Summer Solstice with the ZACC!

Hey everyone!

On Friday I helped the ZACC with their booth at the Missoula Culteral Council's Summer Solstice celebration in Caras Park here in Missoula.  For those of you who have never been to Missoula, I'll take a nice picture of Caras Park next time I'm there so you can all see what venue it is that I keep talking about on here. It's a really beautiful place next to downtown, right on the banks of the Clark Fork River that cuts through town. Gorgeous...pics on that to come. But the even--It was a blast.

Its Linds! TA da!The face of the ZACC!

We had three tables set up with free projects going on for passer's by to participate in. Back by popular demand was our Buggin Out with the ZACC mural and bug making station.

The Bug Station, resurrected! Below we had a super enthusiastic, artistic family working on some awesome bugs, and even a spider with WEB! That was a first for us!

Next to that we had a table set up for folks to make Artist Trading Cards! We asked that they make two; take one and leave one at the table for others to take!  It was a hit!

Linds, giving a few people ideas and help with their Artist Trading Cards.

 

Here are a few examples of the Artist Trading Cards that were made, and the instruction card participants found at the table. :)

Our third table was our workshop station, where we were lucky enough to have three instructors working with people on different projects. From 4:00-5:15 we had Melissa teaching felt making. From 5:15- 6:30, Katie was with us teaching and guiding the creation of a mural. Finally from 6:30- close was Kyla working with people on the 5 Senses with art making just like she had in her summer camp this last week at the ZACC!

Here is Melissa working her magic on wool and kiddo's! This was a very popular event! Everyone loved making their own pelt of felt!

Here is Simone and her gorgeous wool choices that she ended up turning into a beautiful piece of felt. Her family was on their way from Washington state to FLORIDA! And were just passing through Missoula, looking for a nice place to take a walk and they stumbled upon the Summer Solstice festival in the park and had a blast taking part in the ZACC activity tables.  A great break from the car!



5 Senses Summer Camp with the ZACC!

Hey everyone...one more post!

This week Clark Fork Pre-School teacher, Kyla Pellouchoud is teaching a summer camp for the kids, covering projects that highlight the 5 senses! I only have pictures from the first two days, which were touch and taste, but the kids were having a BLAST!

Here are some pictures of the kiddo's experiencing TOUCH with clay. They were given a ball of clay, blindfolded. They were told to imagine a face in their heads and try to create it with their hands through the sense of touch without seeing it.

The kids had SUCH a blast with this project. After they took their blindfolds off to look at their faces, they remolded their clay into coil pots that they turned into texture pots later. It was a super fun day, and was definitely an awesome way to highlight the sense of touch. Here are some pictures of the kiddo's having fun!

The kids were so diligent with this part of the project. We played the "silent game" while they were blindfolded so all of their energy was focused on their TOUCH!

 

 

The second day of the 5 Senses camp was focused on TASTE! Which the kids were thrilled with! All day they kept asking, "when do we get to TASTE stuff??" Haha... 

 

 

Kyla came in with an absolutely awesome project for taste...SOLAR OVENS!! The kids went to work and built their very own solar ovens out of boxed which they used to cook S'MORES!   Here are some shots of these super neat ovens--the kids were really proud of their work on these, and even more excited about tasting the fruits of their labor!

 

Here are the solar ovens, which worked really well to melt our marshmallows on the graham crackers. ZACC director, Kia had to come out to see the action...sooo cool!

Here is Kyla helping Hannah and Axel with their S'mores.

Angelina's finished product! Mmmm...

McKenna, digging in!

 

 

While we were waiting for our solar ovens to bake our marshmallows, the kids made their own candy necklaces with pendants! They took hammers to 5 different colors of jolly rancher candies, and then swirled the colors around to create the taste and shape they wanted. Then Kyla baked the shapes in a toaster oven. As soon as they came out of the oven the kids put bent sucker sticks into the melted candy and waited for it to dry before threading their "pendants" onto their necklaces.  It was also a really fun project and I think the kids like the hammering part the best on this project! They really went after it!

 

Here are some of the finished products of their 'Taste' necklaces:

 



Brothers Liam (5) and Nathaniel (8) model their necklaces for us. They are kind of hard to see amongst the bright tie dye shirts.

 

And here is Angelina, ever my model in the camps, showing us her heart pendant and necklace.  AWESOME!!

 

 

 

 

Today I'm headed back down to Cara's Park to help the Missoula Cultural Council celebrate SUMMER SOLSTICE!  And after the huge success at our previous SpectrUM event, we will once again be BUGGIN OUT WITH THE ZACC!!  So if you're in the Missoula area this afternoon between 4:00 and 7:00pm, come on down and make a bug for our ZACC mural! There will also be some kid and adult instructional projects going on with our booth as well, aside from the bugs. :) 

 

I'll be sure to post more pictures after the event! 

 

Until next time... Have fun!! 

 



Fun with Felt and Dye at the ZACC!

Hey there to everyone who is following me on this journey!

