Open House 2011

Saturday was filled with creative energy and lots of glitter in the kids studios here at Lillstreet. Check out some of the sophisticated works of art created by our young artist! The wide variety of projects that came out of a simple set of materials was absolutely inspirational. Left: Buttons, wood and string used to create a necklace that matches her coat.
Right: Pom poms and her own face turned creative time into a performance we were all able to enjoy.

This young lady made several versions of her little dolls using different materials. She made these out of buttons, wooden beads, and wire.

Left: Buildings under construction! The group used wood and glue to create their structures. Embellishments varied.
Right: Covering projects in a delicious layer of glitter. Bravo!

Congratulations Kris...

...and welcome to the kidstreet family little Lucia!

Oobleck and a Scanner.

The Kidstreet classroom was an experimental art and science studio this morning. A class of 18 - 30 month old artist created compositions with non-Newtonian fluids then used a scanner to record their transient art.



It’s pretty exciting to push a button and watch a print appear. Another tool has been added to their material palette!

Wild Things!

A day at the Lincoln Park Zoo with Sarah Kaiser and Angela Kovacs drawing Wild Things.

Digital + Handmade

Check out some of the amazing work created by students during the first two weeks of the Digital + Handmade camp. Another session has been added for the first week in August!

Students learned how to use various tools in Photoshop.

Students created 3D compositions then scanned them and altered them using Photoshop.



Students learned to use a digital camera and learned about color channels.



After creating a 2D work of art, students scanned them and added to their compositions using Photoshop.



A good time was had by all.

Student projects - metals camp.

Violet's beautifully detailed necklace complete with handmade chain.

Quick peek from the second week of summer camp.

Work from Clay & Multimedia camp ages 5 - 12.

Wheel throwing camp ages 9 - 12.

Metals camp ages 10 - 16.

Functional sculpture for your garden ages 10 - 14.

SUPERHERO!

Is your kid consumed by visual story telling? Have they memorized all the characters in the Marvel Universe? If so, we have the perfect outlet for their love of mutant powers and supernatural abilities. Gary John Reynolds will be teaching Superhero summer camp August 1 - 5.When he’s not teaching 8-12 year olds about proportion, perspective, and foreshortening, this mild mannered artist teaches drawing and relief printmaking at Salem State University in Salem, MA. Gary is currently showing linoleum block prints in an exhibit titled “Lost & Found” in Marblehead, MA.

Summer camp is here!

It’s an exciting week here at Lillstreet Art Center because summer camps have started. When you teach kids, be prepared to be amazed and surprised by their enthusiasm, creativity, and the thoughtfulness of the things they make. We’ll be posting such moments from summer camp on our blog so you can be amazed with us.

We also wanted to share information about an upcoming show for one of our teachers, Sarah Kaiser. Sarah will be teaching CLAY & MULTIMEDIA, TEEN DRAWING & PAINTING, and WHEEL THROWING camps at Lill Street this summer.

I’m incredibly excited to be a part of the Lillstreet community as the Resident Artist in the Kidstreet program. While studying art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago I focused on how “making” (creating with physical and digital materials) presents opportunities for children to become producers rather than consumers. This research made me eager to participate in a community, like Lill Street, that values “making” as an important developmental pursuit. Through “making,” children elevate their ability to act as stewards of a sustainable world.

As Melanie mentioned in her last post, my daughter Cora has been testing projects as I develop them for classes here at Lill Street. One of her favorites so far was made by drizzling chocolate syrup on a piece of plexiglass. She scanned it, altered it in Photoshop, and then used that image to create several different variations.



Simple materials and time to play...

Open House Fun

We had a great time with all the families that came to our open house yesterda! Gabriella took some wonderful photos of some of the wonderful creations:


At Kidstreet, we love the opportunity to come up with creative uses for materials destined for the landfill, as demonstrated by these wonderful hand puppets made from CD mailers.

For those of you who missed the open house, you are always welcome to drop by during our open hours and tour the building- there are many artist studios, classrooms, the gallery, and delicious food and drink at the First Slice cafe. Saturday mornings we also have a drop in family class from 10:30-11:30 and it is recommended that you pre-register by calling the front desk at 773.769.4226 or signing up on-line.

Our Spring class session begins the week of March 28th and many classes still have available openings. View the schedule online here. We are very excited to have our new Artist-in-Residence, Kimberly Pancoast, who is introducing a technology based class this Spring as well as a few camps this summer. She is busy experimenting with scanners and transferring images to various materials. I can't wait to see what the kids do with this new tool!

I have so enjoyed getting to know Kimberly and her creative (and sometimes guinea pig for new projects) daughter Cora. One of my favorite conversations was about how our kids loved the simplest things. For example, I brought home a plant that was sitting on top of small pebbles and my son could not get enough of playing with them. Kimberly had the same experience with her daughter who loved playing with dried beans and had a huge container of them she continued to use even as she became older. So much creativity with such humble materials. Kids are so amazing.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Melanie