On Sunday, I helped Brittany with the workshop that she planned at Ben's Bells. I thought that the workshop was a great success. We had several kids and their families come by and paint flowers that are going to be a part of the bike charms as well as members of our class. The participants painted the flowers and then this week Ben's Bells was going to fire them and give them back to us so that we could make little baggies with all the materials to create their bike charm, which they were to pick up at BICAS. This workshop got people involved in the all souls procession and we got them to come back and see what BICAS is and hopefully they will want to be involved in future workshops...Brittany and I were also able to create some pieces that can be donated to the art auction as well.
Ashley

Coconut lattes incite progress...

Whitney and I met at Shot in the Dark Cafe last week to start the writing process of the Wells Fargo Grant. We got an amazing amount done and were really happy with the results so far. We got an idea from Marissa to specify the grant to support our own class workshops that we do with BICAS to get materials and supplies to further our class mission as a whole. We are now changing direction and I'm pretty sure the writing will be easy enough to change to keep our progress on the grant writing while supporting our own class and BICAS!

Product

Everyone be sure to update your portfolios, you just made a charitable contribution (in the form of artwork) to a community based arts organization!

The result of the October 22 3-D workshop was a series of works, mostly candleholders, for the BICAS art auction.  Every one of them was a fabulous creation and I am sure that they will all be sold. 

 It is important to note however, that original ideas are hard to come by (even when sculpting with bike parts) and although we didn’t know it, our work was highly derivative, with one notable exception, and that was Angie (photo not available).

KUDOS TO ANGIE!



The Joy is in the Journey (aka Process)

The Workshop Outreach committee hosted its first BICAS workshop on October 22.  Attendees included almost all committee members, as well as members of the art auction committee. 

We all had a great time pillaging and assembling!

PS AND GETTING...



Kindness on the Road - BICAS at Ben's Bells

Brittany and Ashley of the Workshop Outreach committee hosted a ceramics workshop at Ben’s Bells on November 7 in advance of the All Souls Procession.

Attending the workshop proved to be a wonderful experience.  When I arrived at around 3:30 everything was already set-up and underway.   

Children circulated, moving from table to table, making different crafts and getting their faces painted.

The festive mood was contagious and my family stayed to walk the procession with Ben’s Bells.

What a wonderful experience!

All Souls All Ages

The Workshop Outreach Committee hosted All Souls All Ages workshops on the two Fridays prior to the prior to the All Souls Procession, October 22^nd and 29^th. 

All Souls All Ages was held alongside a 3-D workshop on the 22^nd and helped to entertain the child of a UA student so that she create items for the art auction.  Towards the end of the evening a young girl arrived and asked to make a Calavera mask, this was really exciting as she was the first non-UA participant in either workshop.

All Soul All Ages was held alongside a jewelry workshop on the 29^th and due to the fact that jewelry workshop participants filled the entire workspace, I didn’t set up until the children arrived towards the end of the evening.  Everything worked out perfectly!  The children arrived just at the adults were finishing up, and giving up their seats!

First Lessons for the Workshop Committee

Great work Julian, Julie, Brittany, and Ashley for a successful workshop weekend. I have learned quite a bit as support for those teaching for the first time and will work on more stategies to help prepare for the unexpected. We had only a couple of participants to our workshops and used it as an opportunity to learn and reflect on how we could approach future workshops. However, these low participation days exist no matter how prepared one is with their lesson and promoting it. Since BICAS is reviving their art program there will be many more opportunities to improve and understand similar situations.

The young people attending Julian's bike tour workshop on Friday and Brittany/Ashley's Ben's Bells workshop on Sunday inspired us with their

creativity and engagement. They had no hesitations

while diving into their projects. The young man riding

his bike in the photo above returned to BICAS after the

workshop only to want to fix his bike; digging through

bike parts for new handle bar grips.

Thanks to our new teachers for their professional, creative, and engaging presentations.