I'm a little behind in my posting, last week was CRAZY! So...I'll be covering two weeks here. :)

Last week the ZACC hosted an afternoon summer camp called Fun with Felt and Dye with instructor and local artist Melissa Thompson. I just have to say...WOW! What a fun, super messy, get your hands in it kind of  project! The kids had a blast.
Melissa brought in a bunch of differently dyed wool for the kids to make felt out of. Their projects were to make felt balls and string for a necklace. And they also learned how to make flat felt pictures using different colors. It was so neat to see the different colors coming together, as no two kids chose the same.

Here are some photo's from this camp:

Here we have Riley with his choices of color for his felt "beads" that he's about to make. To make the beads the kids selected wads of wool, like Riley is holding and using a combination of soap and water a little bit at a time, gently rolled the wads in their hands until the wool compressed and eventually formed into a nice, hard ball/bead! It was a true practice in patience for most of the kids..."ughh...is mine done, yet!!!???" Haha...  Behind Riley is his sister, Keegan who is modeling a really cool pair of horns that Melissa made and brought to show the kids all of the options you have when working with felt! You can make anything!!

 

 Here is Melissa helping Angelina with her wool at the beginning of the project! She was so great with all the kids...and they were very inquisitive about the progress of their projects so placed a great demand on her expertise throughout this week and she was a wonderful teacher!!

 Here is another shot of Melissa in action with our large class and a wonderful pile of beautifully dyed wool just waiting to be worked by all the little hands!!

 

Last week we had several campers who were in both the morning and the afternoon ZACC camps, so in between the camps, I took the kiddo's down to the playground at the old Whittier School which is only a few blocks from the ZACC. So we pack up our box lunches and walk down to the playground, enjoy our lunch and PLAY!! It is the perfect place for these full day campers to get the wiggles out before their afternoon class!

I don't have pictures of the finished products yet...but I will get some and post them a little later, they turned out really well!

Buggin out with the ZACC was a smash!

Hey everyone!

The SpectUM even with the University of Montana was a HUGE success. The kids absolutely LOVED the ZACC's bug making station. We had a steady stream of kids throughout the entire event and our mural was aptly filled with 39 bug creations. Many other bugs were also created and 'flew' home with their artistic creators. Here are a few pictures from our event!

The AFTER shot:

 

Everyone had fun buggin out with us...little kids:

And BIG KIDS, too!

 

Here is one of our fun bug creator's, Jax, who worked diligently on his bug with his mother. Also, you can see our bug making station here a little more clear.

 

Here is a proud bug artist, highlighting his work!

 

 

This is Charlotte who professed her desire to be an artist when she grows up! I think she is well on her way. :)

 

 

 

And for the photo finale...LINDS!! My super fun ZACC trainer and employee and the informational booth that accompanied our bug creation station.

 

 



 

 

I will be going to work again on Monday and Tuesday this week and also will be helping to teach the first summer class at the Missoula Boys and Girls club on Thursday. It should be a really neat experience.

 

I've finished my first week with the ZACC and I already know that it is going to be a great fit for me. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me...  I'll keep you all posted!

 

 

Until next time,

 

Katie

And It Begins...

 

Zootown Arts Community Center

...my adventure begins...

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there!  My name is Katie and I'm starting this blog to chronicle my summer internship with the Zootown Arts Community Center, or "the ZACC."  I've been allowed to participate in an internship program through the University of Montana's School of Art with the ZACC and I couldn't be more excited about it!  What an awesome way to build experience and gain knowledge for my Art Education degree program and future as a K-12 art educator.

 

The Zootown Arts Community Center is such an awesome place...a resource for this cool Missoula community to express themselves artistically and participate in classes, workshops, and gallery showings. The ZACC provides instructional workshops and classes as well as a place for people to go an work on art and ceramics on their own time.

 

I will be working there every Monday and Tuesday from noon until 4-5 pm. Every other Thursday I'm going to be helping teach an art class with a ZACC instructor at the Girls and Boys Club in Missoula! I absolutely can't wait for those classes...how fun! I'll also be helping with summer camps for local children that are at the ZACC; a different camp/class almost every week throughout the summer.  I have also volunteered to help them with local promotional events as they arise throughout the summer. My work at the ZACC will be really varied from helping with the kids in the summer camps and events, to glazing and firing ceramics as well as regular jobs around the ZACC.

 

My first day was this last Tuesday and I had a blast. I spent an hour and a half clear coating ceramic projects that people had come in to glazed for themselves. The ZACC sells ceramic pieces that people can buy and decorate. I was also really lucky to find an awesome show in their gallery with the life's works of local artist Courtney Blazon. What a cool first day bonus! After the clear coating I spent about three hours making a mural that will be the base for the 3D mural that kids will populate with hand-made bugs at the University of Montana's spectrUM Discovery Area's 4th Annual Weird Science Dance Party in Caras Park this Friday, the 7th of June, from 3-7 pm. I'll be there helping out from 5 until close if anyone wants to stop by, make a bug and contribute to our 3D community mural!!

 

Here is the obligatory "Before" photo...I'll post another after the kiddos have their way with it after the event! We'll be "Buggin' Out with the ZACC"!

 

 

I'll be back with you guys after the event! It'll be fun so come by Caras Park and check it out!  I'll be posting photos from next week's Boys and Girls Club Free Drop-In Program. We'll be making Artist Trading Cards.