This Friday I was lucky (and brave) enough to host a group of 25-30 kids from Fairview Elementary at the gallery, or as I like to call it, "Kids Gallery Walk".
Humans have always needed art, but kids NEED it. They NEED IT.
Art validates the imagination and fosters individuality, building character and meditative habits.
If you have kids, take them to see it, make it with them, supply them with colored pencils and paper instead of an iPad at restaurants... expose them to local art especially! How about next week, First Friday, from 5-8PM? :-) Link
I was given a $40 budget and with it I bought various goodies for a Halloween Chex mix (gummy worms included), some paint, plates, plastic table cloth, goodie bags, and of course, Ghoul-Aid Spooky Berry flavor.
Kids are crazy. So utterly raw and content to speak their minds. Especially little boys. I've always known this growing up with two younger brothers who are almost a decade younger. Despite my attempts to split the group up into two gender neutral groups, the aid asked boys and girls to separate. What a difference in terms of their behavior. However, I noticed no difference in the amount of enthusiasm towards making a painting and talking about the work up on the walls.
I asked the group, grades 1st through 5th, what they think art is.
A seemingly shy brown haired 5th grader with glasses said, "It means you can do whatever you want." Other responses included:
"You make cool stuff", and my personal favorite, "It's good for when you're stressed out; it calms you down."
They did make cool, really beautifully color-study-type abstract stuff! Pics below.
I asked them to pick out their favorite leaves on the walk to the gallery, which we then dipped into ink and stamped onto our "canvases".
Even in the short 30 minutes I spent with them before they moved on to the next stop on their walk, I feel so good knowing that no matter what their home lives are like, what they've been through, and how they felt about existence that day, for 30 minutes they let go of everything to make artwork amidst some really awesome paintings.
One small boy whose hand had turned completely pink from the ink (sorry parents...) turned to me and said simply,
"I want to live here", to which I replied, "Me too, man... me too."
