"Thank you so much for the wonderful week in the Burren...For me it was life- changing and a very healing start to a new stage of my life.
Thank you for that gift".
Barbara O'Meara
Working with children through arts, Foundation course
Course for adults who want to work with children through the arts.
Working with Children through Arts
Art to Heart is offering a unique opportunity to participate in a programme of collective art making, personal exploration and debate. This training programme is for any adults wo want to learn more about how to nurture, foster and develop their own creative potential. If you are a parent, youth leader, social or health worker, teacher, childcare worker or artist this training programme is especially for you.
No artistic experience is necessary to attend the programme.
Foundation Course
Human freedom never has as much meaning and value as when it allows the creative power of the child to come into action. All children are endowed with a creative power, which includes an astonishing variety of potentialities. This power is necessary for the child to build up her/his own existence. (Ramses Wissa Wassef, founder of the Wassef Art School, village of Harrania, Egypt)
This course is an introduction to Working With Children through Arts and it is based on the belief that, when given the right environment, children instinctively know how to create while most adults need to re-learn how to do it. As adults we often find it difficult to trust a child’s capacity to work out solutions for him or herself, to give children the right space and time. We can treat children’s wishes, ideas and solutions as second to our own. We can stop listening and miss their valuable, fresh and original inputs.
When children are engaged in art activities they are open to receive what comes to them in a playful way without questioning it through the mind. In the same way, during this course the adult is asked to learn ‘to let go’. It is not about being able to ‘do art’, it is about opening up, having a go at things and being flexible.
Course content:
How we experience the world
The Senses, the Elements and the Natural Cycles
The Layers of a Tale – Story painting, storytelling, and story making
Rhythms, Cycles and Crafts – The importance of crafts, taking time and the natural rhythms
The Temperaments – The four temperaments and how to work with them
The Healing Power of Art
The different themes are explored mainly through drawing, painting, clay modeling, weaving and metalwork. Where appropriate, links are made with other art forms such as music, literature, poetry, drama or movement. During the workshops each person will have the opportunity to use her/his favorite art form to personally expand on what has been done together. For example, if the group has been working on the theme of Natural Elements, the participants may continue to explore that theme by choosing to write a poem, play a piece of music or dance, etc. The training will also incorporate short lectures and demonstrations aimed at illustrating how specific themes can be used in a particular context and will allow for debate and exchange about individual working experiences.
See calendar page for the upcoming course.
See testimonials page
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