Children's Art Walk

On May 5, 2018 Country Day School (CDS) held its first Children’s Art Walk Auction in conjunction with the school’s annual Spring Fair. We hoped that the auction would be a fun and creative way to bring the community together and raise enough funds to offset the expense of hosting Spring Fair. I worked in collaboration with CDS staff and parents to help classes produce artwork that was both created by the children and something parents would want to hang on their walls. 

Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved and the generosity of parents at the auction all 21 pieces of artwork created were sold and the proceeds gave the annual fair a stable monetary foundation for future years.

About the Artwork Process:

·     Parent-Child classes did High-Five paintings with their handprints. Children who were uncomfortable with paint on their hands used a sun stamp brush to leave their mark. 

·     2-year-old classes created positive/negative space paintings using their fingerprints around the shape of their class animal, owl, hedgehog, or caterpillar. The children picked the color for their fingerprints. 

·     3-year-old classes made Jackson Pollock inspired pieces of artwork. Individual classes in this age group worked with a color family to distinguish the paintings from each other. 

·     4-year-old classes used a variety of recycled circular glass containers to create bubble paintings. Again, students worked within color families to distinguish one class from another.

·     Kindergarten classes painted puzzle pieces to create a work of art about transitions. Students in this year will attend new schools in the fall.  Each child contributed to, and became a part of, CDS. The puzzle pieces breaking away represent the kindergarteners who are graduating from CDS. Even though they are moving on they will always have a piece of CDS with them.

After the artwork was completed, the CDS art teacher made a chart on the back of each painting using the class picture to identify which child contributed each color. The result was a meaningful piece of artwork and funding to support an event enjoyed by the whole CDS community.