Indy Art Lab @ Spanish Oaks: Drawing, Painting, Jewelry & Marble Run Centers In Action

We had a wonderful day of art making with approximately 40 children and adults at Spanish Oaks today. Indy Art Lab would like to thank the management at Spanish Oaks and our volunteers Kathy, India, Josiah, Melita and Maria who helped us with set up, modeled creative processes and worked with young artists all day long! The artists who participated today engaged in various creative processes from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. A thrilling day of art making. Thank you so much!!

Our set up included enough two and three dimensional activities to keep our artists active throughout the day.
Many of the children opted to stay primarily at the drawing center. Others spent most of their time at the block building/marble run center. The question that remains of immense interest to me is why do some children prefer some activities over others?

Drawing center consists of a display board, colored pencils, pastels, oil pastels, pencils, erasers, four different sizes of paper and an art library all under a portable 10 ft. by 25 ft. outdoor art room.

Knotted bracelet with beads created at the jewelry center.

This artist created three significant drawings in two hours.

Portable art room with sign up table in view inside the picnic area at Spanish Oaks.

This artist amazed all the participants at camp! She has an undeniable talent!

Bead collage!

25 ft. marble run had two jumps and several level changes!

Block artist experiments with balance and structure.

Spanish Oaks Visit On July 21

We will be at Spanish Oaks on July 21st. We are hoping to see middle school students but we also encourage all elementary students to visit Indy Art Lab art camp if they can.

I shared with many of my colleagues who attended the Teaching for Artistic Behavior Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) our work at Indy Art Lab our methodology, learner centered art education where the child is the artist.

Elementary age students build marble runs at Meadowlark art camp this past month.

A large painting as the result of artists playing the drawing game.

Cardboard construction pop-up center with information menus on scoring, cutting and connecting cardboard.

Clay vessel developed with coil technique.

Paper mache sculpture bust of an imaginary human.

Cardboard marble run developed by a young engineering student.

Community Alliance of Far Eastside: CAFE

Indy Art Lab will be collaborating with C.A.F.E. for the Summer of 2015. Indy Art Lab was invited to provide a morning of art with artists at the Meadowlark Community and here is what happened. Forty two artists aged 5-14 worked out of our mobile choice-based art program for two and a half hours today. The children began the day with an explanation that artists generate ideas by using their powers of observation, imagination, feelings and emotions, memories and plain old experimentation. We toured the studio space at the Meadowlark Clubhouse, examined signage at the learning centers and began selecting materials from the drawing, jewelry, art library and block building centers. Despite drizzle throughout the morning, block builders and marble run designers working outdoors persevered. We had a fantastic time making art!

This five year old is a natural born graphic designer! 

This serious 10 year old artist used his powers of observation and ruler skills to create a brick pattern behind his vase rendering.

The builders were high energy all morning long. The block building center was the perfect learning activity for these young engineers.

Engineers design two intersecting marble run bridge spans with a single launch point!

At the end of the marble run is a corral to trap the speeding marbles!

Jewelry making artists used their threading, knotting and braiding skills to create bracelets and necklaces.

Manipulation of 2-D space with one point perspective!

Indy Art Lab and C.A.F.E. will be collaborating on two more art education events this summer! Stay tuned for more info!