Art Galleries & Children

I believe in experimentation. A lot of what I do in my Creative pursuits is experimentation. It’s no different with my Art Sessions. After all, you never knows until you give it a go. On the Clifton Strengths scale, Ideation is one of my top 5 strengths. Essentially, I have A LOT of ideas. The key is taking time to think which ideas are worth pursuing.

Over a year ago, I had the idea of hosting an Art Gallery visit for the children in one of my Art Classes. The idea has been brewing for awhile. I am so pleased it finally took place and everyone, including the parents had a great time.

We had been covering “Perspectives” in our weekly sessions, practicing its application as well as looking at a variety of paintings together Online – some were ones that they were going to see at the Art Gallery we were going to.

There was a lot of anticipation and excitement about seeing each other in person. Whilst the children had met each other through their Home Ed Meet-ups, we had only met each other Online. Similarly, I had only been in communication with the parents via email. So it was not unlike meeting a Pen Pal in person.

I prepared for each child their very own Art Gallery Sketch book and an Activity Record Sheet. I informed the Gallery about our visit and arranged to borrow some folding stools as well.

It felt slightly ‘strange’ meeting children whom I had gotten to know over the weeks, some years; in person. I wonder if they felt the same. But the ‘strangeness’ disappeared as we looked at the paintings together; discussed them and went on to do some Sketches. Seeing them sit on their stools, sketching away, made my heart sing.