University News

WIU Art Education Program Presents Spring 2017 Community Art Program

March 3, 2017

Share |
Printer friendly version

MACOMB, IL – The Western Illinois University Community Art Program will be presented on Sundays from March 26–April 23 at the West Central Illinois Arts Center and Garwood Hall on the WIU campus.

The free program is for students in first-eighth grades. Classes will be held from 1–2:30 p.m. and from 3–4:30 p.m. March 26, April 2, April 9 and April 23.

• First and second grades - Garwood Hall, room 24 - 1-2:30 p.m.
Participating young artists will focus on the theme of Spring Break to explore line drawing techniques while using pencils, crayons and markers. Carrying the line drawing over to create self-portraits, students will experiment with color in oil pastels to express how spring break makes them feel.

Using color themes and repetition, artists will next explore pointillism to make a spring outdoor scene. Taking the skills from color, working with paints, and repetition, artists will be introduced to air-dry clay to make a spring break treat in the form of an ice cream cone. After creating their three-scoop ice cream cones, the artists will paint and decorate the scoops and cones with combinations of warm and cool paint colors.

• Third and fourth grades - West Central Illinois Arts Center - 1-2:30 p.m.
Young artists will create fun artwork incorporating the spring season while experimenting with mediums such as clay, paint and yarn. Students will start with creating and painting clay pinch pots and "button flowers" to go inside.

The next piece will be creating an African tribal mask with various mediums. This project will give students the fun opportunity to experiment with mixing mediums and inventing new techniques. The Sunday before the Easter holiday, the class will create "spring bunnies" in light of the holiday/spring season. The program will conclude with "Aboriginal Self-Portraits," where students will create a self-portrait with a twist.

• Fifth-eighth grades - Garwood Hall, room 23 - 3-4:30 p.m.
Participating students will work around a unit called "All about Me." The first project will be creating masks by using a milk jug and paper maché fabric, then decorating the mask with mix media.

The second project will be the technique of sculpture. Students will create details they want in the face of their air-dry clay mask. Then students will create scratch-board self portraits. The students will learn carving techniques in the final lesson by creating lino-cut print self-portraits.

To pre-register for the class, contact Abigail Simaytis at AL-Simaytis@wiu.edu.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing