CAZENOVIA — Local art educator Krista Brown and CazArts creative alliance are inviting young creatives to the Carpenter’s Barn arts hub at Lakeland Park in Cazenovia this summer for four five-day workshops.
Brown will present “Exploring Color” July 10-14, “Exploring Printmaking & Collage” July 17-21, “Exploring Sculpture” July 24-28, and “Exploring Your Dream Home” July 31-Aug. 4.
The classes are open to kids ages 6-12
“CazArts wants to create a space where elementary-age children can create and explore art,” said Brown. “These summer workshops aim to engage them and give them a positive creative outlet. There is a need in our community for arts programming outside of school, especially in the summer. The specific topics were chosen because I hope to get kids excited about different ways of expressing art.”
The cost of each workshop is $120, plus a $10 materials fee. Scholarships (one per family) are available for kids with financial needs.
During the color-focused workshop, young artists will create original artwork using markers, oil pastels, and colored pencils to explore the power of hue, shade, tone, saturation and contrast.
Participants in the second workshop will “travel” the world by learning about a new artist each day while experimenting with printmaking and collage techniques and self-portraits.
“We will learn about Japanese artists who do gyotaku — the art of fish printing — and make our own prints using rubber fish,” said Brown. “Frida Kahlo gives campers the opportunity for some self-reflection while learning how to do a self-portrait. We will also focus on Hiroaki Takahashi’s majestic prints of Japanese landscapes and explore this medium with foam prints depicting Cazenovia’s rolling countryside. Finally, we will do a colorful collage [inspired by] Alma Thomas and learn how she distilled beauty into lines of pure colors on large canvases.”
Leaving the two-dimensional world behind, the sculpture workshop will give kids the chance to use foil to create dynamic aluminum figures, get messy with paper mâché, and explore the endless possibilities of origami.
During the final workshop, participants will use their imaginations along with upcycled and natural materials to build original architectural models of their dream spaces. They will first sketch out their ideas and then bring them to life by combining different mediums.
Each workshop will conclude with a gallery showing of the kids’ work at the end of the week.
All sessions will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. and are timed to enable kids to also participate in the 2023 Cazenovia Youth Recreational program, which runs mornings.
“We timed the first four weeks of the program so that the kids who are attending the Caz Rec program can be picked up by us and brought to the barn for an additional three hours of art,” said Brown.
To find out more about the Caz Rec program, visit cazenovia.recdesk.com/Community/Program.
According to Brown, the ideal class size for each workshop is 15-20 kids.
“More brainstorming and energy comes from a group that size,” she explained. “There will also be the opportunity to have some one-on-one moments with each participant. We are working with high school students interested in art and kids to fulfill their volunteer hours for school, [so] there will be many hands assisting.”
Brown, who has lived in Cazenovia with her family since 2013, is originally from Dallas, Texas, where she began her college education as an art education major at Texas Christian University. She then transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts with a concentration in ceramics.
Her teaching experience includes developing a homeschool arts curriculum, teaching in an arts magnet school, and creating programming and teaching in arts-centered summer camps in Texas, New Mexico and Alaska. She currently teaches art to preschoolers and early elementary students at the Rippleton Center on Thompson Road in Cazenovia.
As an artist, Brown has sold her ceramic works and metal sculptures in Alaska.
Carpenter’s Barn is also offering adult art programs this summer, and scholarships are available for adults 65 and older living in Madison County.
To register for any of the summer classes at Carpenter’s Barn, visit cazarts.com/carpenters_barn-classes.html.
To donate to the CazArts Kids Scholarship Fund, click the link at the bottom of the “Classes” page on cazarts.com.
