little art school
At the Little Art School we put nurturing and confidence building at the heart
of our classes. The course has been designed to build self-esteem in children
and the environment our classes are held in have an ambience of calm and
gentleness which helps the children to relax and encourages their creativity. As
children get older they begin to be more self-critical and much more
self-conscious. At the Little Art School we have only one rule: we don’t allow
children to be highly critical of their work, there are no “Mine’s Rubbish!!”
uttered in the class. At the end of each class every child is encouraged to
point out which part of their painting or drawing they are particularly pleased
with. At the start of their time with us some of the older children find this
quite difficult, preferring to avoid ridicule by denigrating their work.
However, as the weeks go by, they understand that this is an environment where
the ability to look for the positive is actively encouraged. They become much
more able to search for what they like in their work and they begin to see the
painting in a different, infinitely more positive, way. By searching for the
positive aspects of their art their perception of the work transforms. We also
encourage the children to praise the work of their classmates. For older
children this can be difficult at first, the need to look ‘cool’ at the latter
end of the time a primary school only intensifies in secondary school.
