PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Aroostook Partners in the Arts hosted their first ever Kids Art Retreat at Wintergreen Arts Center this past weekend, hoping to inspire young artists to express themselves as individuals while also having fun.
On Saturday, 11 artists in grades 4 to 8 got together with volunteers from Aroostook Partners in the Arts to create unique artwork out of slime and design frames using painter’s tape and acrylic paint.
Slime proved to be a popular activity, as many gathered at a large table to mix their own slime creations with glue, shaving cream, contact solution, clay, scented oil and foam beads. They could choose between making original slime, butter slime or fluffy slime.
Olivia Levesque, 12, stretches a piece of slime during Aroostook Partners in the Arts’ Kids Art Retreat on Saturday, while Garrett White, 11, looks on. (Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
“To make fluffy slime, you put contact solution, some glue and shaving cream,” said Lydia Bragdon, 10, of Mapleton, as she rubbed a sticky piece of light blue fluffy slime between her fingers. “If you want it to be foamy, just add some foam beads.”
Throughout the morning Bragdon and friends had a blast as they stretched their slime to make it thin and then flipped the slime over to form a large bubble. Many of them used their creativity to turn their slime into a mini jump rope, swinging the slime in the air enthusiastically.
“I’ve made quite a bit of slime because my best friend loves it,” Bragdon said.
Assistant teacher Jayden Harvell, 11, (middle), shows Garrett White, 11, slime art techniques during the Kids Art Retreat at Wintergreen Arts Center while Olivia Levesque, 12, looks on. (Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
Gretchen Violette, a member of Aroostook Partners in the Arts and regular Wintergreen instructor, said that slime provided the perfect inspiration for the Kids Art Retreat.
“My daughter [Zoey Violette] was playing with slime one morning and right away I thought that it would be a fun thing to do with kids,” Violette said. “I asked Zoey if she wanted to plan the event with me.”
Violette recruited four pre-teen and teen art enthusiasts, including Zoe, to serve as assistant teachers during the Kids Art Retreat, a move she said helped the children learn to respect one another while creating art, even if their teachers are not much older than them.
Aroostook Partners in the Arts member Anne Hemphill helps Rheanna Kinnear, 9, put the finishing touches on her acrylic-painted frame during the Kids Art Retreat at Wintergreen Arts Center on Saturday. (Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
While working on her painted frame, 9-year-old Rheanna Kinnear, of Mars Hill, said that Saturday marked her first visit to Wintergreen.
“I just think it’s fun,” Kinnear said about why she enjoys art projects.
Aroostook Partners in the Arts is a 501C3 nonprofit organization that works with school systems and community partners to spread greater awareness and appreciation of visual and performing arts and the humanities for young people in the community. The Kids Art Retreat served as a fundraiser for the group and is an event that they hope to grow in the future.
Children in grades 4 to 8 created acrylic-painted frames as part of the Kids Art Retreat held at Wintergreen Arts Center on Saturday, April 6. (Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
“I hope that coming here can open their minds to trying something new,” Violette said.
For more information about Aroostook Partners in the Arts visit their Facebook page.
