Submitted by: Jody Kuchar for Lakeshore Artists Guild
A new event to Art Slam for 2019 will be “Kids Moment”; a hands-on, full creative suite of activities for children, sponsored by Clipper City Co-op. Conceived by Jenn Fodden, “Kids Moment” will engage little hands and minds in making both a personal piece of art, and, helping to build on public art installations, all happening in Washington Park.
“Kids Moment” will be supervised by Jenn, Tracy Folz and Silver Lake College art students. There will be loom weaving, clay building, and stick painting. Each component will consist of two parts. Loom weaving will encourage children to decorate an 8”x8” hand-made stick loom, in which they can weave natural items such as flowers, dried foliage, yarns, ribbon, feathers, leather and other organic materials – echoing the idea that there is art in nature. The second part of Loom Weaving involves weaving between live trees in Washington Park; a larger version of the hand loom projects.
For activities with Clay, the Silver Lake College art students will be demonstrating throwing clay on potters’ wheels. The second part of Clay Play will be for children to use air dry clay to make pinch pots which they will decorate by impressing natural items into the clay.
The third activity is Stick Painting. Children are encouraged to bring their own sticks to paint and take home with them to decorate their yards or rooms. The community part of Stick Painting will be painting large sticks to then build a teepee in the park.
Jenn Fodden is originally from Toronto, Canada; she moved here in 2012. During the immigration process, Jenn did not work a traditional career job; instead she volunteered for various community oriented organizations such as Clipper City Co-op, Mainly Manitowoc, Grow It Forward and, finally CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), where she still is a volunteer. All of the creative ideas for “Kids Moment” come from Jenn’s involvement with Girl Scouts and her grandchildren. Jenn is a creative, but not a trained artist and she loves children.
Tracy Folz has always been interested in art. Her passion is photography, but she also creates art journals, needlework, abstract painting, and drawing. She was an Art Slam volunteer in 2018. Tracy loves that Art Slam is bringing an awareness of all the artists in the area and also showing that Manitowoc has a lively arts scene. She also believes that introducing art to children is important to help them increase their creative skills.
“Kids Moment” will have various stations set up in Washington Park. It all happens on Saturday, September 21st from 9 am to 3 pm. If you come to Washington Park, you are encouraged to bring natural items from your yard to weave in a loom. All “Kids Moment” activities will be free. Everyone is invited to come! Whether it is for an hour or for the day, activities will go on all day.
If any adults are interested in volunteering at “Kids Moment”, please contact Art Slam Manitowoc on their Facebook page.
