The University of Wyoming Art Museum gave parents and children the opportunity to create their own art pieces Saturday as part of their monthly Family Saturday Workshop.
Families from throughout the Laramie area came to the workshop, which allowed the participants to use professional art supplies to create their very own masterpieces.
“Our goal is to provide open access to art-making opportunities for families and the community at large,” said Heather Bender, the Art Museum’s master teacher. “It’s an open, hopefully fun place where people can come and experiment with making art.”
While the event is advertised as a family event, Bender said she wants everyone to feel welcome to come create.
“I think that family is however you choose to define it,” said Bender. “Groups of friends, grandmas and grandpas — anyone can come and make art. There’s a lot of learning that can happen when you have that freedom to create on your own, without being judged on what you’re doing.”
The Art Museum has put on this event in its current form for the last three years, and recently made it free to attend. Attendance has been fairly regular, with families and college students making up the bulk of the audience.
“We made it free because we didn’t want anyone to be turned away due to cost. Now anyone can come, they can make it a spur of the moment thing,” Bender said.
The event includes a tour of parts of the Art Museum, with student-teachers telling guests about stand-out pieces in the Juried UW Student Exhibition.
“We want people to come in and see the art in person,” said Peytin Fitzgerald, a student teacher working for the Art Museum. “We take these kids on tour so that they can see the kinds of things they can do with the art supplies we give them.”
To Fitzgerald, the Family Saturday Workshop’s importance comes from its effort to make art feel less elitist.
“We get a lot of people in here who think that art is only painting and drawing, and that only professionals can do it,” Fitzgerald said, “but literally anyone can create art, and it helps them to become more culturally aware.”
After the tour, participants are let loose to create masterpieces with the full arsenal of art supplies the Museum has to offer. While there were more conventional implements like colored pencils and watercolors, most participants went for wilder supplies like drywall, charcoal and copper wire. Twelve-year-old Reagan Edwards used copper wire and beads to make a piece that she felt expressed her individuality.
“I used all these beads and wire,” Edwards said, “and I think that I’m the only one here that had this idea.”
To the staff of the Art Museum, this originality is the reason they put on this event.
“Art is a life essential,” Bender said. “It allows the human brain the freedom to think critically. You get all these materials and you have to figure out what they can do. It’s a way to expand your brain’s pathways. It’s not just a fun hobby, it improves your ability.”
The next Family Saturday Workshop will be held on May 4 from 10 a.m. to noon at the UW Art Museum.
