Hellobee

A little while ago, this article about typical pre-school crafts popped up in my Facebook feed. It was the first time I had really read about process art and it really clicked with me.

Basically, the article argues that traditional pre-school art projects, like the classic Thanksgiving hand-turkey, do very little for children, and actually serve more to give parents and teachers a sense of accomplishment.

“Teachers’ and parents’ attraction to such crafting projects is understandable, which is no doubt why they have stuck around for so many years. For one, it’s an efficient way for teachers to get an idea of each individual child’s attention span (how they handle sitting and listening to instructions), or their cognitive development (how they demonstrate fine motor control in the neatness of their work).

…there’s another big reason why these preschool crafts have persisted: The resulting creation becomes a handy way for busy parents to quickly get a sense of what their kid did in school all day – and it’s an equally handy way for teachers to demonstrate what their charges did in school all day. “Teachers know that they are judged — as most Americans are — by what they produce,” Christakis writes. “It’s a lot easier to say ‘Here’s the construction paper jack-o’-lantern we made today’ than ‘I’ve noticed that Michael is really excited by what happens when he mixes blue and yellow paint.’”

Ugh. I had never really thought about all the Pinterest-crafts I was excited to do with my kids in this light. But looking back, I realise that I was definitely end-product-focused when I crafted with my children. And this probably comes from being a product of that type of exposure to art and creating when I was a child. But while something definitely felt off about watching my children present grandparents with handmade Christmas gifts in which I often saw more of my own handiwork than theirs in the end result, I didn’t really understand that there was another way to create with such small children. But there is.

The antidote to the mindless mimicry of traditional product-focused crafts? Process art.

As its name suggests, process art is all about the process of expressing yourself creatively, no matter what the end product looks like. For children this means learning about different materials and techniques and freely exploring them in a relaxed creative environment. The art experience is open-ended and there is no right or wrong way to do it.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t prepare an activity and set the stage for an experience. On the contrary, process art is about teaching children actual artistic skills that they can master and manipulate to express themselves and realise their artistic vision. Just keep in mind that it’s the child’s art, not yours, and that they need to feel ownership of it.

A few weeks ago I took three and a half year old Louis to the children’s art studio at Rum för barn (the children’s library at Kulturhuset here in Stockholm, Sweden) – a favourite destination for tourists and locals alike. They do process art by the book and I took note (and photos!) of how it’s done.

Here Louis is waiting his turn. The studio is huge. Rum för barn is on the fourth floor of the big glass building that overlooks the centre of Stockholm and the art studio is flooded with natural light. There are tables and chairs for 3D art, but all painting is done standing up at an easel. This is to allow the child to use their whole body when they’re painting, and all children who are steady enough on their feet to stand at an easel, are welcome into the studio (naturally they have easels etc for those with disabilities as well). There is always music playing.

Before starting to create, each child (or party of 1-3 children who are together) puts on an apron and sits down for an introduction with an art teacher. Both tools and techniques are demonstrated and discussed and the children can ask questions.

Each child is presented with a tray and four small dishes. There are always four colours, never more, never less. The idea is to challenge the imagination. If you want to paint a sun and you don’t get yellow, you have to think of how to express sunshine in a different way, perhaps painting a sunset or sunrise or experimenting with mixing colours.

The colours are introduced one by one and they always have interesting names. Another time we were there, there was an earthy orange called Terra Siena. The teacher and my other son Alec talked about where Siena is in Italy, and how the earth is different colours in different places, and how the light makes colours look different depending on where you are.

After each dish is filled with paint, the teacher takes a brush and shows the children how to mix colours on the tray to get different shades and completely new colours. They also show them how different brushes can produce different strokes and how to get some interesting effects. And what to use the pencil for and the paper they’re giving to wipe off the brushes between colours. And then the children get an easel and get to work.

At that point the children take over and the rest of the experience is completely controlled by them. They can paint however they want, experiment with using the tools in different ways, or abandon the tools and use their fingers instead.

As a bystander, I often want to stop my child half way through because the art that they have in front of them is sometimes, in my eyes, at its best then. But it has to be up to the child to decide when they are done. And we should always allow them to go back to a piece again and again if they wish to add to it. Alec is quite fond of cutting up a painting that he has done and using it to make a collage.

When the child is finished painting, they hang their piece to dry and then take all their materials to the sink to clean. Sometimes this is the best part!

If you’re interested in learning more about process art including ideas of what kinds of explorations to get started with, what to do and what not to do (and say) when guiding your child, this is a good resource with some brief info and links.

What kinds of art are you little ones into lately?