Whitianga Summer Art is a holiday programme open to children ages 8-12 that will run for two weeks in January 2025. Kids can come for just one day or as many days as they’d like! All artwork will be ready to take home after each class. All classes will be from 9-noon at the Whitianga Town Hall, 24 Monk Street. Preregistration is required, as class sizes will be limited to 8 students. Kids should bring morning tea and a drink bottle.
Cost: $35 per class, materials included. We’ll be doing two super fun projects each day!
To register your child, or for inquiries, please email me at [email protected].
About me:
Hi! My name is Hilary. I’m a recent Whitianga transplant, having moved here from the United States last year. From 2013-2019, I was the Assistant Director of a summer art camp for kids in Massachusetts. As the lead teacher, I guided hundreds of kids every summer through an amazing number of fantastic projects. It was an absolute dream job!
In 2019, the art camp director and I coauthored a book of our 53 favourite camp projects called Art Sparks.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Monday, January 6: Amate Painting & Mexican Tiled Mirrors!
Both of these projects are inspired by Mexican art! “Amate” is a type of bark paper, and amate painting is the tradition of painting brightly-coloured, fanciful birds and flowers onto bark paper. We’ll be using tempera paint and paper bags for our amate masterpieces.
For the second project, we’ll be making mirrors in the style of “talavera” tiles, which are intricately hand-painted one by one. For ours, we will be using watercolour paper and mirrorboard.
Tuesday, January 7: Movable Paper Animals & Flying Bird Mobiles!
Kids will be able to make at least one small movable paper animal: a fox, an owl, or a whale. Learning how to make movable paper figures is a great skill, and your kid will go home with the ability to design their own!
The second project is a flying bird mobile, where we will colour and paint three-dimensional birds and hang them off of a branch. These are lovely to hang in front of a window at home. (Fun tip: once they learn how to make flying birds, they can make single ones as holiday gifts!).
Wednesday, January 8: Kitchen Witches & Bell Totas!
Kitchen witches are a charming Scandinavian tradition of putting a small witch in your kitchen to make sure your pots don’t boil over and your food doesn’t burn! We’ll be making our own kitchen witches out of glass bottles, fun fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, buttons, and yarn.
Then we’ll make bell totas, which are hanging strings of small, brightly-coloured birds with a bell at the bottom. They originated in India, where they are hung by the door to welcome guests. Our bell tota birds will be made out of felt, decorated with sequins, and hung on a piece of ribbon (with a bell at the bottom, of course!).
Thursday, January 9: Japanese Fish Flags & “Stained Glass”!
Today we’ll be making “koinobori,” which are Japanese carp windsocks traditionally flown to celebrate Children’s Day. We’ll make ours using oil pastels, watercolours, and streamers.
For the second project we’ll be using templates and Sharpie markers on acetate. These lovely little works of art can be hung in the window just like real stained glass!
Friday, January 10: Shrink Art Masterpieces & Painted Animal Rocks!
Using beach rocks from right here in Whitianga, we’ll be painting whatever sort of animals we want. Kids can make a variety of different animals or a little family of the same critters.
Our second project will be creating miniature masterpieces through the magic of Shrink Art paper! Kids can choose to make a necklace or a keychain.
Tuesday, January 21: Kitchen Witches & Bell Totas!
Kitchen witches are a charming Scandinavian tradition of putting a small witch in your kitchen to make sure your pots don’t boil over and your food doesn’t burn! We’ll be making our own kitchen witches out of glass bottles, fun fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, buttons, and yarn.
Then we’ll make bell totas, which are hanging strings of small, brightly-coloured birds with a bell at the bottom. They originated in India, where they are hung by the door to welcome guests. Our bell tota birds will be made out of felt, decorated with sequins, and hung on a piece of ribbon (with a bell at the bottom, of course!).
Wednesday, January 22: Amate Painting & Mexican Tiled Mirrors!
Both of these projects are inspired by Mexican art! “Amate” is a type of bark paper, and amate painting is the tradition of painting brightly-coloured, fanciful birds and flowers onto bark paper. We’ll be using tempera paint and paper bags for our amate masterpieces.
For the second project, we’ll be making mirrors in the style of “talavera” tiles, which are intricately hand-painted one by one. For ours, we will be using watercolour paper and mirrorboard.
Thursday, January 23: Japanese Fish Flags & “Stained Glass”!
Today we’ll be making “koinobori,” which are Japanese carp windsocks traditionally flown to celebrate Children’s Day. We’ll make ours using oil pastels, watercolours, and streamers.
For the second project we’ll be using templates and Sharpie markers on acetate. These lovely little works of art can be hung in the window just like real stained glass!
Friday, January 24: Movable Paper Animals & Flying Bird Mobiles!
Kids will be able to make at least one small movable paper animal: a fox, an owl, or a whale. Learning how to make movable paper figures is a great skill, and your kid will go home with the ability to design their own!
The second project is a flying bird mobile, where we will colour and paint three-dimensional birds and hang them off of a branch. These make lovely pieces of art to hang in front of a window. (Fun tip: once they learn how to make flying birds, they can make single ones as holiday gifts!).