The RAL Art Center will present Family Stories through Art Workshops Weekend September 29 to October 1 with certified Picture-Writing™ instructor Sharon Santillo from Massachusetts.
Every family has stories. Some are tragic, some are funny and some are just about ordinary life, reported Mary Jo Beswick. Pick a story and make a book or collage keepsake. No drawing skills are necessary with the Picture-Writing™ method. Just bring stories and prepare for a transforming experience.
Workshops Include:
• Adults, Family Story Book, September 30 and October 1, 1 to 6 p.m., $145 plus $5 for materials. Participants will make a book of a family story; hand paint papers, cut and paste and create three collages for the beginning, middle and end of a family story. Participants will orally rehearse the story before they write. By the end of day two, they will leave with all the elements of a six-page book and publishing suggestions for sharing with family and friends.
• Child & Adult Partner, Story Keepsake, September 30, 10 to noon, $25 plus $5 for materials. Participants and a child, ages 5-12, will be equal partners using simple collage techniques and writing to transform a family story into a keepsake. The adult partner can be a parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle. Together they will paint the story settings then the child will draw and color the characters and the adult will cut and glue. Together they will write the story. They will leave with a portfolio of art and story suitable for display and sharing with other family members.
• Teens, Story Keepsake, September 29, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., $25 plus $5 for materials. Participants will think of the stories their grandparents and parents have told. Think back to their own childhood memories of family trips, places they have lived, holidays and birthdays. They will pick a story and using simple collage and writing techniques transform it into an art keepsake. They will leave with a portfolio of art and story that can be shared with family members.
Santillo is an art teacher and certified instructor of Picture-Writing™ which is an art-and-literature-based teaching model, developed at the University of New Hampshire, for writing. In this model the art-making always precedes the writing and is the driver for developing a rich vocabulary, from which the writing follows naturally.
Register at the RAL Art Center, 19 North Main Street, Kilmarnock; 436-9309, or [email protected].
