Download our 2012-2013 Resource Guide

Download our Arts for Learning Services Catalog

Family Arts and Creativity Evenings Page

FAC workshops are held in the evening when parents can be available to participate with their children. A different workshop is held one night a week for 3 or 4 weeks. The same families participate each week, with up to 15 families (30 people) participating, each child working with one parent or other significant adult. Workshops are designed to break down the school-home barrier and to create a comfortable, fun atmosphere. From the moment the families enter, they are immersed in exploratory activities. Throughout the evening, participants have opportunities to work individually, as family pairs, and in small groups with other families. Together, the participants learn and share discoveries and creations. Each evening is structured around the investigation of a central idea through the arts and incorporates several art forms.

Given the importance of creative and purposeful play for pre-school children, the FAC workshops were developed to engage parents and their young children in open-ended arts activities. Embedded in these activities are experiences essential to building pre-reading skills, such as symbol recognition, sequencing, ordering and identifying similarities and differences. The workshops also introduce parents and children to arts materials and age appropriate arts ideas. Many workshops also include a children’s book related to the theme of the evening. Family Arts and Creativity has also been successful as after-school and community workshops and for grades 3-6 as well as preschool.

The workshop activities provide opportunities for parents, children, artists and teacher to work together in an intimate and informal setting to move, sing, make art, invent stories, and describe what they see and hear. These same activities engage them in sorting, ordering, and grouping, finding similarities and differences, and “reading” symbols. The activities in FAC workshops are specifically geared to the young child’s interests and developmental level. Artists and teachers serve an important role for the parents, modeling the use of arts based activities as they learn and play with their young children. The workshops encourage interactive and cooperative decision-making, demonstrate new ways for parents and children to communicate; and engender a sense of community among the participating families.

Teachers gain new ideas for their school day classrooms as they watch their students successfully approach different types of challenges and have the opportunity to interact with parents in an informal setting. Parents and children report that they discover new things about themselves and each other as they work, play and make art together. Artists report that they learn new skills in developing lessons and enjoy having opportunities to work in arts disciplines other than their own as they work collaboratively with other artists and teachers of diverse backgrounds.

The Family Arts and Creativity Evenings can be tailored to meet a great variety of situations.

For more information contact: Our Arts-In-Education Director at 1-800-314-ARTS or at 757-466-7555 in Hampton Roads (extension 302). You may also reach us at info@yav.org.