Art In The Park

September 13, 2009

Last week was our third annual neighbourhood Art In The Park.  Art In the Park is exactly as it sounds.  We invite all the neighbourhood kids to the nearby park where they don their DaVinci hats, whip out their Picasso paint brushes, embrace their inner Warhol and Gogh Gogh Gogh create until their creative juices run dry – or until they get hungry.  Whichever comes first.

This neighbourhood tradition was started by my friend and neighbour Kerri, a teacher and mother of three. Kerri’s one of those mothers you’d love to hate – she’s loving, patient, calm in the face of disaster (did I mention she also hosts a yearly gingerbread decorating day?  20 kids given access to icing, candies and sugar running amuck through her house - I’m still trying to find her valium stash), she's creative, makes homemade cookies and then brings them to her friends, she works, never seems to get stressed out and is always smiling.  But you’d never hate Kerri because she has an incredibly generous and loving spirit.   When I grow up, I want to be just like her.

Until Kerri brought forth her idea, my only experience with art in the park was the homeless guy I gave muffins to every morning on my way to work.

Art in the Park consists of two things:  Art supplies and kids.  We set up different stations, then, in a nutshell, we let the kids go at it.  Creatively – not Lord of the Flies.

There are only three rules for Art In The Park:

(1) Be Creative
(2) Have Fun
(3) All artwork will be hung up for the neighbourhood to admire

Each year it’s been hot, messy, chaotic and a resounding success. So if you’d like to host your own Art In The Park, here’s what you’ll need and a few tips to help you maneuver your way through the glitter glue and finger paints.

Items Needed:

A park (or any large outside area that you won’t mind getting messy)
Art Supplies:  Large rolls of paper, paint, paintbrushes, buckets of water (and one with soapy water), clay, play-doh, paper plates, chalk, sidewalk paint, clothespins, ribbon, large colouring books, crayons, markers, a small craft table, glue, glitter, stickers, scissors, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and any other craft items you think the kids will enjoy.
Kids

Week Before Art In The Park

Send out invites. This can be done by email or phone or you can take it one step further and utilize your kids.  Every year Kerri’s kids draw an invitation which she photocopies. The kids then go on a hike around the neighbourhood hand delivering them to the invitees.  That’s 1 ½ hours of keeping the kids occupied – in Mom Time that means you can do three loads of laundry, make dinner, answer 27 emails, clean up the family room and take over the world.

Organize Craft Items:  Call around and find out what the other moms can bring. Everyone has craft items on hand so don’t run out and buy anything new.  'Cause you're giving them to kids… outside in a park...aaannd they have the attention span of gnats and’ll probably end up losing half of it and breaking or spilling the other half.  So call the moms and have them bring all the messy stuff you never want to use in the house - like sparkles, glitter glue and moonsand (who invented that shit anyway).  The kids will think they’ve hit the craft jackpot.

Day of Art In The Park

Set Up:  It’s important to set up about 20 minutes before the kids arrive and not be like me - on the phone while waving manically out the front door at Kerri (who actually is on time) trying to grab her attention and let her know you’ll be out in Just. One. Minute (mouthing words while gesturing hand in air with one finger pointed towards the sky).  Because kids aren’t patient.  And when they see paint, they just want to…well paint.

Art Supply Tip No. 1:  Add a dab of dish detergent to the paint – it makes it easier to wash off.

Art Supply Tip No. 2:  Place buckets of soapy water through out the stations to make paintbrush, hand and feet washing eaiser.

Now here’s my most important tip.  The tip I can’t stress enough.

Leave.

The.

Kids.

Alone.

Don’t give them “tips”.  Don’t make “suggestions”. Don’t “help” them. And don’t tell them not to stick their hands in the paint. 

Just leave them alone and let them create.

And if you do, if you leave them alone surrounded by art supplies and the unlimited potential of their imaginations, what you’ll see unfold before you is not just a bunch of kids in a park with craft supplies hanging out on a weekend morning. What you’ll see is children of all different ages and backgrounds coming together and having an incredible light bulb moment when they realize they can do just about anything.