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Spring is coming and we are ready at Green Street with a new growing and gardening-themed class for kids and their parents.

Call us today to sign up you and your children for our springtime Rainbow Music Class with Miss Veronica Voorhies.

Bond with your children through the joy of music! Children will learn basic music concepts like rhythm and pitch. Families will take away music activities that they can do at home. Classes include songs aligned with the pre-school curriculum, percussion (drums, rhythm sticks, egg shakers), movement (scarves), and a story time about gardens.

Classes are on Saturdays from 10:30-11:15am starting April 5, 2014. You pay $60 for a 7-week class, families with multiple children receive 25% off per sibling. Classes are best suited for children from 6 months-5 years old and at least one adult must stay for class.

Please call or email the Green Street Arts Center today to sign up 860-685-7871, gsac@wesleyan.edu – Register by April 1st, space is limited. Class contingent on minimum enrollment.

The Pysanka workshop is returning to the Green Street Arts Center just in time for Easter.

Last year we had a full house for our Pysanka egg decorating workshop with Wesleyan Dance Department Chair, Katja Kolcio.  Katja and her husband have been using the technique for many years and offered to share their skills with us.

The design is created using wax and you have to think about your color pattern in reverse. The wax creates a barrier where the dye won’t stick. So wherever you put wax first on the egg will remain white. Then you pick your first color, say yellow. After you dye the egg yellow, you add the next level of wax and all those spots will stay yellow.  At the end, you carefully melt off all the wax and blow out the contents of the egg.  The traditional technique produces beautiful geometric patterns.

Workshop Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Time: 6:00-9:00pm

Location: 51 Green Street, Middletown

Fee: $10.00 per person

This workshop is for teens and adults.

There is a limit of 25 people, so early registration is encouraged.

To register please call us at 860-685-7871 or email us at gsac@wesleyan.edu

On Tuesday, April 29th, 2014 come to a visual arts workshop from 6:30-8:30pm led by Green Street Teaching Artist Lindsay Behrens. This hands on workshop explores the creative methods used by Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. As a scientist, engineer, inventor, and artist, da Vinci exemplified a new way to see beauty in nature. Learn the history of da Vinci, as well as create a Renaissance style portrait using egg tempura paint. No experience needed, workshop open for teens and adults.

Leonardo da Vinci truly highlights the valuable connections between art, math, and science.

Workshop fee – $45 (includes $20 worth of supplies)

Please call or email the Green Street Arts Center by Friday, April 25th to reserve your space.

860-685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu

*All workshops are contingent on a minimum enrollment.

The Greening Green Street Mosaic Project started last year as a collaboration between the Green Street Arts Center AfterSchool Program, teaching artist and nationally known mosaicist Debora Aldo, and members of the Middletown community. Watch the project video from last semester. 

The goal is to create a common space to celebrate the integration of art, math, and science – a space that serves as a beautiful entryway to Green Street, a living laboratory for education programs, and an artful representation of our community here in the North End of Middletown.

The Greening Green Street Mosaic Project continues this spring.

Debora and our teaching staff are developing garden-based activities for a series of elementary and middle school half days to explore the plant cycle, plant identification, weather cycle, pattern making, and use spatial skills to make the mosaics.

The AfterSchool students will have the opportunity to make their own pebble mosaics that will become a part of the permanent installation in front of the building. Every day they come to Green Street, the students will be able to see and show off their work.

To celebrate the project, we will have an unveiling as part of our Green Street Open House (part of CT Open House Day) on Saturday, June 14^th, 2014. Save the date!

We are asking our community to come together and help with the project. There are lots of ways you can get involved. You can:

1. Sponsor an AfterSchool student’s mosaic 
2. Make your own mosaic
3. Volunteer to help with installation — come get down and dirty to install the heavy mosaics in our garden in late spring. Call or email Green Street at 860-685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu if you are interested in helping us with installation in late spring/early summer.

This project is made possible by a CT Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Arts Catalyze Placemaking Grant.

Our AfterSchool students are the heartbeat of Green Street. We want to involve them in our community arts activities and help them discover their passions. This spring, we are doing that through the Greening Green Street Mosaic Project. The AfterSchool students will have the opportunity to make their own pebble mosaics with nationally known mosaicist Debora Aldo that will become a part of the permanent installation in front of the building. Every day they come to Green Street, the students will be able to see and show off their work.

Your sponsorship of an AfterSchool student’s mosaic will help us pay for the materials to complete the mosaic project. Our garden is a large space and it takes lots of pebbles and cement to create the beautiful mosaics.

You can sponsor an AfterSchool student’s mosaic at several levels.

• Level 1 – only $10! Level 1 sponsors will receive recognition on our website.
• Level 2 – $25. Level 2 sponsors will receive a student-made thank you card for their support.
• Level 3 – $50 and up. Level 3 sponsors will receive recognition on our donor tree so all Green Street visitors can see how they support community youth programs in art, math, and science.

All sponsors will receive an invitation to the mosaic unveiling at our Green Street Open House on Saturday, June 14, 2014 and recognition on our website.

To sponsor an AfterSchool student’s mosaic, you can either call Claudia with your credit card information at 860-685-7797. We accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Or you can send a check to the Green Street Arts Center at 51 Green Street, Middletown CT 06457. Please make checks payable to GSAC/Wesleyan and note “Mosaic Sponsor Level 1, 2, or 3” in the notes section.

The Green Street Arts Center of Wesleyan University would like to welcome you to participate in our Greening Green Street Mosaic Project by taking a mosaic class taught by nationally known pebble mosaicist Debora Aldo.

We will be hosting several afternoon mosaic workshops this spring. These are the dates, stay tuned for more details.

Wednesday, February 19 from 5:00-8:00pm (Make+Take)

Saturday, February 22 from 1:00-5:00pm (Make+Leave)

Saturday, March 29 from 1:00-4:00pm (Make+Take)

Make+Leave Workshop — Come to the Green Street Art Center and learn how to make a pebble mosaic in this 4-hour workshop. You will make a black and white pebble mosaic that will become part of a permanent installation in the front Green Street garden – a space for youth education programs and community gathering. The mosaic stays but you take the knowledge of the process with you so that you can make another at your own pace in your own space! The cost of the class is normally $140 with Deb, but you pay only $65 to be a part of this community project.

Make+Take Workshop — You can come and make a small craft style mosaic during a 3-hour mini-workshop using stone, glass and ceramic and mortar. All materials are provided and you will bring the project home. This is a basic mosaic class, no experience needed. There is an explanation of cutting and fitting of materials. Simple designs, basic instruction and small substrates are provided. The cost of this class is $65.

If the classes sound great but you would rather just donate to the project and leave the mosaic making to the Green Street AfterSchool students, you can Sponsor an AfterSchool Student’s Mosaic.

Workshop fees help us purchase materials for the AfterSchool portion of the Greening Green Street Mosaic Project.

Call or email Green Street today at 860-685-7871 or gsac@wesleyan.edu to sign up for a mosaic workshop.

Quality health care coverage is now within reach for everyone.

See how Connecticut is making it easier for Individuals and Families to get the coverage they need by attending the enrollment fair at the Green Street Arts Center.

Date: Friday, January 24th, 2014

Time: 9:00am-12:00pm

Location: 51 Green Street, Middletown, CT

• Greeting visitors
• Answering the phone, forwarding calls, taking messages
• Monitoring general email
• Assisting with AfterSchool Program dismissal and parents
• Checking in private lesson/class/workshop students and instructors
• Event set up and clean up in arts café/kitchen

We have new set up this spring for Grade 6-8 students. We will have one class offering each day of the week for two hours, from 3:15-5:15pm. The fee is $300 per class for the semester and financial assistance is available. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer homework help for the middle school students. However, we hope the extended class time and interdisciplinary class options will get students engaged and learning more about art, math, and science.
Here are the class offerings for the spring.

Mondays – Video and Animation with Marc Pettersen: Students learn the basics of animation, character design, and movement. The class works as a team to create animated, hand-drawn shorts to be displayed at our end of semester showcase.

Tuesdays – Art and Math with Renee Soares: Students explore the world of math through various art forms and techniques. The class creates colorful tessellations, paper pyramids, three dimensional objects using the ancient Japanese technique of kirigame, and intricate mandalas that when connected become a labyrinth.

Wednesdays – Art and Science with Lindsay Behren: Students find scientific connections with various subjects and use various art forms to explore those scientific concepts in a creative way. Past themes have included ocean animals and hot air balloons.

Thursdays – Experience Music, An Exploration of Sound from Around the World with recent Wesleyan graduate Jessica Best: Students interact with music traditions from different cultures around the globe including Ghanian drumming, South Indian singing, Taiko drumming, experimental music, and jazz. The class includes visiting musicians from Wesleyan who show the students how to play the instruments themselves and create their own ensembles. This class also includes the opportunity for middle school students to serve as mentors to our younger students (Grades 3-5).

Fridays – Wesleyan Bound, the College Experience with two Wesleyan students and a staff advisor on campus: Students visit Wesleyan University weekly to meet student leaders, tour science labs, talk to professors, explore art galleries, and more. Each semester of Wesleyan Bound is a unique experienced aimed at exposing students to life on a college campus.

Call us at 860-685-7871 for more information. We are setting up registration appointments for spring semester AfterSchool classes the next few weeks. Anyone interested should contact Mrs. Cookie at the front desk to set up an appointment.