beauty, humility, desire and attitude

Its been a wonderful year for the Experimental Art Lab!

We ended our sessions with paper-mache vessels, some became hats, some castles and some tea cups. An ode to Alice in Wonderland.

NATHAN

PEONY

CAT COUCH

As we gear up for summer, longer days, starry nights, blueberry picking, bike rides, daydreaming, seashell collecting and reading under the shade of a tree- here is a lovely journal entry to get you thinking by Louise Bourgeoise. 

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/08/17/louise-bourgeois-letters-diaries-art/

the running stitch

I love teaching children how to sew the running stitch. It is so fundamental and relates to drawing, math, making,

mending, decorative arts, fashion, domestic arts and more. Here we took our inspiration from Claus Oldenburg's soft sculptures from the 1960's and after drawing on pieces of muslin practiced sewing and stuffing them into shaped pillows. There was so much interest in the drawn patterns on the fabric we have set up a time this summer to have them printed in Philadelphia. 

Be an architect/designer for a day!

Working with several groups throughout the city; homeschoolers, TEA Factory kids, Freedman Kids and the kids from Centre Park Lutheran Church, young artists

have been rolling up their sleeves and creating these wonderful model spaces. We hope to exhibit them later in the year complete with stories and blue prints.

A Warm Winter and a Cold Front

As we move from 2015 to 2016 I wanted to share some of the final projects before the holidays. This is one that's an old favorite that I often bring out again upon request. Learned from a street artist in Oakland, CA. we re-purpose old vinyl records by drawing on and decorating with permanent paint markers. Somehow the circular shape, the velvety slide of the marker on the slick surface often inspire new types of images and patterns.

Below you can see the focus with which the students were working away, from the elementary schoolers at Perry Street in Hamburg who I did an outreach program with to the home-schoolers that meet with me bi-weekly at the T.E.A. Factory in downtown Reading from kinder age to teens. 

Stay tuned as we move into more 3D and collaborative projects this spring, in addition to   going on some field trips and offering drawing circles to parents. We are busy with Art Lab which still meets on Monday afternoons, 4-5pm but with a new focus: making crafts to bring to the seniors at the Reading Hospital through their volunteer department. If anyone is interested in an outreach or field trip program please contact me at bkrumholz@alb.edu

For teens, I can hook you up with tickets to any cultural event on campus, with a built in opportunity to meet some college students. And teens are welcome to join in on any of our Meet & Make sessions which are listed on the website. 

Looking forward to a creative winter and spring!

Radicals

Recommended reading: This is an awesome book for girls and boys, young and old. The authors did a rad job compiling information and shining a light on people who have creatively contributed to our culture. Its very inspirational for anyone and everyone.

With that in mind we are having some changes here in the land of the Center for the Arts and Freedman Kids. We have had an outpouring of requests form the community to bring more art programs and projects to those who cannot come to us. 

Therefore we are shifting gears a bit and to that end- our in-coming field trips have turned more into outreach visits to schools, hospitals and churches- and our teens are helping with that as well as attending cultural events and participating in some exciting new local art ventures. More info on that later! We continue to serve teachers through BCIU programs and our campus through Meet & Make events. We are happy to work with all human-kind- young and old. 

Recently I gave a very inspirational talk to 13th & Union Elementary School on choosing art over drugs and we are busy little elves making art care packages for the seniors at the Reading Hospital Rehab Center. This is all great life experience for college students who want interesting did-bits for their resumes. 

Mazel Tov emoji and add to that shrimp tempura, smiling doo-hickey, dancing bunnies, ghost with tongue out, cherub and blooming cactus. 

Peace. 

What is your disguise?!

Children, parents, grand-parents and helpers all jumped in and rolled up their sleeves at the T.E.A. Factory for a creative kick off to our season of making and experimenting. We painted and decorated masks and talked about their origin. They are fabulous!

Winston Churchill

When Winston Churchill

was asked to cut arts

 funding in favor of the

 war effort, he simply

 replied, “then what are we

 fighting for?”