BEE the Change

In honor of Earth Week, ACA teamed up with Arlington’s Whole Foods to talk about the health of our earth, natural processes, like pollination and how we can help.  Together, we came up with the art installation, Bee the Change, which is on view at the Arlington Whole Foods on Mass Ave.

 

 

During our week long Vacation Arts Camp in April, our team of campers and staff made bees from recycled materials.  We used paper tubes, posters and old advertisements donated by Whole Foods.  We also reused their banners and painted signs to to display in the store.

 

 

All totaled, our campers made over 150 bees of all sizes and designs. Different age groups of kids contributed different aspects of the project, from cutting out the wings to drawing the faces.   The project was overseen and organized by our Counselors in Training, who helped install the artwork at Whole Foods.

The result is a beautiful swarm of friendly bees hanging over the café at the Mass Ave Whole Foods!  Be sure to check them out next time you are in the area!

   

 

“Island Adventures” Dot Painting Project

During “Island Adventures” week, our campers made some amazing island-inspired artwork, entirely from dots!

“The dot painting project was based loosely on the Haitian folk art flags created with sequins,” explains art teacher Sue Rice.  “We looked at some of the imagery, such as animals, sea creatures, boats and mermaids, and explored how to simplify the images so that they could be represented with through the building up of and layering of dots.”

An example of Haitian flag art - this piece, entitled "La Sireine Labeleine" is by Gabriel Lalanne. A flag 36" x 36" can have as many as 20,000 hand-sewn beads and sequins!

“The emphasis of the project was on color theory (cool and warm, bright and dull, combining opposites) and not on detailed drawings.

“We also looked at two dot-crazy European painters, Seurat and Van Gogh, and examined their paintings with a magnifying glass to see how each would combine a surprising array of colors to make, say, a tree trunk or a hat.

“For the painting project we used a variety of media in a certain sequence– watercolor foundation, then dot markers, cork dots with tempera paints, stick-on dots, and tiny q-tip-painted dots on top. The students could experiment with color and media combinations that produced often surprising results.”

To see more of our “Island Adventures” camp week, check out our online slideshow.