White Rainbow non-profit brings professional Artists to Sixth Street Youth Program

During October and November, non-profit White Rainbow, founded by Ashley Gail Harris, brought two professional artists to Sixth Street Youth Program to lead hands-on arts workshops with students. 

In October, illustrator Aiden Koch shared with us her passion for zines and comic book art. We engaged in a group comic drawing activity that Koch said she often used as a creative warm up with fellow artists. After each participant drew a character in their first square, the drawings were passed on to a new person, who drew an image in the next square, following a different prompt from Aiden for each sucessive square. After two seemingly random images were drawn, the students were challenged to use the remaining squares to create a simple storyline by making connections between the images. The idea, Aiden explained, was for the students to understand that stories can always be born from images. We had an awesome time sharing the comics when they were finished and observing the way our peers had crafted story from our original drawings.   

In November, collage artist Renee Phillips joined us for a workshop in paper collage. Renee introduced to students a layering technique she uses in her work, where she lays down a paper foundation, and then adds images on top of one another. She also supplied paper materials that she had dyed in advance, allowing students to play with color in their collage work. At the end of Renee's workshop, the students asked her questions about life as a professional artist. Renee's advice to our aspiring artists was to keep producing art, dedicating time to work on your craft each day.    

Check out the photos from both workshops below!