Art is Primary - An experimental After School Program for Elementary School Children

Collage by Cecil Touchon

Our Program

The Art is Primary after school program incorporates all of the elements of the arts through a process of discovery, experiment and expression. When you combine different arts together it is called intermedia. The program engages children in fun, individual and group intermedia activities four afternoons a week that, over the course of the school year, culminates in a body of collective work that allows the children to see the fruits of their efforts leading to self confidence, feelings of accomplishment and at the same time vastly improving their enthusiasm for life and capacity to learn.

Inter Cultural Art Exchange

Art is Primary also provides the children with opportunities to exchange their art with children from around the world through organized group art exchanges. This year our young artists will exchange art with children in Togo, Africa and in Italy.

Publication

Each year the young arts group will collaborate to create a story or a series of short stories or poems and to then illustrate it with art works they create. This material will then be designed into a published, full color book. This will serve as a document of the work accomplished through the year as well as a momento for the participants.

Museum Collection

Art is Primary is an educational program of The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction. Through the process of the program occasional works by each child will be archived in the museum's collection and displayed on the museum's extensive website dedicated to collage art.

Exhibition and Fund Raising

Once a year our young artists will be given the opportunity to participate in an exhibition in a public gallery to be arranged. A reception will be held with an auction of the works in the exhibition. The proceeds will be split between the artists and the program to achive two things: a) To honor the children and help them see the worth of their efforts in the wider community b) to raise money for the program so that it may thrive the following year.