General News

Notification of Closure

After today we will be closed for a brief period while we spend some time in Haiti. Regularly scheduled after-school art classes will resume on Wednesday May 30th, 2012 and weekend drop-in art workshops resume on Saturday, June 2nd. If you are uncertain of dates, please check our calendar.

Also of note: We are doing our End of Season Art Show on Saturday June 16th, 2012. All past students from the 2011/2012 school year are invited to show off their great work at this special exhibition of art. We ask that each child bring 1-3 of their favourite pieces to Lisa the week of June 10th, so that they can be hung at Smock Café the night before the big show. Thank you and see you real soon!

Student Celebration of Art

Students, parents, extended family and friends, please mark your calendars – for this momentous occasion! Let’s all take this wonderful opportunity to show off the beautiful creations we’ve made over the year. Special thanks to our friend Sara Wood, owner of Smock Café & Wonder Workshop who is hosting our delightful event!

Making a dream become a reality

I still can’t believe it, but I’m in the process of making one of my big dreams become a reality. A long time ago I said that one day I’d like to do some volunteer work abroad with my son. Today, I write this post 4 weeks from the day we board a plane to Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Read more about how this exciting journey got started, the art project for the orphanage, and how you might be able to help me.

Easter Long Weekend 2012

All classes regularly scheduled are cancelled this weekend (April 7th & 8th) due to the Easter long weekend. Please join us when classes resume on the following Saturday April 14th. Thank you and enjoy your weekend!!

Easterrific!

Sunday Apr. 1st, Art Explorers! Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – All Things Easter. Love, love, love the colours that come out at Easter time. And for some reason when I think of crafts and Easter, felt comes to mind as the medium of choice… And feathers. I’m not really sure why, either. Thoughts aside – this Sunday’s art workshop will feature making brooches and bookmarks with some Easter flare. Who wouldn’t want to sport a stylish Easter brooch? Or give a bunny or ducky bookmark to someone special? And if there’s time – we’ll dye some eggs too. Got a simple, but stylin’ egg decorating idea up my sleeve. We shall see!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs now alternate between Saturdays and Sundays.

Art Explorers! Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Little Art & Souls – WE come to YOU!

For the stay at home pre-schoolers, we offer ‘art & soul for pre-K’s’ weekdays in your home. Each class is 45 minutes – where Lisa comes to you prepared with a theme for story, art & yoga. If you’re interested in having Lisa visit your play group or kids with caregivers or nannies, please contact her at lisa@centreforatrandsoul.com. Minimum 4 per group.

The ‘no plans’ Family Day weekend plan

Just a wee heads up — our workshops are cancelled this weekend. What better way to rest up and refuel, than to have no plans at all for a Family Day weekend!? Yup, that’s what we thought. Enjoy and savour your time off!

Please be sure to check back next week when our regularly scheduled drop-ins resume on Sunday February 26th. See you then!

Sundays are FUNdays in February!

One of the best things about having this business is getting to hang with a bunch of really cool and creative folks who love having fun with kids just as much as we do. This month is chock ‘o block full of great events that we are fortunate to be a part of. For the first 3 weekends in February we’re hangin’ with JUNO NOMINATED Monkey Bunch. I’ll be manning a craft table where the kids will be fooling around with stamps and stamp pads and Ryan will be doing what he does best – entertaining the kidlets before the Monkey Bunch’s BIG performance!

Then, on the last Sunday of the month, we’ll be at Totsapalooza for Small Print’s fourth annual fabulous event – themed this year “Mouse City Calling”. If there’s one thing I’ll never stop loving – it’s a good party – and this month is full of ‘em!

Chalk pastels and a ‘Big Fat Hen’

Saturday Feb. 4th, Multi-Medium Art Workshop: 10:15 a.m. ‘til 11:45 a.m. – Perspective and Pastel. About a year ago, I found a great book at the library called “Big Fat Hen” by Keith Baker. The illustrations are vibrantly drawn with pastels. After doing some research, I discovered that this story has been used by many art teachers – it’s a popular book! So to add some differentiation, I decided to include a bit of theory in my lesson. We’ll talk about perspective – things up close are big; things far away are small, and we’ll also talk about the ‘horizon line’. The children will get to experiment with both oil and chalk pastels (word of warning: the chalk pastels get EVERYwhere, so let’s remember to wear our ‘art’ clothes). The above drawing was done by my son, Julian when he was 6 yrs old. I think it’s gorgeous!

*Please note: Weekend Drop-in/Drop-offs alternate between Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Multi-Medium Art Workshop (4 yrs +) 10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

See you there! We would greatly appreciate it if you could call or email us if you intend to come to one of our drop-ins. It helps with prep when we have an idea of the number of kids participating. Thanks!

Warm Wishes From Our Family To Yours

Happy Holidays from Julian, Lisa and Ryan. Thank you for all of the love and support you gave us in our second year of business! May your holidays be filled with peace, love and blessings. Looking forward to sharing many new and fun experiences with you in 2012!

Our weekend drop-in classes are now closed for the season. But we look forward to seeing your smiling faces for more creative fun in early January!

In the meantime – we are doing a holiday camp as of January 2nd for 5 half days. See you soon!

Mouse City Summit, the Santa Claus Parade and a pat on the back

I’ve been wanting to post this wee blog for a month now, but obviously time got away from me – with the busy-ness of the season! On Sunday Nov. 18th Julian and myself helped out with Small Print Toronto’s Mouse City Summit at the Gladstone. What a great time it was! The morning’s event was based on ‘housing’ for mice – gathering together urban planners 2-to-8 years old from all across Toronto to conceive, create and construct a “Mouse City” out of recycled household materials. Several different mouse-centric books were read, with the headlining author Rosyln Schwartz, creator of the Mole Sisters, reading her newly launched The Vole Brothers. There was a write up in one of the city’s rags about it, but sadly Art & Soul wasn’t mentioned. That’s okay… We got props from Chris Reed the fab guy behind Small Print Toronto, who hosted and put on the event, so for me that’s enough. “Given how integral you were to the success of yesterday’s city-building event, I was also more than a bit disappointed to see that Jacob did not mention you or link to the Centre For Art & Soul site in his write-up in the Grid.” For anyone who is interested in the article – you can click here. The kids had such a great time, that Julian decided to delay our trek to the Santa Claus Parade and stay late at the Gladstone for more construction fun… Here are a couple of pics taken on the day, and one pic is of Julian enjoying a hot chocolate after the later viewing of the Santa Claus Parade. Thanks again to Small Print Toronto for inviting us. For us, it was a highlight of the season!

Photo credit: Giordano Ciampini

Feeling Grateful

As I was reflecting on all that I am grateful for (with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday) – I realized that this week marked our 2nd year anniversary of being open. How did I miss that? We opened on Oct. 4th 2009, and the past 2 years have been some of the most challenging yet rewarding times I’ve ever experienced. I cut this little video a year ago (for our 1 year anniversary), and as I view it again, I get all warm and fuzzy inside (and a tad teary-eyed). We do good work and have a lot of fun doing it — how lucky are we?! I am oh, so grateful to have this creation of ‘Centre for Art & Soul’ and a 2nd year anniversary. And grateful to have our dedicated students and families assure us that we are important to them in the community. We are grateful to be here! Here’s wishing everyone a warm and happy Thanksgiving.

All classes regularly scheduled on the weekend (October 8th) are cancelled  due to the Thanksgiving long weekend. Please join us when classes resume on the following Sunday, October 15th.

A Year of Art & Soul from Lisa Kelly on Vimeo.