As a certified process art fanatic, I’m always coming across ideas that are a little too messy for out carpeted meeting room. When summer rolls around, I delight in moving outdoors, where I can splash and splatter more freely. Messy play is sensory play, making it great for a wide age range. To save on cleanup time, I roll all the messy fun into one action-packed celebration — a Messtival! Today, I’m sharing three years’ worth of trial and error, finding activities that are engaging, messy, and still easy to clean up after.
Tag: process art
What Does Earth Day Have to do with Art?
Art and Earth Day? I mean, they’re not even in the same Dewey Decimal Classification categories! One is in the 700s (art) and the other is generally in the 300s (Social Sciences, anyone?) But stay with me. I recently found a picture book called How to Spot an Artist. It is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E, and yet philosophical and deep–adults and children will love this encouraging book that lets you know that art and artists exist any and everywhere. You never know, you might be an artist, dear library friend. I also found a book about collage and another book about making art from ocean plastic. Which made me wonder about a mash-up of art and Earth Day. I know, I’m a day late, Earth Day was yesterday. But there’s nothing wrong with celebrating the day late (it’s still April!) or focusing on environmental art as you think forward to craft programs for…
Creativity without Rules
Crafts and children’s librarianship go hand in hand. The library system in which I work hosts several annual programs that are quite popular. Our Children’s Services department always provides some type of make-and-take craft for these types of events. Part of me loves the process of creating several hundred craft stick stars for kids to decorate with sequins and pom poms but other than a fun craft, I do not think kids get much out of these types of programs. I think that creativity is an important skill children need and we, as children’s librarians, can help foster that creativity. This is why I regularly offer process art programming at my library.