This year’s summer Kids Art Days have been busier than ever, with kids painting and sculpting their Wednesday mornings away.
The Arts Station hosts a Kids Art Day every Wednesday in July and August, and organizer Michelle Senior said they’ve seen more children this summer than in previous years, with over 25 kids coming out every week.
“It’s super awesome,” she said. “I think art, especially in a small town, it’s just so wonderful that we can have it once a week during the summer where it’s just such an addition to all the sports that we do in this town.”
Kids ages five-10 have a chance to get involved in all sorts of different crafts, including oil pastel paintings, sculpting and even drift wood art.
Senior said a lot of the children who come out to the Kids Art Days are visitors to Fernie.
“I would say they [the crafts] are all across the board. The thing about a small town and art is that you just use what you have available,” Senior said “[We use] anything that we think is more open ended, because kids are so creative. I think they’re creative no matter where they come from.”
This year they have four instructors showing the children different crafts including Jodie Parker, local potter Carrie Holmes and Leslie Graham, who previously did a lot of work with children in Toronto, Ontario.
“She’s so wonderful. We’re really lucky to have her,” Senior said of Graham.
The Arts Station also hosts a Kids Art Day on Tuesday mornings for children under the age of five. Senior said they wanted to be able to offer a class for children where parents don’t have to stay and supervise.
She went on to say, “We’re just really thankful for all the parents support of the program and the kids have been really great.”