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Workshop
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CYANOTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY
During the summer season, kids come together with Koine' Teatro at Fattoria Basinelli in the hills of Modena (IT) to engage in a variety of creative activities, accompanying kids in exploring the world around us through our senses.
We focus on emotional growth through personal expression while being introduced to different art mediums and sensory work in nature.
Groups are prompted to engage with mindfulness throughout dance, visual arts, writing, aerial silks, horseback riding, cooking and gardening.
In this workshop kids foraged their own plants and learnt about their properties, as well as learning the process behind cyanotype.
TUNING MEDITATION
A mindful exercise for children to understand the experience behind meditation through breathwork and mantras.
Children are encouraged to explore slow and fast breathing, followed by voicing the vowels and feeling the movement in their belly.
They are encouraged to prolong the lenght of their breath with every vowel.
They are invited to try and copy someone else's sound, which throughout a lenght of time forms a melodic, playful experience shaped in unison, while understanding what sounds feel more comfortable to them.
BODY PAINTING
Children are invited to work in pairs in exploring personal boundaries through non-toxic body painting.
They are encouraged to communicate with their partner while working on their skin, asking for permission and mantaining a level of mutual understanding.
Once they have made their work, they are invited to narrate the story behind the character they have created and act the story to the group.
SHADOW WORK
Children are invited to explore their surroundings, finding shapes through light and darkness.
They learnt about each other by tracing each other's body and colouring it in.
They are invited to create a background by using the same technique and tracing the shadow of natural elements in the outdoors, forming a collection of potraiture created collectively.
FAIRY VILLAGE
Participants were supported in sourcing natural elements, learning foraging skills and what elements are allowed to be collected.
Through painting and DIY work, as a group they recreated a fairy village by transforming their elements into tiny houses for the magical creatures of the forest.
BOTANICAL BOOKMARKS
Children were supported in foraging natural elements in their surroundings and learning about their properties.
They learnt how to build their own flower presser using sustainable materials that they found at home.
Through patiently waiting for their plants to dry out, they started decorating their paper bookmarks.
They used watercolours to paint and integrated salt within them to change the paint's reaction on the surface.
They made their own glue out of flower and water to stick the elements onto the paper and varnished it at completion.
UP-CYCLED DREAMCATCHERS
Participants were invited to bring old clothes to the space, discarded fabric, wool, threads that they could find at home.
After supporting them in building their willow structure to construct upon, they were guided in creating concentric weaving around it.
The dreamcatchers became a starting point for conversations about their most adventurous or scary dreams.
DRAWING SOUNDS
Participants were introduced to mindfully listening to the sounds of nature and creating shapes/symbols to represent them.
They were encouraged to find rhythm, frequency, stability, pitch and speed within their lines and shapes.
Throughout this process they came out with vibrant, abstract artworks.
They were invited to hang them to form an improvised exhibition and explain to the group their findings through their drawings.
MINDFUL FRAMES
Children were encouraged in creating their own frame, shaped and decorated as they liked, to mindfully observe the space around them.
They were prompted in looking for details in nature, textures, meeting points between different elements.
They were given a camera to try to capture what they saw, which invited them to walk slowly, take their time and be mindful while on a walk.
BOTANICAL PRINTING
Summer workshops in my hometown, Monteorsello, at Villa Paolina Carehome.
The creative sessions involved in arts & craft, writing and sensory play while working sustainably.
We focused on writing pages of our life using second hand books and the flora and fauna of our area. We are very proud of what the land grows.. right around the corner!
We combined our pages together to decorate the communal space with everyone's work, as well as writing our impressions of our sensory play.
These activities gave insights to their lifes outside of the carehome while developing important group bonds.
