful
but long-drying coloured corn syrup projects that would have been a sticky
disaster at our house, but worked fine at the studio.
The
fall and winter sessions were quite successful, and the program renews with a
spring session from March 27th to May 29th that introduces
a scheduled program of guest art instructors. And coming up in June will be the
Art With Kids Expo, a kids’ art show where participants can hang & sell
their own creations, featuring balloons, live music, popcorn, Shamus the Magician, and other entertainment being lined up.
If
you’re like me and have no art sense, but love to see your children get
creative, then I look forward to seeing you and yours at Art With Kids some
Wednesday this spring!
Published in my Root Issues column in the Barrie Examiner as "Get creative at the weekly Art With Kids program".
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins is
a director of Living Green and the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation.
No comments:
Post a Comment