The Workshop Child-Parent in Plastic Arts, TRACES à Belleville, Paris

T.rait R.eflet A.ction C.ontraste E.space S.ingulier

The Workshop Child-Parent in Plastic Arts

The Workshop is open every Wednesday from 14h to 17h and Saturdays from 10h to 13h.

Since seven years (2002), T.R.A.C.E.S. has initiated an innovating Workshop Child-Parent.

This workshop is a space-time of great freedom and friendship in which creation arises at the rhythm of each person. The child, as of 18 months of age, with an guiding adult (parent, grand-parent, sister or brother, baby-sitter…) comes to experiment various materials according to its own desire and look at the workshop for a particular alchemy, consisting of diversity, of opening and of freedom.

The materials and the tools are those which we use as artists, which thus requiers concentration and attention which shall responsabilise the child.

Indeed, we are within an artistic process.

For this reason, the creative act must be respected and acknowledged.

Children adapt themselves very fast to this freedom and become actors of their project. Whether it is planned on short or long term, the project shall develop in the child intellectual mechanisms common to all construction of knowledge: reflection, analysis, critical apraisal, searching and perseverance.

Taking into account the word of the children, their proposals and thus their desires, creates a bond between the individual project and the collective dimension, necessary for its outcome.

The initiative from the child is at the centre of our pedagogic approach.

We favour dialogue and expérimentation.

The requirement of this place is quite particular because it demands from every artist to aid the child to succeed in his project, technically and conceptually, by reflecting along his side.

The parents create with their child or along his side. In all the cases, the visual arts should be lived as a mediation in the relation child-parent.

Furthermore, the play attitude of the adult opens a privileged space for encounter with the child, it allows the emergence of pleasure and the sharing of emotions. By accompanying their child, the parents are comforted in the exercice of their educational responsability. By valorizing their competences, we mobilize a process of change in a participative endeavor. This allows certain parents to come alone for a time which is convenient for them.

The workshop is open every Wednesday from 14h to 17h and on Saturdays from 10h to 13h.

The flexibility of opening hours favours involvement from each child, from each family according to their own rhythm.

Regular praxis of art favours the awakening of curiosity, enriches imagination and structures the child's personality. Beginning with the manipulation of materials, from learning the regular use of techniques, the child shall develop his creative potential.