The Arts

This week I got one of my Mommy Things To Do With Your Kid emails about a arts activity in the area sponsored by Greater Reston Arts Center. The program run two days a week during the hours of 11am-5pm. It does not indicate age (I am guessing kids of all ages go here) and for five dollars your kid gets a bucket and their imagination can run wild. This will certainly be an activity I take my son to in the near future. I grew up appreciating the arts mainly because my Mom exposed my sister and I to all sorts of things like ballets, plays, art museums, art classes, music classes, dancing, etc., We lived in a slightly small southern town (Winston Salem, NC), but she really had a knack of showing us the beauty of the arts and encouraging us to embrace them head on.

When I saw the email for the Greater Reston Arts Center, it reminded me of the days where my sister and I would go to SEECA (Southern Center for Contemporary Arts). I remember like it was yesterday walking up to the big front, iron framed door of the mansion (pictured above) and pushing hard to open it. The main area was old with large fire places and smelt of of a Grandmother's basement (for some reason I love that smell), but has thus since expanded into a beautiful center to display even more artist work. The 32 acre estate was absolutely beautiful, and was filled with all sorts outdoor art. I even remember at one time there was a hedge of bushes that they cut out into a shape of a house. I also still have a poster from the 80's where SEECA at one time had a display of painted BMWs in my basement.

It may not look like much but for me, but the picture above illustrates a fun fragment of my childhood. During this particular class, I remember being told to make some sort of a building. Being slightly tom boyish, but still girly, I made a doll house. The doll house was made of simple things like cardboard boxes, paint, popsicle sticks, pieces of fabric and cotton balls. I let my imagination run wild, using my favorite colors and even had a ladder leading up to the roof where I had a swimming pool. I remember constructing that little house like it was yesterday. I also remember my sister making all sorts of art that once she brought home, I would secretly go play with. During one class, she made a life size sculpture of a woman. I believe her face was a tin pie plate? I also remember her making a musical instrument where she tied different pieces of metal to a string, hung them over a painted stick and you would hit them with a long, narrow piece of metal, almost like how you would play a symbol.

I appreciate the fact my Mom showed me so many of the arts in so many different ways. I loved my experience with SEECA and I just want to show my son the different arts so he hopefully has an appreciation of them as well.