A Room of Their Own: An Intergenerational Art Program

I was fortunate to have been brought up in an intergenerational household with my maternal grandparents helping raise my brother and me after our parents divorced before my second birthday. The best years of my childhood were filled with an abundance of love. As a Youth Services Library Associate, I have the amazing job of dreaming up and running programs for youth in the library, so my decision to establish an intergenerational program seemed like an obvious one.  With a background in teaching college English, I have worked with adults of various ages and youth from babies to teens in the library. What if I could have a program where older children, tweens, and teens spent time with a special adult in their life and both created something together and independently?  At a time when kids make a natural shift for space of their own, it is all the more important to forge new connections with them.  Also, with the multitude of craft programs I have run in the last two years working at the library, I’ve noticed that many parents look wistfully at their kids' art projects.  With this in mind, I asked myself what kinds of projects I wanted this group to pursue; they had to be advanced enough to pique adults' interest, but adaptable so that youth in a range of 8-17 years old would be able to do it.  

Inspired by famous artists' work, I decided to establish the Kids Can Paint Like. . .  program, for which I select an artist to highlight and then instruct the attendees to create an art piece inspired by the artist.  For this program, we encourage a special adult to accompany the youth in their life to this program, so that both generations can create their artwork together.  

When creating a program there are many decisions that a librarian must make.  My main decisions were: what age range should I include and what kinds of artists should I highlight?  I will let you in on a little secret: the decision of what ages a program should encompass is a difficult one!  I made this decision based on observing that kids start feeling more mature around 8 years old.  Many of our programs at the library are for wide age ranges.  I love watching the younger kids learn from the older kids and some older kids truly enjoy and shine at mentoring the younger kids.  Just as frequently though, I have older kids tell me they are too old to work amongst little kids.  It’s a balancing act that we do in Youth Services! 

For the artists, I wanted to branch out from the well-known names to highlight lesser-known and contemporary artists.  Quickly my program model shifted from a famous artist to a noteworthy artist, a slight but important distinction. We had our first Kids Can Paint Like. . . program in March featuring Hilma af Klint.  Parents expressed excitement about the chance to paint with their kids.  One father in the program even ended up handing his baby off to his wife so that he would have the opportunity to paint alongside his son; never mind the fact that she had just begun painting herself!  In May, we highlighted Marc Chagall and a contemporary artist Sirin Thada.  I was so moved by the work created in the Sirin Thada program that I reached out to the artist to let her know how her work had inspired generations of art.  Sirin wrote back to me sharing that our project had made her day.  What an incredible age we live in to be able to reach out to those whom we admire so easily!

All along, we have utilized books when possible, and our library system has many about or by the artists highlighted, for age ranges from picture book biographies to adult art books and biographies.  The list of artists we have focused on include Beatrix Potter; Alma Thomas; Frida Kahlo; Henri Matisse; Claude Monet; Bronwyn Bancroft; Georgia O'Keeffe; Georges Seurat; and Vincent van Gogh.  Our collection also includes fabulous resources beyond books like Creativebug, which offers thousands of art instruction videos made by experts.

 

 

Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Loveis Wise.

 

 

Frida Kahlo: She Painted Her World in Self-portraits by Amy Guglielmo, illustrated by Natalia Rojas Castro.

 

 

 

 
Painting with Monet by Harmon Siegel.

 

 

The Paintings That Revolutionized Art edited by Claudia Stauble and Julie Kiefer, translated by Philippa Hurd. 

 
I am overjoyed to share that this has become one of my all-time favorite programs at the library.  Seeing mothers, fathers, and grandparents painting alongside their loved young ones has filled my heart with joy.  Here, kids and adults approach their projects separately yet united, offering advice to each other as they go.  The advice isn’t just coming from the adults either!  Recently, a son gently coached his mother not to skip ahead with the printed instructions.

Our art reveals who we are at our core; this program gives youth and their adults a chance to explore that together.  In this program, I see the dreamers adding touches of whimsy and the observant ones studiously trying to learn the artist’s style; there’s room for all of us.    
The Kids Can Paint Like. . . program is now one of my regular year-round offerings on Monday nights at 7 pm. If you have a youth who is eight to seventeen years of age, we encourage you to register them for the program on our website, www.mcl.org, by clicking on Events and sorting by the Hickory Corner branch.  Comment below to share a noteworthy artist who you think we should highlight!

 
By Ms. Bekka, Hickory Corner Branch