Children and Families Learn about and Create Art through ArteJuntos/ArtTogether

By Sharbari Kamat

The Katonah Museum of Art has partnered with the First Steps Little School for 11 years on the bilingual art and family literacy program.

From accordion-fold scrapbooks and sun prints to collages with photos of themselves against backdrops of playgrounds, beaches and cityscapes, the creativity of children in the ArteJuntos/ArtTogether program was on display last week at the Ossining Public Library.

The art was part of the ArteJuntos/ArtTogether art and family literacy program’s 10th annual student exhibition and celebration on June 5. The Katonah Museum of Art has partnered with the First Steps Little School for 11 years on the annual bilingual art and family literacy program. Sixty children from the Little School participated this year, along with their parents and guardians.

Helena Vidal, a facilitator for the ArteJuntos program, said the children grew in amazing ways during the year. The learned what a museum is, about the use of lines as a fundamental element of art, and how to use their senses to observe details in works of art and nature. They crafted sculptures, drew in sketchbooks, made self-portraits, and created their own collaged cameras as part of a history of photography unit. Parents made scrapbooks with their children that included photographs taken by the boys and girls during weekly “photo challenges.”

“The children became more confident and more willing to share their stories and their ideas about what they see and think,” said Ms. Vidal, whose partner in ArteJuntos is Margaret Adasko, curator of education at the Katonah Museum of Art.

Ms. Vidal thanked the parents for the part they played and for reinforcing at home the skills their children learned in the classroom.

“You are the most important teachers in your children’s lives and we hope that this experience will continue to inspire you to explore museums on your own, with your family, and to encourage dialogue and creativity with art at home,” she said.

Parents said their children enjoyed and benefited from the ArteJuntos program. Marta Quezada said her son, 4-year-old Anthony Cabrera, loves to take in the world around him and put it into pictures. “Everything that he sees, he wants to draw,” she said. “When we go out and return home, he draws what he saw.”

Beatrice Aiduenu-Murphy said her 4-year-old son, Emmanuel Murphy, has learned to communicate more through the First Steps Little School and ArteJuntos program. He’s more interactive with his older brothers. ArteJuntos has taught him a lot about drawing and art.

“In the house, he likes to mix colors,” Ms. Aiduenu-Murphy said. “He mixes primary colors and tells me he gets to secondary colors.”

Carrieann Sipos, Ossining’s director of elementary teaching and learning, thanked the parents for being so involved in their children’s education and development.

“Your little people, our little people, from birth to 3 years old, their brains are on fire,” she said. “There is so much growth going on in their brains, and everything you do, all of your interactions help to grow their brain.”

ArteJuntos/ArtTogether introduces low-income, educationally at-risk preschool children and their families to the museum as a resource for learning, discovery and creativity. It is supported by the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation.

First Steps/Primeros Pasos, which supports and encourages literacy for children from birth to 4, is privately funded by donors in the Ossining community. The school’s instructors are Jessie Fojanesi and Patricia Ortiz.