StoryART! at the DMA

StoryART! camp was last week at the DMA. It was a lot of work but oh my, so very satisfying. The kids were absolutely awesome and precious beyond measure. Four and five year old children are incredibly creative, imaginative and full of wonderful surprises so there was never a dull moment. I take with me some fond memories that I will always treasure. It is my hope that I will have the opportunity to see these kids again at future DMA events.


The only thing that really marred this experience was a sudden violent storm that blew in on Tuesday morning. I had hoped to get safely downtown by taking the Dart train - thereby avoiding gridlock on the highway due to the weather. Hah, hah, hee, hee!

Sigh

Uffdah was I WRONG! While waiting for ten minutes on the train’s platform under very inadequate shelter, the storm blew in with 30-35 mph winds with gust of 70 mph. We poor souls turned our bodies away from the storms blast by tucking in and hugging the shelter’s back wall. The rain came at us in torrents sideways cruelly slapping and whacking us unmercifully. I was the only one with a raincoat on and it kept my clothes dry, but I did get drenched from the knees down and my face & hair got soaked too. Once on the train, thinking we were safe, we settled in as best we could. (Nothing like the wrath of Mother Nature to help a person bond with total strangers!) The Dart runs on electricity by the way. Gotta have the juice in order to go “choo-choo-choo” down the track. Halfway into the city a section went dead when the storm knocked out electricity in a section of North Dallas. We were evacuated, waited 25 minutes for a bus, were transported down the line to another train that was working & we finally rode into the city that way. All the while I had been frantically calling the DMA staff and keeping them aware of my situation, talking to my assistant (a wonderful person!) and trying to remain calm. When we arrived downtown I made the four blocks to the DMA by running (and yes folks, I even resorted to jay-running) all the way. I arrived very winded at the studio classroom at 1:30 on the dot just in time to start the class. Everything after that went rather smoothly too – how amazing is that? All the kids were present save one. His mother had gotten into a minor fender bender in the storm, but they were fine. Phew, what a day!

Let me say what a rewarding experience it was to create & teach StoryART! It was a LOT of work, but very rewarding. Please enjoy the photos taken during the final day below this post.


(Note the space around us. We are in the new Center for Creative Connections - complete with a gallery just for kids and a gorgeous new studio classroom.)