The Perks of Renting Space from an Old Church

Creative Arts rents space from the First Congregational Church in Reading. The Town of Reading and its religious congregations are long established (mid 1600's) and this particular church is no exception. The current building (collegiate style architecture) was rebuilt in 1910 after an electrical fire, in 1909, destroyed the previous church (for more info, click here). Perhaps the fire must have inspired the use of stone masonry!

In 1957 the church built an expansion to create an education wing and small chapel. Our office, art and several teaching rooms are located in the expansion.

Needless to say, both buildings are pretty old. Despite leaky ceilings and windows, crumbling plaster and peeling paint, the years have left wonderful character! There are many pleasures working in a historic building:

The sound made from walking on old wood floors.

Beautiful, different woods used as functional pieces and ornamental structures.

Hand-crafted stained glass windows

The marriage of original structure with various additions.

Stained glass windows in strange places!

Discovering secret passages - you should find them!

Imagining those who walked the halls before us...and helped construct the building.

Finding quiet, serene beauty around each corner to calm us on hectic days.

It's a great place to work and, as you know, visit for classes and lessons. Next time you visit take a closer look at the building. Yes, it does need a face lift, but there is great beauty and life in character!

Dinner at the Dockside to Support Creative Arts

Wednesday, April 28 from 6:00-8:00pm, Creative Arts held a delicious and fun fundraiser at the Dockside Restaurant in Wakefield, MA. The restaurant donated 20% of purchased meals to our humble community school for the arts. Our students also had an opportunity to perform.

We also held a couple raffles, too!

Raffle table

Filling out raffle tickets.

Families spending time together and enjoying dinner.

Great fun and yummy food!

Balloon animals (thanks to a roving magician)

Amy Imrich performing traditional fiddle music.

 Choosing raffle winners (there were many)!

This one was for 3 gift certificates to Swiss Bakers in Reading.

Drawing for the Burbank Ice Area passes.

For the kids' basket.

Picking a winner of the organic Melaleuca cleaning basket.

Watching the drawing. Oooooo, the anticipation!

Then, a few stayed to help clean up. They were tipped!

Thanks, guys!

Special thanks to those that dined and enjoyed a night off from cooking and doing the dishes! Your delicious dining helped Creative Arts continue to offer fantastic training for all ages and abilities. Plus, it's an opportunity for our community to join together, chat, eat and have a great time. Many, many thanks!

Final Day of April Vacation Workshops!

Friday Morning: Architectural Sculpture

Student learned about architecture, city and building planning, building in different environments and famous architects and their styles.

After a brainstorming session and looking at different buildings and cities, students received their assignment: build a future city using different materials.

Young architects (or future city planners?) constructing:

Behold, Cork City!

Friday Afternoon: Comic Illustration Studio

Students created different comic illustrations and learned about drawing faces.

Creating cartoon characters

Special thanks to our students and instructors for making this week very special and fun!

April Vacation Workshops: Celebrating Earth Day!

We celebrated Earth Day with two workshops: Art in Nature and Sculpture.

Art in Nature serves as an introduction to Scientific Illustration and Nature Journaling. Both are important to any future scientist or outdoor enthusiast as they rely on careful observations and detailed record keeping (visual, in this case). Special thanks to the Museum of Science for lending and donating natural history collections for students to examine, study and draw.

Thursday Morning: Art in Nature

Students made nature sketch books. Stations were set up for students to draw and explore different natural specimens.

Drawing different plants.

 Animal model station. Students have a chance to experiment composing photographs.

Investigating minerals and fossils. Students draw what they see and write descriptions.

Contour drawing of an aloe succulent.

Each station contained several hand magnifiers and lenses. This station contained sections of different wood and fungi species.

Thursday Afternoon: Sculpture

Students used recycled material to create relief box sculptures and robots. Many recyclables are donated from our families but the majority of quirky objects come from Extras for Creative Learning in Boston (check them out: www.exclrecycles.org).

Relief sculptures coming together.

 Sculpture representing different coins.

Constructing robots

Another great day at Creaitve Arts!

April Vacation Workshops

Continuing our showcase of April Vacation Art Workshops.

Wednesday Morning: Painting with the Masters

Students created paintings depicting a main subject, an animal, and it's ecosystem (foreground and background elements). These elements are used to tell a visual story.

Sketching before painting. Students also learned about color theory and had to mix their own colors from red, blue, yellow, white and black.

Look at that focus!