A first ever guest post at Sort of Parenting. Art Garage is a project I am excited about and goes well with the Tuscaloosa parent resource page I plan to launch later this spring. Please visit the links below and support their awesome Kickstarter!
The Art Garage
Thank you for asking me to share a little of my story and idea for the Art Garage.
I was born to parents that cared a lot about exposing me and my siblings to the arts. We grew up going to plays, musicals, and my parents were both artists. My dad was essentially a graphic designer without any formal training. He ran a small silk screening business that required him to learn the skill as technology came into play.
My mother was very artistic. She painted, drew, and had a love for teaching children art. She was often a guest in our classrooms. When I grew up, I was interested in art and even went to the University of Mississippi on an art scholarship.
But things changed and I went back to my hometown, finished my degree, and became an early childhood teacher and an art teacher. After becoming a wife and mother, I took a small break from teaching. I continued to explore art with my own children and as the years have passed, I was given opportunities to share my love of art with young children.
After moving to Tuscaloosa and over the past seven years I have had the pleasure of teaching art to many children throughout the city and county. I went back to school for a Masters degree and took some small businesses classes.
That was where the idea for the Art Garage began to form. My love for teaching children art and small business ownership passed down from my father helped create the foundation for the Art Garage. So many children, even school aged children are not given the types of opportunities I was as a child to explore the arts like my parents gave us.
My parents did not have a lot of money, they were very creative with our arts education. I am trying to provide a creative outlet for young children and elementary school age children to have the tools they need to create.
The Art Garage is an art studio for children I plan to open in Tuscaloosa this Summer, 2020. We, at the Art Garage, will provide structured and unstructured spaces to let young children discover art for themselves. We are hoping it will be a place where parents will feel the freedom to let their children explore on their own terms, have a moment to themselves, and take a fun piece of art home with them when they leave.
Best of all, they leave the mess behind! The Art Garage will offer weekly classes for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, homeschool groups, after school students, special friends, and so much more.
We also plan to bless families with a parent’s night out once a month.
The Art Garage will also have fun and unique classes for adults and seniors. I am so excited to see this dream come to life. And, I am humbled by the response from the Tuscaloosa community so far.
We are in the middle of a fundraising campaign Kickstarter that will suppliment my own savings to help bring the Art Garage here by July.
Currently we have approximately one week left in the campaign and around $8,000 to raise. If you are interested in learning about the Kickstarter or the Art Garage, information can be found http://kck.st/2uVl7fU and www.ladyelines.com
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