Teen Program: Altered Landscapes

Our quest to provide teen programming while we work on hiring a new Teen Librarian continues. This month, I partnered with a couple of our art-minded senior assistants to offer a creative outlet for our teens. This project was inspired by the art of Kat Martin.

Supplies needed:
butcher paper
pencils, erasers
acrylic paints
paintbrushes
paint palette
landscape paintings
random assortment of fabrics and decoupage supplies

Planning:
We started gathering paintings in August. I'd find the best bargains at flea markets. In all, we spent probably $25.  The other art supplies we already had on-hand.  Originally we thought we would do this as a registration-only program to ensure we had enough supplies on-hand. Well, on the day-of our program, we only had 2 people registered, so we carried all our supplies into Teen Central and set up in their midst. We wrapped a couple of tables in butcher paper. We probably could have used plastic for the carpet, but hindsight is 20/20.

At first the teens were a little shy to participate.  I found another one of my artistic coworkers and had him start on a painting.  In 20 minutes, he painted this:

It was just what we needed to get the teens into it!

We have one large canvas left that we're currently working on as a community piece and everyone is adding an element.

Things we learned:

We scheduled this program for 2 hours. It could have used at least one extra hour if not two. 

Teens got into having art supplies out and available. We could probably host a regular drop-in art day in the Teen Room.  Once they knew the supplies were out and available, we had more artists in our midst than I had been aware of. :)