April Art Week

Well, I'm doing another April Art Week this year. Which can be somewhat of an adventure. I've done most of the Worcester Art Museum's Vacation Week classes since I started at the Museum back in 2003. Most of the people who sign their kids up for classes are usually new to the Museum. What Feb Fun and April Art do in a nutshell is gives those people a taste of the types of classes that are being offered such as the mixed media classes or a painting class or a fashion design class or the computer classes or the comic/cartooning classes.

Last year I was thrilled to be able to do my very first drawn animation class. And although I had to work through the usual misadventures of learning programs such as Flash Animator which the Museum uses for Animation classes the results were fantastic and it made it all the better when I taught my very first Traditional Animation Class over the Fall.

April Art, much like Feb Fun has always been sort of a mixed bag as far as how smoothly the classes go. It's also probably the only time of the year I do a class with 5-7 year olds. Which REALLY can be an adventure.

Especially the uncontrollable crying. I've found that usually takes place because of one of two things:

1.) The kid is right on the 5 year old mark and this is the first time he's/she's been dropped off at the Art Museum. The kid loves to draw and the Art Museum seems like a great outlet for him. So why not sign up for him/her. The April Art Week classes are fairly inexpensive and what better way to find out if this is something that they want to do. BUT this is the first time in a strange building, they just saw their parent walk out the door and two hours is pretty much an eternity to a five year old. So, immediately they're crying even before their parents leave.

This is the nice thing about having the younger assistant. And I've had some of the best for the most part. After I've talked a little with the child to calm them down, I have the assistant take them for a walk and by the end of the class you would think they've been going there for ages.

2.) And this is can be the most difficult. The kid doesn't really draw at all but he/she scribbles stick figures and likes cartoons. So, the parent decide to sign them up for a class. Nothing evil about that right? What makes it bad in this case is a lot of times I have found out that the parent has gotten their child wound up before classes and insist that the child not only has a finished piece of art when the two hours are up BUT they also figure after one day of classes that the child should be drawng at a professional level and anything short of that is utter failure.

So, by the time I've finished doing the demonstration on the blackboard, sheet of newsprint or dry/erase board I can see one of the childen with their head down on the desk sobbing because they don't know how to draw. And then I've come to find out that their parent done exactly what I mentioned above.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN PEOPLE!! I'M NOT GRADING YOUR CHILD ON THIS! THIS IS AN ENRICHMENT AND SOMETHING THE CHILD SHOULD BE DOING BECAUSE THEY ENJOY IT NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO DO IT!!

Not to mention the child doesn't really want to be here because art is just not their thing. But their parents had this attitude that they're going to take an art class whether they like it or not.

NO!! Art should be fun. Your child is cooped up in a classroom 8am till 2:30/3pm from August/September till June being forced to do things they don't like to do. Now they have a week off to breathe deep and get away from all that. And now they get the opportunity to take an art class that offers something they wouldn't necessarily learn in their regular art class. Not to mention get a chance to maybe draw what they like.

Look, broadening your child's horizons and introducing them to something new isn't a bad thing. It's a great thing. But please don't force your child into something because all you'll succeed in doing is making your child hate art.

If your attitude is just looking for a baby-sitter for two hours in the morning, you might as well just give your child the $20 the class costs in quarters and send him down to the arcades for two hours.

It's fine that you want to introduce your child to new things and I'm very happy to maybe give him something he can use down the road. Even if it's just a hobby. But please!! Don't put demands on them. It doesn't help me and it won't help you either.

Like I said earlier, the Vacation Weeks can be a mixed bag. Like this year with Feb Fun. I've had Feb Fun Weeks which either leave me wanting to rip my hair out or were a breeze. This year's was a breeze!! Mind you, my last class of the week was a bit like Romper Room. Strangely it was the older students who turned out less focused than the younger ones. But the week on a whole had to be one of the more enjoyable Feb Funs I've had.

Last year's April Art was definitely a mix of the two. It started out fairly crazy but ended really great with the Animation Class. And then I got the H1N1. It started out as a cold that whole week and I thought I finally shook it by weeks end. The following week, I was pretty much bedridden the whole week. And even when I went into the Art Museum to teach my Thursday class I was totally out of it. And not much better for my Saturday class. It took me probably a good week or two to finally shake it. And even then it took me a longer time to get rid of my cough and regain my strength.

I couldn't even open a bag of chips without getting the jaws of life.

That's the other bad thing about April Art. Many of the kids are coming back from tropical family vacations bringing home more than just a t-shirt. And guess who they end up sharing it with ;-)

But what's nice about this session of April Art is I'm teaching a lot more cartooning and comic art classes. It seems like they're tayloring a lot of the classes around the instructors comfort zones. Not to mention I don't think last year's slew of classes really grabbed students attentions. Especially the 14-17 year olds.

Needless to say, if you post anything with the words cartooning or comics in the title, it's like shooting fish in a barrell.

But as I get over this cold right now I'm getting prepared for April Art Week. And as long as you haven't made your child think if they don't draw SpongeBob properly they're out of the family will, it should be a great time ;-)