Arts Learning Lab @ Home is a series of free online arts classes for kids and families schooling from home. These hands-on artmaking workshops are held live on Zoom and are posted as on-demand videos after each workshop. Our full library is available to our Patreon members for only $5/month. Join today to gain access!
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Led by a diverse group of professional artists in residence at 18th Street as well as members of our national and international artist community, ALL@Home strives to feature arts making workshops in a range of mediums, skills, and with the core belief that the arts help us imagine new futures, create empathy, and promote community resilience. Workshops are offered on a quarterly basis.
Please click here to see our Spanish site.
Para español visita Laboratorio de Arte y Aprendizaje en Casa.
Spring 2022 Series: Collaboration
The following artist-led workshops invite participants to co-create performances, films, and more with artists Peter Simensky, n00n, and Marcus Civin. Collect your favorite sounds and transmit them on Peter Simensky’s Pyrite Radio: Dispatch performance. Through an open-sourced collaborative process, generate experimental writing and art to create a new film called The Gatekeepers with n00n and Marcus Civin. Participate in collaborative art-making. What happens when we work together to create something new? What new visions of the world emerge through artistic collaboration?
Pyrite Radio: Dispatch | Workshop
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Join Peter Simensky and his Pyrite Radio in an all-ages intergenerational audio gathering workshop and discover the hidden potential of Pyrite, also known as Fool’s Gold. In this workshop, you will learn how to record your own sounds and create new collections of your neighborhood. You can also bring recordings of sounds to contribute, which can be sourced from your favorite music, sounds, lectures, and more. Following the workshop, guests will be asked to share their audio recordings for a special performance on Saturday, April 9 at 18th Street Arts Center’s Olympic Campus.
This Arts Learning Lab @ Home workshop is part of Peter Simensky’s radio tour across the US, which expands his work on the project Pyrite Pirate Radio, a series of performances and workshops with sculptural pyrite radios and AM pirate transmissions.
Image caption: Pyrite Pirate Radio, Drum Kit (detail), 2020.
Power Moves with n00n and Marcus Civin
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Join n00n and Marcus Civin for Power Moves, an online art and writing workshop and open-sourced collaboration for a new video, The Gatekeepers, which premiered at 18th Street Arts Center in June 2022. Get ready to use cutting-edge 3D scanning technology, do some experimental writing, and share your experiences with other workshop participants. Relying on your arsenal of power moves, which gates do you unlock, otherwise open, or navigate around, and where does this lead you? What gates remain locked, require great patience, or just aren’t worth it? What’s wrong with individual gates and gates in general?
Materials: Bring something to write with and a smartphone for access to scanning software.
Recommended ages: An adult should accompany participants under 13.
The Influencers and The Gatekeepers: Video Premiere with n00n and Marcus Civin
Thursday, June 9, 2022
n00n and Marcus Civin presented two short animated videos—The Influencers, created in January 2022, and its sequel, The Gatekeepers, a premiere crowdsourced from 18th Street Arts Center’s local and global community. Stick around after the screening for an online conversation with the artists.
The Influencers is a fictional biographical sketch of two obsessive, stylish fixtures in the art world, Margaretha and Wald, who live a sometimes quotidian and sometimes whimsical baroque lifestyle. Margaretha and Wald stress about various and impending catastrophes that combine and manifest as delusions. They associate and dissociate with their bodies, the environment, the pandemic, and each other.
In The Gatekeepers, as the pandemic rages, a self-conscious powerbroker named Sydonia hosts an exclusive party on her gothic pearl farm behind high walls and iron gates. Only, before the party ends, one of her guests lavishly betrays her. Her attempts to remain on top turn her upside down. The Gatekeepers references class, high society, architecture, and gates in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities.
Summer 2021 Series: Community
These family-friendly hands-on workshops help us define, navigate, and reimagine our ideas of community with art collectives Alex and Mushi and The Revolution School, and artist Trevor Amery. Participate in discussion around how we define community, and create artworks that express our connections to one another. How do we find our communities in different ways? And how can we learn to share our abundance with our communities?
ALEXANDMUSHI: Alex Nichols and Mushi Wooseong James
You Define It Yourself
Saturday, July 24, 2021
Make your own dictionary! In defining a word, you get to define yourself.
We use words everyday to communicate, yet what a single word can mean to each individual can be so different. Join artists Alex Nichols and Mushi Wooseong James in defining a word and telling a story about that word in your life. In this workshop, participants will write their own definitions of a word chosen by the artists, write a short story about an experience of that word, and make a drawing of the experience.
