Fabulous Fridays: Drawing Program

The Program 

As you know summer reading can be crazy. Knowing this, Alyssa & I planned this program knowing we would need a low prep program that would act as  break for us to refresh. I am so thankful we did it this way. Since we are in charge of doing multiple programs a week, the break was needed!

For this program we called upon one of our coworkers Mr. J. (who also works at a local university as an art teacher) for help.  He graciously agreed to help us with this program.

Upon planning for this program, we did not have much in mind for it. It was just meant to be an open ended program where we wanted to encourage our tweens to meet other tweens with the same interest and maybe exchange some drawing tips.

With Mr. J. as our leader, we were able to turn this program into something much more.  Which just goes to show how awesome that collaboration is!

Instead of just having it as an open ended program, Mr. J., turned into more of a drawing workshop. He opened the program with showing us how to draw simple shapes. He followed up with making the point that everything is made up of shapes. If you can draw a shape, you can draw anything! I think this really inspired a lot of our kids, and it also inspired me as well.

After that, Mr. J. asked for questions. One of our participants wanted to learn how to draw people. Mr. J. spent the rest of the time interacting with the kids to show them the basics on how to draw people & the shapes that make up individuals. 

How It Went 

This program went over very well. At first, we did not have many kids show up for the program. That was a little disappointing, but as the program went on we had more and more kids file in & want to participate. It seemed like the participants that came were passionate about drawing and wanted to learn more. 

What We Learned

I am amazed at how easily a program can be adapted to the library & how the most simple programs can be the most successful. As the library moves to becoming a community center, I need to be aware that not all programs have to be lavish & all out. Sometimes, all you need is regular programming to build success & create a center for tweens to go.

In the future, I think this could potentially be a club that the library could successfully implement.  I think part of its success is due to the tween need to explore their interests and to make friends with similar interests. This allows them to develop an understanding of who they are.

With this success, I would like to repeat a program like this in the future & I think it is a very easy program that anyone could replicate. 

Some of you may not be as blessed as we are to have a great art teacher working at their library, but I think this is a program that one could adjust & be able to direct it with little or no art experience.

I think if you create an environment with drawing supplies and go over the basic shapes, I think the kids would build on it from there & help each other. Another option you could use is to invite older teens who are passionate about art to help with the program.  I think with these adjustments anyone could do this program. :) All you would need is some pencils, paper, and a little imagination.

Until next time,

Pamela