The Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre in Williams Lake is introducing a new element to the 2012 Art Walk in the lakecity this week — children’s art.
On Thursday, Aug. 16, the CDC is hosting an event in Spirit Square from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. that will include children’s art activities, a barbecue with entertainment and an art exhibit and silent auction of art by children in the CDC preschool.
The art exhibit and silent auction runs from 11 a.m. to noon, the barbecue from noon to 1 p.m., and art activities for children from 1 to 2 p.m.
The silent auction will feature self portraits created earlier this year by the preschoolers.
The purpose of the children’s art event is to help fund new programming at the CDC preschool this fall and promote the importance of early learning and creativity as factors that enhance a child’s success in life.
Funds raised by the art auction will help to offset the costs of art materials and resources for the new program.
“I like the fact that Art Walk provides a community event coordinated in the downtown area,” says Nancy Gale, CDC executive director and a Williams Lake Central Business Improvement Area Association board member, in introducing the event in the art walk passport.
“It reminds local residents that the downtown area is a place where the community can celebrate local artists and enjoy an event featuring children’s art, music and family friendly activities.
“It also reminds us that the downtown area is a place where you can dine, shop and park near locally-owned boutique-style stores.”
She says the CDC’s new programming will focus on the development of children’s social-emotional skills, often referred to as “learning to learn” skills.
These skills include self-regulation, persistence, social competence and emotional maturity.
Creative behaviour typically involves having original ideas or unusual ideas that bear some relationship to authentic situations, or goals; and planning, thinking through and sustaining the ideas until an outcome occurs.
In the self portraits being presented children have used art materials as tools to represent themselves and their world as they see it.
Pledge sheets for the CDC project will be available at the event and afterward at the CDC office on Fourth Avenue and at the WLCBIA office at the corner of Third Avenue and Oliver Street. Silent auction bidding on the children’s art will continue until Aug. 31.
For more information contact the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre at 250-392-4489.
Gaeil Farrar photos
Above, Hardip and Peter Binning with their daughter Anoop, 5, and son Sukhi, 3, at the CDC’s year-end party in June. Below, Families gather for a discussion circle at the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre’s year-end party and open house held at the centre in June. Students in the program will exhibit their art Thursday in Spirit Square.
