Under-the-Tent Drop-In Art Projects

Tuesday Mornings, 9:30-10:30am
Library Arts Center Side Lawn (under the event tent)

FREE!   No pre-registration necessary. All supplies will be provided.
All ages are welcome to participate.

Join us inside the Library Arts Center Gallery on select Saturdays for a fun time of creative exploration!

These free drop-ins are on the side lawn of the Library Arts Center and Library, under the large event tent.  They are primarily designed for children and families, but all ages are welcome to join in the creative fun.  This is a great way to get creative, explore new materials, ideas, and techniques, and create great art pieces together.  No registration necessary, just stop by and join the fun.  As sessions are only an hour long, we recommend arriving at the start of the hour to have time to complete your project.

 *Parents or caregivers are asked to participate and create art alongside children.  Children must be accompanied by an adult.   No ‘drop-offs’ please.

June 23 – Cardboard Lions

Create Upcycled, collaged, lions in this mixed media kickoff to our summer of Under the Tent series.

June 30 – Watercolor Flower Garden

Create a paper garden!  Start by creating watercolor flowers, then cut and attach them to provided sticks to create adornment ready to jazz up any house plant with a handmade art touch.

July 7 – Mixed Media Snail

Create a paper garden!  Start by creating watercolor flowers, then cut and attach them to provided sticks to create adornment ready to jazz up any house plant with a handmade art touch.

July 14 – Sharpie Tie Dye

Use sharpies and drops of rubbing alcohol, cups and rubber bands, to make funky tie dye effects on provided cotton draw string bags. 

July 21 – Felt Creature Mask-Making

With felt, scissors and glue, everyone under the tent will create their own animal mask to wear home.

July 28 – Colorful Windsocks

Create an artful windsock with paints, papers and ribbons that will flutter creativity into the breeze.

August 4 – Honeycomb Bee-Making

Buzz on down to the tent on the Arts Center’s side lawn to create these adorable bees and honeycomb.  A mixture of print making and collaging will create results sweet as honey.

August 11 – Nature’s Playground

Build a little playground out of natural materials fit for a fairy, pixie, or gnome in this playful nature art exploration.

August 18 – Bird Collagraph Print

Create unique folk art inspired bird design print plates out of and then learn to print them using printing ink and brayers.  Leave with your print plate as well as your printed art and a whole new art skill. 

August 25 – Group Jackson Pollock Painting

Get ready, this one is going to be messy-art-fun! Wear your “play clothes” and join us for some large -scale splatter painting fun!  The finished product will be displayed in the gallery entryway for a few weeks, after which participants can take a portion of the project home, if they want.

Gallery Drop-in Arts Exploration

Select Saturdays, 10:00am-2:00pm
Library Arts Center Gallery
All ages are welcome to participate

FREE!   No pre-registration necessary. All supplies will be provided.
All ages are welcome to participate.

Join us inside the Library Arts Center Gallery on select Saturdays for a fun time of creative exploration!

Saturday drop-ins are free and welcoming of all ages and abilities.  Seasoned artists, unexperienced artists and children alike are welcome and encouraged to join in this creative fun.  These sessions are a great way to try out new techniques and materials, get creative, and meet other creative people in the community. Feel free to stop by the art gallery and get creative for a few minutes, or a few hours, whatever feels right to you.  Participants are surrounded by art on display in the gallery while making their own art.  No registration is required, just drop in this open house style session. 

 *Parents or caregivers are asked to participate and create art alongside children.  No ‘drop-offs’ please.

June 6 – Flower Mural

Drop in and add your painted flowers to our temporary community flower mural!

Add your paint brush to our temporary community flower mural on canvas.  Drop in and add your painted flowers to the conceptual “garden” being created on the mural.  This art piece will be on display in the Arts Center’s entryway for the summer and will stand as a reminder that a flower here and a flower there does not a garden make, but when we put our flowers together, we create a mural that represents the creative community of which we are all part.  Children, adults, inexperienced artists, and seasoned artists alike are all encouraged to join this community art making process.  Stay for a few minutes, or a few hours and enjoy seeing an art piece come together that respects and encourages each artistic voice involved.

July 4 – Mandala Painting

Create Fireworks inspired mandalas in this free drop -in.

Inspired by the fireworks that celebrate Independence Day, drop in for some relaxing fireworks inspired mandala making.  Stay a few minutes or a few hours, leave with new skills, and your mandalas.

August 15 – Sumi-e

Drop into the gallery and learn about this ancient Japanese artform and try your hand at it. 

Try your hand at this ancient art practice.  Sumi-e is a Japanese, Zen-influenced art form using black ink (sumi) and water on paper to capture the spirit of nature through minimalist brushstrokes. It uses four key items: ink sticks, ink stone, bamboo brushes, and rice paper, all of which will be available in the gallery, along with guidance and instruction from our resident Sumi-e enthusiast, Heidi Lorenz!

September 5 – Intro to Gouache

Stop by and try your hand at Gouache, this is a low-pressure way to explore this popular, opaque watercolor. 

Stop by and try your hand at Gouache, this is a low-pressure way to explore this popular, opaque watercolor.  Heidi will walk participants through the basics and set them free to experiment and paint.  Children, beginners, and experienced artists alike will enjoy this drop-in

October 3 – Botanical Art for Beginners

Stop by and paint flowers with us!

Stop by the gallery and get into botanical painting with Heidi Lorenz.  All ages and abilities are welcome to join in for a few minutes or a few hours.

Art-Making at the Newport Farmers’ Market

Select Friday Afternoons, 3:00-6:00pm
Newport Town Common

FREE!   All supplies will be provided.
All ages are welcome to participate.

The Library Arts Center is proud to host an art-making booth at the Newport Farmers’ Market every other week throughout the summer.  Artist Heidi Lorenz leads these fabulous drop-in art projects designed to engage children and adults alike.  These projects can be completed in a few minutes, or makers can take as long as they like to work on them.   The art booth at the market is a free art-making experience to remind us we are all artists, and all should take a little time to make something unexpected, playful, and beautiful.

 *Children must be accompanied by an adult.  

June 5 – Simple Nature Spinner

Create kinetic nature art at the farmers’ market.  With simple materials from nature, a bit of paper and string, you will create a dazzling spinner, and new way to play with leaves!

June 19 – Tin Bug Hotel

Create a paper garden!  Start by creating watercolor flowers, then cut and attach them to provided sticks to create adornment ready to jazz up any house plant with a handmade art touch.

July 3 – Popsicle Stick Weavings

With basic quick weaving you will create a unique “canvas” to adorn with paint markers at the Farmers’ Market, or to take home to adorn however you like.

July 17 – Watercolor & Crayon Leaf Rubbings

Celebrate the beauty of summer with these wax relief rubbing paintings.  This quick art project will give you new art skills to bring home, as well as a quickly made colorful art piece.

July 31 – Nature Weaving

Spend a few minutes, or the whole market, weaving with us at our art tent at the Farmers’ Market.  Nature weaving is about as peaceful as it gets, and can be as simple or complex as the maker desires.

August 14 – Beadwork Fruit and Veggie Keychain Friends

Make a fun reminder to enjoy your fruits and veggies and all things Farmers’ Market with these whimsical fruit and veggie people keychains.

September 4 – Nature Wands

Cast a spell with these simple, yarn-wrapped beauties.  Take a basic stick and nature materials and wrap them up into something else entirely–an imaginative, magical, playful nature wand.

September 18 – Pinecone Wind Spinners

Celebrate the pinecone in this wire wrapped, beaded wind spinner-making session.