des moines local art

Art Making That Helps Enrich Your Child's Friendships and Social Skills

Our students are blasting off this season with our Fall art program "Once Upon a Paint Drop..." which centers our art making around the big idea of storytelling.  This past week Art Squad (ages 5-11) has been working on a project about our BFF's.  We start by thinking of the fun times with our BFF and what qualities makes them a special friend.  The inspiration leads us to sketching and skill building in portraiture as we honor our BFF with a drawn portrait.

It's amazing what one single lesson in our art program can do to help build excitement and skill build.  We have put together a student gallery below to show the accomplishments our students have made during one class. Many pictures show examples of "before" and "after" practicing. Class time helps to slow down and be mindful of what we are making. Every student works at their own pace, so some kids are still working on drawing, and some have moved onto color mixing.  Pictures of the process and progress are so amazing. See below!

As our students leave class, we want to empower them to be creative in their lives at home.  Students are encouraged to interview their BFF to find out a few new things they never knew before.  This information, along with their portraits will be transformed into a news article headlining their BFF.  We hope this project brings friends closer together, builds excitement to create art, and encourages children to communicate and build their love for writing.  

Comment below to help grow our topic: In a culture of selfies and screen staring, how can we help our young people strengthen human connections and honor others?

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"This is my friend wearing my jacket. Friends Share." 

-Art Student, Age 5

Summer 2017: Fun in the Sun

Summer inspiration included: Sunlight, nature hikes, chalk, sand, bubbles, hot air balloons, popsicles, & ice cream. Our students shined bright this summer as we visited the big idea "Fun in the Sun." Some student artwork obviously carried this theme and others contained the idea more abstractly as art sometimes makes you think deeply.  Either way, every student made artwork that was personally meaningful while learning to bring ideas to life.  

Our students this summer included all ages and skill levels. We had students from age 2 to adult; Art truly is for EVERYONE. Our classes offered were: PreK Art Play, Art Club, Sketchbook Club, Printmaking, Clay Basics for Adults, and Beginning Painting for Adults.  Our art projects and studies visited many academic areas including science, math, reading, and writing.  This was great for our younger students on summer break to prevent that "summer brain." :)

Take a look at our photo gallery below to see the fun we had and the cool things we made.   Some of our projects included: photography using sun rays, shadow studies in chalk, sun catchers, collaborative sand box play, bubble painting, pop art summer treats, and hot air balloon innovation.  Summer is inspiring in so many ways. 

Art & Science Camp Invites Friends: Student Art Show

Students made kinetic sand this week and found out building a sand structure was difficult work! Some of their work included experimenting with the recipe to make the sand more stable, and discovering building methods through utilizing a variety of tools.

This week our Creative Geniuses Summer Art Camp is in process, and we are on a roll observing and experimenting! We are focusing on connecting art and science and having so much fun building our knowledge! Our students will be hosting a student art show this Friday, July 10, from 7-7:30 p.m. at the West Des Moines Community Center in the Valley Junction. Student work from camp will be on display for friends and family to view.  We welcome friends to come out to support our young intelligent students and local art!