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Early Childhood Art Educators (ECAE) Column: Summer 2023

NAEA News Summer 2023

Shana Cinquemani, associate professor of art education at Rhode Island School of Design and a former president of the Early Childhood Art Educators Interest Group will be taking over the newsletter to share her story of creating a community arts program specifically for young children, Mini Makerz Art Studio.

When I came to Providence, Rhode Island, in 2018 to work at the Department of Teaching + Learning in Art + Design (TLAD) at Rhode Island School of Design, the city was introduced to me as the “creative capital”—a city full of artists and flush in community arts programs. However, I quickly realized that with few exceptions, the local community arts education resources were limited to middle and high school students. As someone whose teaching and research background is in early childhood and elementary art, I saw this as problematic. Over the next 4 years and throughout the pandemic, I worked to envision opportunities for young children and their families and caregivers to access free, high-quality visual arts education.

With grant support from the Center for the Study on Childhood Art, in the fall of 2022 I launched the Mini Makerz Art Studio in association with the TLAD Department. Mini Makerz is a visual arts program specifically for young children (currently 4–7 years old) and their families and caregivers. I modeled this program after Project Open Door (POD), which is a free art and college access program for high school students run through TLAD that was founded in 2005. Both POD and Mini Makerz work with young people in four cities in RI (Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Central Falls)—cities with historically underserved populations. While POD works from studio space on RISD’s campus, in contrast, Mini Makerz offers its programs out in the community. This was a conscious decision due to the complex relationships many colleges and universities have with the cities and towns in which they reside. While RISD should absolutely be a space where local children and families are welcome, many do not necessarily feel that it is a space “for them.” So, Mini Makerz partnered with two local organizations (the Creative Reuse Center of RI in the fall of 2022 and the Mt. Hope Learning Center in the spring of 2023), as well as a new bilingual elementary school (Nuestro Mundo Public Charter School).

The curriculum and pedagogical practices for Mini Makerz are grounded in culturally responsive art education practices, as well as contemporary art, play, and material exploration. During programs, children are introduced to diverse contemporary artists and guided through conversations and discussions about artwork. We develop artmaking experiences that connect with the artists’ work but also provide multiple entry points for children to engage in practices that reflect their own lives and interests. For example, in the first program we offered, children were introduced to the work of contemporary fiber artist Bisa Butler. They discussed two different images of young Black children (The Safety Patrol, 2018 and Anya With Oranges, 2017) and were asked to point out what they see and notice in the images. Then, the children were invited to use a variety of fabric and paper scraps to create a collage that tells a story—any story they wished to tell. The children were engaged in this experience for a long time, and they created artworks that communicated lots of different stories—ones about their own lives, places they wished they could go, and fairy tales they loved. Students were also given the opportunity to tell stories in writing and drawing through mini-sketchbooks we prepared for them, as well as explore the properties of (and play with) various loose parts and an overhead projector.

[[image Picture1 "A young child uses fabric and paper to re-create the story of Little Red Riding Hood."]]

[[image Picture2 "Fiber and paper collage that depicts a young child and her friend on the slide at the playground."]]

Many of the elements of the studio experience described above are central to the philosophical underpinning of this program. I believe that art experiences for young children should allow them to see themselves represented in the artists and artwork they explore. Additionally, I believe that art experiences should provide children with the chance to explore materials and use art to communicate their own ideas—not simply re-create a lesson an adult develops. Finally, I will share that as a whole, Mini Makerz was developed using the Early Childhood Art Educators position paper as a guide. It aims to strengthen and develop partnerships and connections between RISD and our graduate students in TLAD, local children and families, and local schools and community-based organizations. Through teaching alongside my graduate students, I can model responsive teaching strategies as well as contemporary and culturally relevant curriculum. It provides unhurried time and space for children to explore materials and create based on their own ideas and theories alongside or with their families. The Mini Makerz Art Studio aims to be a flexible space that young children and families can rely on for high-quality and accessible visual arts experiences in their own communities, and we cannot wait to continue to explore and expand what this looks like.


Heather Kaplan, ECAE President
Email: kgkaplan@utep.edu

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