When art is introduced into a person’s life at an early age, curiosity and creativity tend to blossom with grand inspiration. If presented in a positive environment, art can help young minds grow while encouraging healthy expression for the artists and those around.
I recently had the opportunity to help contribute to these young minds, and it was a wonderfully rewarding experience. Earlier this year, I was honored to be asked by fellow Rotarian, Rev. Stephanie Munz Campbell, executive director of Grace Place for Children and Families, to help explore the opportunities of bringing art to the Grace Place summer camp program.
Grace Place is a faith-based, neighborhood center teaching literacy, language and life skills to children and families in Golden Gate City.
After meeting with Rev. Stephanie as well as Tom Gemmer, Director of School Age Programs, it was decided that art studio tours/field trips and basic in-class art instruction would be the best plan for the initial program. During the field trips to the art studios, the children could ask questions and learn about the artists’ work. Then, during the following Monday and Tuesday camp sessions, artists would visit Grace Place for the children’s hands-on art lessons. The first in-class art lesson, (45-minutes per grade for grades 2, 3, 4 and 5) would focus on coaching the children through the art project, while the following afternoon time would cover the topic of verbalizing feeling and expression with the art they created the day prior. Essentially, just helping the kids express themselves, visually, creatively — that was the main goal.
Also part of the artistic portion of the Grace Place summer program, JAMA (Jose Andros Matos Alonso) would be working with the children for one week of each camp, as well as the children spending some time at The von Liebig Art Center and the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts.
For the first summer camp, the children took a field trip to visit Natalie Guess of the Guess-Fisher Gallery at Crayton Cove. Taking advantage of the travel time on the road to the gallery, the always-energetic Gordon Campbell of SWFL Outdoor Photography explained to the children how photography can be used in art. Gordon shared his nature photos and created an interactive discussion to help the children understand how photos can be used for art, as art and as a reference for creating art.
With mobile technology at my fingertips, I used my iPad to show the children examples of how I used my own photographs in my artwork, including drawings of my dog’s toy, watercolor paintings of old Naples structures, and an oil painting of a rose. It was great to help the children learn about and appreciate the beauty in nature, and the many items accessible in their own environments.
Arriving to the studio to meet one of the top fine batik artists in the country, the children heard Naples artist Natalie Guess and her creative discussion about her batik process as well as her husband Phil Fisher‘s painting process with watercolors and oils.
Natalie Guess explains her batik process to the Grace Place children
During an afternoon visit to the Guess-Fisher Gallery, one of Natalie’s customers stopped into the gallery to let her know her “Bromeliads II” batik art was just featured in the local paper. This timing was perfect, as I was able to bring up the photo on my iPad and show the children the featured artwork. The kids could see the bromeliad online and also on Natalie’s studio wall. Natalie and I used this timely scenario to explain to the children how the exposure of an artist’s work helps build awareness for what they do, and hopefully, a sale of the artwork to someone who appreciates the piece. The children were receptive to learning the basic process for an artist who makes a living by creating and selling their art.
Natalie Guess explains original art work and reproduction
After the gallery visit, the children went to Freedom Park at Goodlette and Golden Gate and met up with illustrator and nature journalist, Elizabeth Smith for a creative lesson in sketching nature. Using one of Elizabeth’s “outdoor studios”, Elizabeth explained her process of observing nature and journaling what she sees in an artistic way.
Nature Artist Elizabeth Smith explains her process of art journaling
The Grace Place kids enjoyed the beautiful journals by nature sketch artist Elizabeth Smith during their art field trip.
During the following days, the in-class art instruction proved to be a great success, and Elizabeth Smith truly did a wonderful job helping the children express themselves creatively. Her patience and kind guidance provided a healthy, enriching learning environment for the Grace Place children.
Bringing the outdoors in for an art lesson
During the second day of in-class art instruction, the children were guided through the expression of their own experiences in the art process, as well as taught positive, thoughtful critique of others’ art. This part of the process created a great sense of pride in the children when showing off their artwork and receiving the positive comments from their peers.
Following is some of the interesting and supportive dialogue among the children about their own artwork:
“I drew this because I like the squiggly lines.”
“I like how you drew the snail, and I like how you colored it.”
“It has nice textures.”
“I like that it has so much fashion in the lines.”
“It looks like you never messed up, and you stood up for yourself, and you believed in yourself.”
“I drew this because I like leaves. Well, I like leaves and flowers and I noticed that most people like just draw leaves in the background, and I wanted to draw it as like the main thing.”
“How did you do the lines?” “With colored pencil.” “Ah, very cool.”
“I like how you drew some of the leaves falling down.”
“What made you decide to paint the holes blue?” “It made me think of blueberries.”
“Where did you get the idea from?” “From nature.”
“I think it looks good.”
“I drew this picture because I like birds.”
“I like it, and why did you want to draw that kind of bird?” “Because it seemed kind of hard.”
Drawing of a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher by one of the talented Grace Place campers
“What made you decide to paint that?” “There’s a lot of flowers in my backyard.”
“I drew this because it came to my eye.”
“I like how you did the sun and the clouds and the tree.”
“Did you enjoy the time drawing it?” “I kinda did.”
So much can be created with a simple color palette
Following the first camp program, Elizabeth reflected on her time at Grace Place, “As we interacted as a group, I could see the little sparks of thought and insights flashing. I am so impressed with those children! I’m still in awe of how well the kids at Grace Place connected with each other as artists, and how thoughtful some of their comments were.”
Read more about Elizabeth’s Grace Place experience here: http://natureartjournal.blogspot.com/2011/07/nature-art-fun-at-grace-place.html
For me, it was truly a rewarding experience working with the children and seeing their amazing minds at work. I wish to give special thanks to Gordon Campbell, Natalie Guess and Elizabeth Smith for efforts with Grace Place children’s first summer camp art field trip. I’m looking forward to the next one in August!
Kerri -- what a great experience! The kids were wonderful to work with, and the staff of Grace Place were so kind. Thank you for facilitating this!