Community Art Lab

Upon leaving the Art Experience at 8 today, one would not notice that 17 kids varing from the ages of 6 to 17 were there.

Today, the Art Experience teamed up with Yapo Center to provide youth with the opportunity to experience the making art. This adventure continues as 4 week Community Art Lab. The youth will have the opportunity each week to create something new. This first week enabled students to choose the medium they wanted and create their own art piece. The children had the ability to choose from watercolor paints, markers, pencils, oil pastels, and even had the ability to create ink splots.

The following weeks will allow them to create an oversized jigsaw puzzle, pinhole camera, and a more detailed painting.

The Yapo Center provides the community with an outreach to learn about today’s technology and gain an understanding of computers. This program reaches out to children, teens, adults, and senior citizens. It provides a learning center while at the same time allowing them to explore the many uses of technology.

Judy Wilson (Director of the Art Experience) worked with Lauretta Christie and Yohannes Bolds to provide an art experience for the youth. The goal was to create a community where the youth is able to learn from the studio. This experience allows them to learn about art materials while providing the opportunity to think about issues creatively. Additionally, the Art Lab provides a learning experience for those you are helping with the activity. The idea is for all the participates to learn from each other. Communicating does this and allows for expressing ones own ideas. The arts demonstrate a way of further developing the spark of passion and curiosity, which persists the freedom to pursue and challenge ideas. It creates a realization that the process of learning can be inspired by creative experiences. With this in thought, people have the opportunity to think creatively about ideas that tend to produce a reaction of trying endless results.

It is essential for people to understand that the arts are still needed in the school curriculum. Many people view the arts as craft based and something beautiful that is hung on a wall. But what people are missing out on is the fact that the arts allow for people to solve problems and think about solutions in a creative way. The arts provide a new way of thinking and verbalizing. It permits the thought to be seen by images.

Reflecting on this event, I can truly say that I gained an experience that I will remember. The youth that participated had an amazing time. Each one had the opportunity to create multiple pieces that reflected their identity. Freedom was encouraged.

The room was filled with laughter and people talking with one another. The energy was high and everyone was painting and drawing and allowing the ideas to come up right after another. People were not afraid and were willing to try anything.

They were encouraged to create new and innovative works. A side projected was created where they had the opportunity to come and make works based on ink drips. They were to create them abstractly and then look at the image see what it could be. Then they were asked to create the rest of the image through a different techniques and drawing.  They would constantly come up and share their images and were always proud of what they produced.

A couple of the girls that participated voiced their opinion on how they wished that their school still had art. They explained that their elementary school was no longer able to offer art. Each one loved going to school and knowing that they had the opportunity to create art projects because they could not do this at home. Going to art class permitted them to be an artist. It created n environment where creativity was allowed. During these times, they explained that they were allowed to play with materials and create projects that were full of color. They liked knowing they could be an artist and were happy once again to come to do this by coming to the Art Experience

This workshop’s purpose was to provide awareness to community arts studio. It is to offer meaning and connection while sharing a welcoming environment where others have the opportunity to experience programs that allow for participation and communication. In the end, it did just that. The children cam and provided me with the knowledge that the freedom to create is not given to everyone and those that do have that opportunity should cherish it because you never know how long that can last. And when it returns, one should create the art and share it with full intentions.