Materials: Standard white paper A4, rules, pen, pencil, and color pencils.
Image Caption: ALEXANDMUSHI, Dictionary Phone: Trust, Restraint, and Temptation. 2018. Interactive Audio Sculpture. 9 x 9 x 5 inches. Photo courtesy of artists and Modernism Inc.
The Revolution School
Scrooging for Kids
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Print out Player Card template.
Awaken your hidden super powers, make a player card, construct a gadget belt, and co-build revolutionary worlds based in care, acceptance, and creativity. In Scrooging for Kids, we will adventure within our strengths and vulnerabilities to awaken how they can ALL be superpowers. How can throwing a tantrum, crying, or lying be a superpower? How can I fly? Where do I get my strength from? Let’s learn how our embarrassment or anger can be tools for our superheroes/supervillains!
Love, Cedric, Clara, Dan/i, Devin, Jennifer, Jessie, Kristy, Nikki, Rino, Sara
Minimum materials: imagination, your superhero name, your supervillain name, paper, something to draw with (pencils, pens, markers, puffy paint, etc.), scissors, tape, player card template printed out* Optional materials: anything around your house that can become part of your gadget device (e.g., cereal boxes, shoe boxes, old clothing, old backpack, fanny pack, pillow case, etc.); string, belt, rope, ribbon, fabric, etc. to tie your gadget device around your body
Caption: The Revolution Deck: Scroogers and Superheroes player cards, designed by Devin Alejandro-Wilder, inspired by Jessie Closson’s Superheroes/Scroogers Trello cards. Each active member of Rev School builds one of these player cards, adding to the expansion of The Revolution Deck, as either a Scrooger or Superhero or a hybrid of both. This spread are the members of the Scrooging for Kids team: Devin Alejandro-Wilder, Sara Barnett, Dan/i Bustillo, Jessie Closson, Rino Kodama, Kristen Mitchell, Jennifer Moon, Nikki Luna Paz, Clara Philbrick, Cedric Tai.
Trevor Amery
Transform and Translate
Saturday, September 25, 2021
For this workshop we will be building drawings from the everyday world around us! We will discover the surfaces and objects that make up our environment, from leaves and palms to floor tiles and drying racks, which we will then translate into drawings through rubbing. It will be a process of discovery, experimentation, play, and collage.
Materials: tracing paper, crayons, scissors, glue
Recommended ages: All ages welcome!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Trevor Amery received his BFA from MICA, MFA from UC San Diego, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2013. He is a recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Hungary, a Santo Foundation Individual Artist Award, and residencies at the Fountainhead, Arteles Creative Center, Teton Artlab, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. He represented the U.S. at the Kathmandu International Art Festival and has exhibited at such venues as Jackson Hole Center for the Arts, the Skanzen Museum, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Moore College, and Gallery Protocol. He lives and works in San Diego as an artist, educator, designer, and fabricator.
Arts Learning Lab @ Home - On-Demand Videos
ALL@Home is a library of all of the virtual family arts education programs 18th Street Arts Center has produced from March of 2020 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, that you can now watch online and download English and Spanish curriculum. We will continue to keep this page updated with fresh, dynamic content over time as we present new ALL@Homes.
On this page, you will find our last few workshops for free, but to access the full library, you must become a member of our Borderless Patreon page - you can join for as little as $5 a month! Your contribution helps us continue to produce dynamic programming and support us in providing free educational programs to young artists around the world.
Already a member? Click here to log in.
For our 18@Home video library of artist talks, panels, and performances, you can also access those as part of your Borderless membership at the $10/month and above level! Be sure to join today.
Spring 2021 Series: Creative Self-Compassion
In May of 2021, we presented three new Arts Learning Lab @ Home art-making workshops for families all around wellbeing and self-compassion. May was Mental Health Awareness month, and taking time for creativity together with loved ones is a key part of self-care in these uncertain times. We partnered with WE RISE LA on these moments for creative growth, centered around the theme of wellbeing as we navigate coming out of a pandemic and transitioning to new routines together.
All of the virtual workshops were presented on Zoom, with interpretation provided in both English and Spanish.
Carmela Morales
Flores de Papel
Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 11 AM-12:30 PM
Explore the Mexican craft tradition of paper flowers with artisan Carmela Morales. This workshop will introduce participants to the eco friendly practice of using recyclable materials and traditional art skills to create beautiful flowers that can be gifted to your favorite person or to decorate your home. Discover how you can take care of your mental health through this meditative task and make new friendships along the way! Concerned by all the plastic waste found in the environment, Carmela wants to revive the traditional practice of using recyclable paper to create decor. As you take care of self, you’ll be taking care of your environment through this cultural practice.
