If you aren't already familiar with BloomBars in Columbia Heights, it is most definitely a spot worth checking out. It's very likely they have at least one class or event that piques your interest, if not many more, and it's an inspiring example of a DIY, non-profit, creative entity that has fostered and continues to build on a sincere sense of community. From the BloomBars website:
BloomBars is not something you can easily describe. Some have called it an artist and non-profit incubator, performance space, art gallery, theater, dance studio, screening room, youth academy, and center for health, wellness, and community engagement-They were all correct.
Established in 2008 in Washington, DC’s burgeoning Columbia Heights neighborhood, BloomBars is driven by a volunteer team of artists, educators, and community and business leaders. Redefining the perception of a bar, BloomBars does not serve or allow alcohol on its premises fostering a safe and family-friendly environment.
BloomBars has movie screenings, poetry readings, fitness classes, art workshops, Samba-dancing babies, and lots more, including. . . an Art After School Program run by yours truly happening right NOW! The Art After School program is normally a register-and-pay program (as its humble Director does need to buy supplies and occasionally some groceries, too), but this session of Art After School at BloomBars has been generously funded in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and is consequently essentially free (a $5 donation to BloomBars is suggested) and open to all between the ages of 7 and 12. Please spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested - We'd love to have as many students as possible taking advantage of this class while it's still running. We may even extend the class an extra week or two.
Full description of AAS program and classes after the jump.
ART AFTER SCHOOL AT BLOOMBARS
6 – week creative program for kids ages 7 - 12
Wednesdays, 4 – 6pm from February 1 – March 7, 2012
Six 2- hour sessions at BloomBars in Columbia Heights
3222 11 th Street NW
$5 suggested donation;
This program is open to all between ages 7 and 12; drop-ins welcome
Email ArtAfterSchoolDC@gmail.com for more info, or just come on by for a class!
6 – week creative program for kids ages 7 - 12
Wednesdays, 4 – 6pm from February 1 – March 7, 2012
Six 2- hour sessions at BloomBars in Columbia Heights
3222 11 th Street NW
$5 suggested donation;
This program is open to all between ages 7 and 12; drop-ins welcome
Email ArtAfterSchoolDC@gmail.com for more info, or just come on by for a class!
This session of Art A fter School at BloomBars made possible in part by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Led by DC-based artist and creative camp director Marissa Long, ART AFTER SCHOOL is a fun and engaging, artistic after-school activity that stimulates imagination and prompts independent thinking. Rather than focusing on pre-prescribed or “how to” artistic activities, AAS invites youth of all skill levels and interests to imagine and create with a variety of accessible materials. This 2012 series of ART AFTER SCHOOL is offered in partnership with BloomBars, the dynamic Columbia Heights space that serves as art gallery, theater, dance studio, performance space, screening room, youth academy, center for health, wellness, and community engagement, and more, “for a new generation of change agents who believe in the transformational power of art to affect positive growth in the community.”
See below for a full schedule of classes, involving atlases, shadows, stars, fossils, and more!
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
IMAGINATLAS. Wednesday, February 1; 4 – 6pm
Youth will be asked to invent their own country, cutting out its shape, and filling it with drawings of the landscape, wildlife, people and resources it holds. They will also write some accompanying information describing these features, and will work together to create a collaborative map of their lands.
TIME MACHINE TREASURE CHESTS. Wednesday, February 8; 4 – 6pm
Youth will imagine traveling to a time and place in either the past or future in search of lost
treasure. They will decorate and fill small cardboard boxes to create “treasure chests” that
represent the time period and narratives of discovery they have imagined.
MONSTER VALENTINES / MONSTERS IN LOVE. Wednesday, February 1 5; 4 – 6pm
Viewing Valentine’s Day through the eyes of imaginary monsters and considering how these
creatures’ ideas of beauty may differ from our own, youth will create valentines either for monsters, by monsters, or both.
SHADOW MACHINES. Wednesday, February 22; 4 – 6pm
Youth will create small cut-paper arrangements that, when illuminated with a flashlight or other light source, will create compositions of shadows on the wall of a darkened space. The shadows will be the final product of their work, prompting the students to think about incorporating light into their art, and visual mediums beyond drawing and painting.
ART -IFACTS. Wednesday, February 29; 4 – 6pm
Youth will engrave designs and embed small objects into shaped pieces of self-hardening clay to create their own collection of fossils and artifact remnants – perhaps fossils that represent a personal history, or from an imaginary world or society. Images of real-life fossils, other artifacts, and archeological dig sites will be shared for inspiration, and youth will be asked to consider how to represent an object that has been weathered by time.
VISUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. Wednesday, March 7; 4 – 6pm
During this art-making session, youth are prompted to utilize an ornate, colorful and patterned visual approach to personal storytelling. Incorporating some text, and drawing on inspirations such as folk art, Faith Ringgold’s story quilts, Gustav Klimt’s ornate patterns and shapes, and certain narrative practices of Renaissance artists, each child will make a layered representation of important people, places, things and experiences in his or her life that communicate as much as possible about themselves within the parameters of their paper.
