News from Story Garden - Spring 2021

Dear Friends of Story Garden,

Between renewed shutdowns and inclement winter weather, Story Gardens were on hold for three months in New Mexico and New York. In early March, parents in New Mexico approved resuming the Gamerco Story Garden. Children asked for clay and watercolor painting activities, which had been the bulk of our 2020 art workshops! New Mexico facilitators also brought these same activities to individual families who could not join Story Garden in Gamerco.

Children were experimenting with clay and water, using tools and stencils to make shapes. The fun part was adding colorful beads and googly eyes, creating interesting creatures. The alternative for the little ones is Play-Doh, which is the first step towards working with clay.

With watercolors children took full ownership of how to use scotch tape as a frame or for elaborate designs. It also turned out to be particularly helpful in this windy month!

We started thinking about titles for the paintings as we consider bringing them together in an exhibit that we can invite parents to. Some children enjoyed making portraits or let themselves be inspired by nature, which led to a painting called Spring Time.

We invested in an art portfolio and children warmed up to the idea of trusting facilitators with the paintings of their choice. One six-year old girl first said, “Let me think about it”, and then eventually slipped her nicest painting inside the portfolio. During a family workshop, another girl commented, “This one is too sad. I'd rather give you The Four Seasons of the Year.” Another six-year old boy exclaimed, “I like this one!”, which inspired his own painting.

An eight-year old girl chose the name Window Land because her scotch tape design gave the impression of watching outdoors through a window. Other tape designs made a grid so the painters colored tiny squares with great patience. One of these modern pieces was entitled Dimensions.

Collecting and showing artwork in the portfolio to others has repeatedly shown us how much of an incentive children can be for one another! From different places, they teach us a significant lesson on how to break isolation.

Thank you for supporting Story Garden,

The New Mexico Story Garden Team

PS – As spring time is coming to New York, Story Garden is getting ready to start again in Brownsville as well. Keep an eye out for news coming from them soon!