FARB(EN)SPIEL – WORKSHOP FOR KIDS

For the third time already, the Stiftung Berliner Leben and the URBAN NATION MUSEUM FOR URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART took part in the KinderKulturMonat with their own event. Children from all over Berlin have been invited to more than one hundred free art and culture events in October. It is a great project in which children can not only discover for themselves what their city has to offer culturally, but can also become creative themselves. Participating instead of just looking at is the motto here and inspires young and old.

Last weekend, twenty young artists between the ages of eight and twelve conquered the URBAN NATION Production Office and gave their creativity free rein in a workshop. The kids got to know various techniques of Urban Art: Screen printing, tape art and working with stencils. Of course, all these techniques could also be applied in practice. The little artists created impressive artworks on T-shirts and bags.

On your stencils, ready, go!

After a short explanation, the little artists started to work motivated. Equipped with gloves and mouthguards, like the big urban artists, the kids discovered the secrets behind the different techniques. It soon turned out that it is child’s play to be creative. With a little instruction, the little ones created great artworks in one afternoon.

The young artists got a short introduction for each technique.

Technique #1 – Stencils

Stencil art is a special graffiti or street art technique in which stencils are used to create motifs on various surfaces and canvases. A very large work of this technique currently adorns the facade of the URBAN NATION Museum. But every great urban artist once started small. The kids started the workshop with T-shits and fabric bags and sprayed them with different designs using the stencil technique. The results are really amazing!

Before the kids could start they had to chose colour and stencil. After that they get the spray cans and could start.

Technique #2 – Screen printing 

While the kids’ first artworks were still drying, the next technique was already underway: screen printing. This is a printing process in which the ink is printed onto the material to be printed with a rubber roller through a fine-meshed fabric. A stencil defines the motif. Sounds simple? That indeed was it for the kids, too. In no time at all, the next eye-catching motifs and one or two new favourite T-shirts were created.

Headphones and flamingos were only two of many possible templates, the kids could choose from.

Technique #3 – Tape Art

This technique really inspired the kids: Tape Art – The art of creating impressive motifs with simple adhesive tape. Of course, T-shirts and bags were no longer sufficient, because the work was large-format. Tape Art needs space to impress. The big windows of the Production Office offered a perfect canvas. Equipped with adhesive tape in all imaginable colours, the young participants of the workshop also stuck to the lanterns and the sidewalk. The results are small, large and in any case very colourful works of art, which since then have shaped the grey street scene and made it more beautiful.

The windows of the URBAN NATION Production Office decorated by the kids with tape art.

THANK YOU

It was a great afternoon with great kids who showed real talent. We had a lot of fun and are already looking forward to the next workshop.

Two of the twenty kids with their final art work.