I would like to tell you the story of how Tanya & I started Art in Action…
Sara Fritzlar Tanya Swann
In 2012, with our youngest children starting grade 2 at Humbercrest Public School, we met one day to discuss a new business venture that addressed the need for more art education in our children’s lives.
We embraced the entrepreneurial spirit and began brainstorming what we would like to have offered to our own kids. What kind of program would our children benefit from? Both Tanya and I had a passion for the visual arts and we had each taken art classes over the years. Tanya has taken many classes from the University of Toronto, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Works. I’ve taken classes at Central Technical School as well as many art workshops and classes with various artists. We knew we wanted our kids to be exposed to more art!
A big part of Art in Action is the “art history” component to our classes as we were both inspired, fascinated, and awed by other artists. Each lesson would be focussed on a “famous” artist, and we would use one of their pieces as inspiration and devise a step-by-step process for which students could be successful in creating their own peice.
Sara has a Masters in Politics and 10 years of experience teaching in the Socratic method at the School of Philosophy and we felt a program that fosters individual free-thinking, risk-taking, and problem-solving while sparking creativity would help build children’s confidence. We wanted our students to be successful, to be able to say “I did that!” and be proud of their artwork.
After many months of research and experimenting with lesson plans, we were ready. We approached the principal of Humbercrest and pitched our idea. More than once the reference to the “Dragon’s Den” was made during that initial meeting. We were very nervous, but extremely prepared and thankfully, the principal said YES!
Since then, our program has grown. Through word of mouth news of our program spread and we now teach at over 15 different schools and have a team that is passionate about teaching art and engaging children in expressing themselves. We teach lunchtime, after school, and run “in-class” sessions which occur during regular school hours. Many schools have asked us to come in and teach our curriculum-based art enrichment program with money raised by the parent council or subsidies offered to lower-income schools.
We are still so very passionate about art! We have now taught thousands of children and believe that every child has a unique artistic expression to discovered and developed. Art in Action regularly sponsors students who otherwise couldn’t take our class due to economic restraints.
To say that 2020 has been a crazy year is an understatement. We want to make sure that art is not put on the back burner of children’s education. Now that summer is around the corner, and we can enjoy the sunshine, blue skies, and big puffy Claude Monet clouds, I am excited about continuing to offer our art-kits with free delivery in Toronto.
Summer art-kits are now available to help keep art a part of your life. We are still very passionate about sparking creativity and every kit we deliver feels a bit like Christmas to me – carefully wrapping each one and writing a special note to whoever is receiving it! Take a look at our newest art-kits…
Tom Thomson’s cabin & Sunset Silhouette
Looking at the Galaxy and Beyond…
We also have our starter-kits back in stock! Art in Action strongly recommends that you have either this starter kit or the equivalent art materials at home. All of our art kits are designed to be created using these brushes and other supplies.
This kit includes:
- Messy Mat – 50cm x 36cm
- Five brushes: 1 watercolour brush, 1 small detail brush, 1 small brush 1 Medium brush and 1 fan paintbrush
- roll of masking tape
- cardboard scraping card
We are looking forward to the start of summer and bringing you many new art experiences over the season!