Materials: 1 sheet of dark green crepe paper (50cm X 200 cm ), 2 sheets of colored crepe paper (50cm X 200 cm), 1 clear glue pen, 1 piece of cardboard shaped as a circle (12 inches), 1 strip of ribbon (5 cm), scissors*
*These items will be available for pick-up in an art kit at 18th Street's Santa Monica campus. We will send details once you register for the workshop. If you will not be able to pick up, you can collect these materials at home in advance.
Caption: Paper flowers created by Carmela Morales, 2021.
Debra Disman
Bookmaking with Self-Compassion
Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 11 AM- 12:30 PM
Join 18th Street Arts Center artist in residence and bookmaker Debra Disman to discover how to create the beautiful, fun and versatile Flower Fold book into which you can write or paste wishes, hopes, prayers and dreams. This book can become a chain to hang in your home, or give as a gift. Explore what the pandemic has meant to you while learning new skills and creating a unique expression of renewal and rebirth during the spring season.
MATERIALS: Origami Paper (20 sheets of assorted plain colors and patterned), Glue Sticks, Railroad Board / Cardstock, Ribbon (5 or more strips in assorted colors) cut into 10-12" strips, assorted stickers*
*These items will be available for pick-up in an art kit at 18th Street's Santa Monica campus. We will send details once you register for the workshop. If you will not be able to pick up, you can collect these materials at home in advance.
Caption: Debra Disman, Narrow Bridge, (inside) 2016, 5.5 x 16 x 3.5 inches, Artists' Book/Mixed Media (board, paper, fabric, linen thread).
Elana Mann
Let Suffering Speak
May 22, 2021 at 11 AM - 12:30 PM
Join artist Elana Mann in letting our voices and bodies rumble, clatter, and blast. Participants will learn how to make musical instruments and megaphones using simple household materials. The workshop will culminate in group sound-making.
Materials: Thick white paper (you can download the megaphone picture we will use here and print it out or recreate it), dried rice/beans, scissors, paint, paint brush, toilet paper tube, tape*
*These items will be available for pick-up in an art kit at 18th Street's Santa Monica campus. We will send details once you register for the workshop. If you will not be able to pick up, you can collect these materials at home in advance.
Caption: Elana Mann, Our work is never done (unfinished business) (detail), 2020. Fiberglass, resin, enamel, and paint. Photo by Beth Devillier. Originally commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio. Courtesy of the artist.
Don't miss out! There's so much more...
On this page, you will find our last few events for free, but to access the full library, you must become a member of our Borderless Patreon page - you can join for as little as $5 a month! Your contribution helps us continue to produce dynamic programming and support artists all over the world to create new work.
Already a member? Click here to log in.
Check out what you can access as a Borderless member:
Fall-Winter 2020 Series: Ancestors
For Fall and Winter of 2020, we presented four arts-making workshops with professional artists and educators around the theme of remembering our ancestors. Who are our ancestors? What do you know about your parents, grandparents, their parents and grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins? How have they affected your life? How do we remember the people we can not see anymore? Join 18th Street Arts Center in a series of all-ages workshops exploring our personal histories and how they are influenced by the people who came before us.
Summer 2020 Series: Place and Identity
The three workshops for Summer 2020 focused around place and identity with artists Sultan Sharrief, Audrey Chan, and David Horvitz. Through this series, you can explore your own personal story through art, reflect on your ideas about home, and think about language in new ways.
Spring 2020 Series: Creating Art at Home
The Spring 2020 ALL@Home series started April 15 as a response to COVID-19 shut downs and ran through the end of the school year in June. Arts Learning Lab @ Home is a series of live online arts classes for kids and families schooling from home. These hands-on artmaking workshops were led by professional artists in residence at 18th Street as well as members of our national and international artist community. The workshops were taught live in both English and Spanish. The workshops cover a range of fun, hands-on, and participatory ideas like meditation through drawing with artist Claudia Concha, storytelling with artist Yrneh Gabon, a rhythm workshop in your kitchen with professional drummer and 2020 Make Jazz Fellow Shirazette Tinnin, and a monster movement workshop with performance artists Beck + Col.
The Spring 2020 iteration of Arts Learning Lab @ Home was generously funded by the City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Department. Many thanks to Antena Aire for their excellent interpretation work, and to Anthony Zavala for crafting the standards-based curricular companions for each workshop.