Victor and Mabel D'Amico founded the Art Barge and the studio continues their legacy of innovative art education and a dedication to learning. In recent years, the Art Barge has recreated the concept of the Children's Art Carnival and I was eager to see it in action.
Colored gels on the windows demonstrate color mixing and show another way to appreciate the great view.
In the motivation room, this velcro shape felt board, allows children to explore shape, color and practice creating compositions.
Here elastic string over a peg board created a series of parallel lines. Children created designs by placing pegs and stretching the string over them, creating interesting angles and intersections of lines. This line exploration was popular in the motivation room.
Moving into the studio, this mobile making station provides a frame above to hang works in progress with a variety of materials for twisting, tying and hanging to create interesting sculptures. Seashells seemed fitting for the setting.
The classic paint set-up D'Amico suggested for students included caster cups with red, blue, yellow, white and black paint, a cup for water and a sponge to dab the brush. Here the child has mixed pink in her white and is painting on a piece of glass to make a monoprint.
Thank you to Thomas and Wesley for showing me around and allowing me to visit their afternoon class.
Thank you to Art Barge Director, Christopher Kohan for showing me around and sharing so many wonderful stories of the Art Carnival and his work with Victor and Mabel D'Amico.
Coming soon...a visit to the D'Amico home and studio.