Artasia at St. Lawrence

I was always greeted with warmth coming in each week at the Jamesville Bennetto St. Lawrence site and after a few weeks it felt like a routine for both the kids and I that we will be doing art every Friday morning with them. As soon as I walk in, many kids are excited to find out what they will be doing this week and are always very engaged. 

For week 2’s programming, I decided to make flags with the kinders and one little girl wrote, “I your best friends” with her best friends names on the flag which was very sweet. While many other kids also wrote messages such as, “I love my mom”, “I love my dad” with the intention of giving their finished artworks to their parents. Through this activity, I think it really reflected what was important to them in their lives. While during week 3, I did tie dye with the kids using natural dyes made out of turmeric and sumac. The kids really enjoyed this activity and many were eager to make a second one since this was the only activity where we had to take a piece of their artwork for our Supercrawl exhibition. Since this was my last site doing the tie dye activity, I allowed the kids to mix the dyes together as many of them really wanted to do that. Everytime I deliver my program, I only give minimal instructions as a general guidance for the activity and I’m always surprised by the creative ideas that they have. This week, many of them wanted to make a bow shape with the string tied down the middle for their tie dye since many of the girls really liked bows. They came up with dipping one side of the bow with yellow and the other side with pink. The kids also really enjoyed week 4’s activity when we made wearable art. This week, I helped many of the kids make a bag for them since they really wanted one. But as I was cleaning up, a little girl told me that I still haven’t made her one so I quickly made one for her before I left. Then the girl beside her was telling me that she’s making me make a bag for her because she didn’t want me to leave. Which was really sweet and I think this was when I realized that I’m actually starting to build a relationship with the kids that I’m seeing each week.

On my final week, the children and staff at Jamesville Bennetto actually made a goodbye card for me. It was such a sweet moment when they gave it to me along with some individual cards that they kids have made me. I’m very grateful to receive all of them and it truly encapsulates the wonderful relationship that I’ve built with them through these past 5 weeks.

Quinie Cui