Artasia at Gilkson Club

The Gilkson Kids club is a child-led drop-in program for children, youth, and families to connect, create, and play in their neighborhoods. Leading together, we co-design opportunities to grow in our community. When I brought up Artasia to the kids before we began, they were eager to start. When week one rolled around, I prepared signage for the class, and had high hopes that were surpassed by their creativity. The Artasia set up already sparked interest in the kids- they knew something cool was going to happen. I mentioned to each that this is a city-wide initiative and they were excited to see what other children would make. Children began by making badges out of their favourite stories and characters, but we only grew from there… One child made a little leash and collar for her new puppy so he could have his own badge of identity. She used the pipe cleaners to make loops for her dog and her hand to hold together. Another group of children decided to make flower pots out of plastic cups, the shopping fabric, and the flowers the parent had shown us how to create. It was really sweet, and it was nice the older ones would help the littler ones with hot glue unprompted. A younger child got very interested in how glue on red paper creates a pink goop. She was very engaged with the spreaders and the sensation of the mix and the sticky. I added a lot more pieces of paper underneath her to mitigate the mess and helped her with mixing. She added water to her pink glue occasionally to discover how the viscosity changed. I had to cut her off after she went through three cups of glue and the stickiness was overwhelming- baby wipes came to the rescue. On top of the badges, natural curiosity led us to use the materials (and some extras) in really expressive ways! A parent that often joins us saw the supplies and asked me to bring some pipe cleaners out. I did, and she taught us all how to make beautiful flowers and leafs out of the cut up shapes we had!

Kento Cady