Art and education go hand-in-hand
Not many people get to mix fine art and finger painting, but one Upper Hutt woman is paid to do so.
Tina Powell runs the education programme at Expressions and has been doing so for the last six months.
She comes from a background in early childhood teaching but said arts has always been a passion for her and sharing it outside the classroom has been an interesting experience.
‘‘Teachers can do creative arts in schools but what they don’t have are the pieces of work,’’ she said.
Powell takes groups from early childhood centres to secondary schools and creates different programmes for different levels.
‘‘This job offers a lot of challenges. We have to know the exhibitions inside and out,’’ Powell said.
Each trip was catered to the group coming through, whether it’s kids ready to paint or secondary students studying techniques. For younger visitors she liked to get more hands on but admitted it could be a bit nerveracking when it came to the ‘‘no touching’’ rule.
She has also had to adjust her views somewhat - literally.
With a recent group of children that came through, she asked them to take photos of an exhibition. When she looked through them, she realised sometimes it was a struggle for kids to see exhibits properly, due to their height.
As part of her job, she worked to find her way around this. ’’You just have to put your creative mind to it.’’
Her goal was to get 1000 students through Expressions a year but it’s a goal that’s set to be blown out of the water.
‘‘There’s room to grow.’’
Powell has been organising Expression’s celebration of Children’s Day this Sunday, March 5. She has a full day of free activities planned including bead weaving, flax flower weaving and making picture frames out of rubber bands and iceblock sticks.
‘‘It is an opportunity for families to come and enjoy creating and making together while enjoying hanging out,’’ she said.
The activities start at 10am and Powell said people were welcome to come by and experience the exhibitions on offer, including Healing Pools and Minkisi.