Yesterday was a very long day, but it was well worth it. the Art Fair was during the school's conferences, 2pm-7pm. We had to wait to set up in the cafeteria (the "art gallery") until after lunch was finished. Another mother and I walked in as the last class was walking out.
We were still hanging art work when school let out and the kids, parents, teachers and others walked in to see what was going on. There was a lull in patrons until conferences got in full swing and after that we had a steady flow of parents, grandparents and, of course, the artists!
It was awesome to see the kids so proud to show off their hard work to the ones they love. They were excited to do the potato stamp painting project we had set up for attendees (parents participated, too!). And both kids and parents took home the idea sheets for easy to do at-home art projects--made from things that you most probably were going to throw away anyway.
I wanted to get involved in the Art Fair this year after volunteering last year. It was run by an outside company that had all the kids' artwork in frames that you could buy. They had kits and supplies for sale. They had projects for the kids to work on at the Art Show, but you had to pay to participate.
That was the table I worked at, and I can't tell you how heartbreaking it was to turn away kids who just wanted to create, use their imaginations, but didn't have the money to pay for the project. Now, I can't tell you what I had for lunch yesterday, but I can tell you that I recognized those kids' faces when they came up to the project table (fun! free!) this year.
That was the focus this year, the famous Pablo Picasso quotation: Every child is an artist. It is important that kids know that you don't need fancy supplies or kits to create. You should have seen what the kids made last night. We have quite a few artists on our hands!
I've been having trouble uploading the boys' art from the fair. I'll update in a later post!
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