familyart

A short History of The Family Art Group:
We had the privilege to hold first workshop at The Zacheta Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland in February 2003. The idea of offering a Saturday family art workshop led in Polish & English came from the collaboration of American Community Artist, Laura Evonne Steinman, MAAE, and at that time Polish final year students in graphics at The European Academy of Art, Agnieszka Guzek, Malgosia Pomorska, Paula Solanska, as well as Montessori Directress, Dominika Jankowska.

The Orignial FamilyArt group consisted of: Laura Evonne Steinman, Agnieszka Guzek, Dominika Jankowska, Malgosia Pomorska,

and Paula Solanska. Family Art Collaberated with the following artists: Atshushi Takeouchi and Sylwia Stepniak.

The Family Art Philosophy:
To make space for families from various parts of the world, with children of all ages to come together and create art. The fees for our workshops are in the suggested donation style. "More if you can, less if you can't." No family would be turned away because of lack of funds. Art is important for everyone!

We offered art workshops led in Polish and English at the following locations:

Lokalna Cafe: Lokalna is great cafe in Mokotów, run by some really friendly guys. You can always look at interesting art on the walls while eating delicious sandwiches and soups. We encourage you to check out this great place.

Lowicka Center: Located in beautiful Mokotow and is one of Warsaw's oldest cultural centers
offering great music concerts, art shows, and classes of all sorts.

Regeneracja This coloful club/café has a a great family atmosphere. When weather permits, we can work outside under umbrellas by Morskie Oko Park. Because Regenercja is a restaurant, families can snack when taking a break from their art.

The Zachęta Gallery of Art : Is the oldest exhibition hall in Warsaw - has a tradition reaching back to the mid-19th century. It enjoys a location in the city's most attractive neighborhood, near the Saski Garden, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Academy of Fine Arts and the Warsaw University.

Read an article about Family Art

February 2004	Big Valentine's Day Postage Stamps We created big postage stamps with styrofoam, stencils, potatoes, and more...	Painting on Glass Painting on Glass is an old European Traditon. We were inspired by Family Art Artist's Agnieszka Guzek Paintings.	Clay Creations At this ceramics workshop we were inspired by the ceramics exibition of Family Art Artist, Paula Solanska. bowls made by: Paula
January 2004	Drawing & Painting to Music Artists like Kandinsky, Miro, Mondrian and Dove were influenced by the early Jazz movement. We listened to some Jazz and other music and were inspired to create some abstract drawings and paintings together.	Animal Masks Masks have been used throughout history for dramatic transformation. In this workshop, we created animal masks and transformed ourselves into different animals for the afternoon.
December 2003	"Lighting the Darkness" Candle and Lantern Making We made candles and lanterns of all kinds to brighten up our homes during these long, dark winter days.	Holiday Decorations In celebration of the Winter Holidays we created funs colorful things to decorate our homes with.	Moon Books For the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year we created pop-up bright moon books.
November 2003	Clay Animal Sculptures We learned how to make salt-dough clay. We colored the dough and sculpted animals inspired by small animal figures of the past and present.	Mosaic Sand Cards	Comics-Accordion Books We made accordion books with magazine collage stories inside.
October 2003	Part 1: Making Percussion Instruments We made drums, bells, rattles, and more!	Part 2: Family Intuitive Dance with Japanese Guest Artist Atsuchi Takenouchi The whole family moved together with Atsushi as Hiroko Komiya played percussion instruments	Wycinanki We explored traditional Polish Folk Paper Cuttings. Everyone made some pretty amazing things.
September 2003		Polish Papercuttings- Wycinaki We explored traditional Polish Folk Papercuttings. Each participant mounted their cuttings on large colorful cardboard. They all took their folk art home as it makes a wonderful decoration for the home.
August 2003		Painting on Glass! At this workshop, we decorated vases, jars, small mirrors and glass tiles.
July 2003	Bookmaking We made accordion books and filled them with our own stories in pictures, paintings, and collage.
June 2003	Paper Maché We made papier maché masks and sculptures then painted and decorated them in colorful ways.
May 2003		We took part in the 1st "Our World, Our Poland" creating a huge chalk drawing together at the Palace of Culture.
April 2003	Photo Montage Collages In small groups we went into Zacheta Gallery and looked at the Photo Montage exhibit, then came back and created our own photo montage collages with magazine clippings and photos.
March 2003	Polish Fable Dioramas We listened to Polish Fables and then created our own Dioramas about a part of the story that you had liked or we created your own part of the story.	A Diorama is like a little stage set. We created these using boxes, fabric, clay, paint and more.
February 2003	Valentine's Day Stamps We created large valentine's days stamps printing with styrofoam and vegetables as well as stenciling. We then decorated the stamps. W e looked at postage stamps from around the world and artists like American Robert Indiana who created the first U.S. "Love" postage stamp in 1973.

Where are we now?
Laura offering workshops through her hand in hand arts studio in Warsaw, Poland
Aqnieszka:
Malgosia:
Dominika: opened and runs her own Montessori School in Warsaw
Paula: