Saturday Sculpture Workshops

These workshops for children and their families are free and offered in the Park's education area on a drop-in basis. Participants work with a new artist each week, exploring innovative art mediums and a variety of subject matter. 

Note: If arriving in a group of 10 or more, please contact the office the week prior to your visit by calling 718.956.1819

2012 SCHEDULE:

May 12: Civic Action Lab: Blog in Action / 12 - 4 PM
Join us to try out six art projects selected from teacher-submissions to our Civic Action in the Classroom blog. Experiment with observational drawing, create models for site-specific sculpture, learn about mapping, and more. 

May 19: Kite Flight / 11 AM - 2 PM
Using recycled materials, participants will draw inspiration from the Park's fantastic view of the Manhattan skyline to build and decorate a kite, and then fly it in the Park. 

May 26: The Chia Brick with Trenton Duerkson & Danielle Frazier
Paint your self-portrait, favorite pet, scary face, fire truck, spaceship, or anything you can think of onto a brick, and then make it grow a wild and wooly wig! We will provide bricks and brushes, seeds and water, and within days your project will come to life. All you need to do is keep it wet and sunny, and the chia seeds will work their magic. 

June 2: Rock, Paper, Scissors with McKendree Key
A Socrates classic! Using recycled and natural materials, learn the basics of papermaking and create beautiful handmade paper. 

June 9: Extreme Makeover - Bike Edition / 11 AM - 3 PM
Transform your bicycle, tricycle, or scooter into a mobile work of art and then flaunt it in our annual LIC Bike Parade! 

June 16: Art Supply Recipes with Molly Smith
Mix everyday household ingredients to make art materials that you can use to later create your own paintings and sculptures. 

June 23: Amphoras for Us with Cecile Chong
Inspired by traditional and contemporary signs, symbols, logos, and historical figures across cultures, design and paint your very own amphora (classical vase) out of a plastic bottle. 

June 30: In Your Face! - The Art of Mask Making with Janelle Iglesias
Using cardboard, recyclables, and common household materials, create your new face! Participants will be introduced to various cultural traditions of wearing masks, from Indian masks depicting Lord Krishna to Mardi Gras and Caribbean Carnival coverings. 

Janelle Iglesias is a 2011 Artist Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program, funded with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

July 7: Treasure Box with Linda Ganjian
Choose the palette to intricately color-in your Persian rug design before covering and further decorating a beautiful box that will hold all your treasures. 

July 14: Plexiglas Mobiles with Free Style Arts Association
Learn to build your own mobile by re-purposing leftover plexiglas. Design and cut your shapes from multiple colors of plexi and learn to balance them into a hanging mobile using other interesting found objects. 

July 21: Mud Connections with Chakaia Booker
Create your own environmental Mud Art using clay. Learn coiling, draping, and slabbing techniques, and then mix the clay with man-made and found objects from nature to transform your ideas into sculptures or objects of inspiration. 

July 28: Magic Herb Garden with Linda Ganjian
After sampling a few herbs, we will use 2-liter plastic bottles, soil, stones, and a variety of decorations to personalize our own magical (and tasty!) herb gardens. 

August 4: Whatever Floats Your Boat with Lillian Gerson
We'll make miniature toy boats and rafts from a variety of materials and set them to sail. While you learn about the history of New York City's waterfronts, test your boats in the kiddie pool before a group launch at near-by Socrates Sculpture Park Beach at Hallets Cove. 

August 11: A Celebration of Self with Zak Kitnick
Celebrate your past, present, and future. Decorate a family picture frame to depict all the loved ones in your life, the favorite things you cherish, and your wild dreams for the future. Anything you imagine is possible!!! 

August 18: Landscape Translation with Rachel Higgins
Like extraterrestrials trying to understand a new planet, participants will chart and re-discover the Park as a site for exploration. With an introduction to simple printmaking techniques, we will create physical impressions of our environment by creating colorful texture rubbings and prints of the surrounding surfaces. From our findings, we will design a new-collaged landscape imagining fantastic new worlds! 

August 25: Scarecrows with Thomas + Guinevere
Come help renowned visiting Canadian artists Thomas+Guinevere transform the park into a field of freestanding, larger-than-life, glowing, sculptural scarecrows. 

September 1: Old to the New: The T-shirt Project with Darren Goins
After collecting t-shirts from friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers, we'll set out to reuse these once loved t-shirts from the inside out. Using a variety of materials and printmaking processes, scribble your own insignias, glyphs, and phrases onto the insides and wear them outside. 

September 8: And the Winner is... with Elissa Goldstone
Show the world that you're a Socrates All-Star and hit one out of the Park! Using a variety of decorations and paint, make your own trophies, medals, and championship rings to award yourself for being Major League material. Come ready to compete, as tee-ball will be played! 

September 15: Fiesta Time with McKendree Key
Welcome to the Mexican tradition of piñatas. Piñatas are brightly colored papier-mache sculptures, filled with treats and bashed open during festive events. Participants will learn different techniques on how to decorate the papier-mache and cardboard skin of pinatas that will be filled and celebrated with right in the Park! 

September 22: Plaster Casting the Fantastic with Lars Fisk
Using clay and plaster, make fantastical, whimsical objects from a mold that can be painted, decorated, carved, or made in multiples. 

September 29: Shelter with Free Style Arts Association
Join in the creation of a giant collaborative shelter to create some shade on a sunny day. Participants will use ropes, bolts of fabric, sticks, and other materials to help create a giant lean-to quilt that is both functional and beautifully dynamic.