50 artists are able to make extra income teaching over 500 children artistic skills
Artsitters is a childcare initiative connecting young musicians, dancers, actors and visual artists to children.
Since its foundation three years ago, over 500 children in the Amsterdam region were taught how to dance, play musical instruments, draw, paint and do crafts in their own homes with over 50 international artists.
The service works primarily by booking individual creative lessons or combining them with babysitting (hence the name "art-sitting") for children after-school. The increasingly popular booking is that of a "creative playdate", where an artist is hired for a group of children to create something they have never done before.
This is an example of a creative playdate: WOODWORKING WORKSHOP
An expat family in Amsterdam booked a creative playdate for their two children and their friends. "We wanted our children to do something creative after school, but weren't sure what to do". To parents open to suggestions, Artsitters likes to offer an interesting mix of creative ideas that are harder to find elsewhere, especially in the comfort of their own homes (breakdancing, body-percussion, pottery, sewing...).
In this case, Hildrun (they/them) thought of giving a woodworking workshop. Hildrun is a multilingual arts&crafts teacher with experience in different programs and techniques such as woodworking, prototype making, sewing, felting, electronics, boat building, ceramics and more. Their own projects include many different materials found in nature. They "like researching, experimenting and creating things together with children and young people, helping them to get ideas, make connections and bring their ideas to life."
In the two-hour session, the children learned techniques such as sanding, rasping, cutting, using nails, screws, wood glue and clamps.
In their own words, they thought it was "really cool and fun" (Luca, 8) and "challenging, as we didn't expect to get so creative with wood" (Ryann, 12).
The kids created a stage, pizza slice, basketball and an airplane, entirely made out of wood.
Artsitters is based in Amsterdam and founded in 2019 by Janina Lorenci with a mission to "Discover your children's talents and support the artists of today".
For more info, please contact Janina via email contact@artsitters.com or phone number +31633336112.
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