Blog

After a rocky start due to damaging storms, summer in the Lakes Area is here and we are bouncing back. Thank you to Theater Le Homme Dieu for nominating us for their nonprofit choice June 17 at Wake Up Alexandria. That was truly heartwarming to know we have so much support! Red Willow Arts Coalition was also generous to share their space while we had a pop-up printmaking project during the concert for the kids and sent them home with art kits. If you would like to learn more, we will be at Art in the Park in the arts organizations tent and would love to share how you can help. Lastly, Saturday Art Market continues to provide space for our art pop-ups as often as we can, local 4H kids learned all about watercolor in a small group class, and we continue to provide kids with art supplies as much as we can.

The community support has been truly humbling and feels good to make even a small difference for our kids. As we continue to grow and accept new donations, our goal to open a visual art center is getting closer. If you know of a downtown/central Alexandria location available that we could acquire via sale or donation, please contact us. We have so much more to offer our amazing community!

We kicked off our first kids art activity during Art deTour, June 18-20. Wow! What a fun weekend! Chanda Kraft taught a KraftED Beginners Printmaking class taking kids through the entire process from drawing their initial idea, transferring that to a printing plate, to inking and pulling the finished print. Kids loved the project and they were so excited to learn how to make prints.

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We had about 30 kids participate in the activity and each was sent home with a free watercolor kit and paint tee shirt to keep their good clothes clean. Chanda publishes free watercolor lessons online and many kids have already watched and painted along with those fun classes!

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We are looking forward to more fun art projects with kids this summer. Look for Chanda at the new Saturday Art Market from 9 am to 2 pm July 31 through Sept for more free kids art activities. She plan to be there July 31, Aug 21, Aug 28, and Sept 4 (weather dependent) with a new activity each time. We are looking forward to this new community art event located at Big Ole Park by the Farmer’s Market. Artist will have the opportunity to sell their work and demonstrate, come listen and dance to live music, theater and poetry events, food trucks, of course, our free KraftED kids art activities, and more!

Thank you to the local cardboard and financial donations we receive! We couldn’t do this without your continued generosity and support! We are excited about the future possibilities to expand kids arts programs.