Saturdays May 19 - September 15 • 12 - 3 PM
These free workshops are tailored for kids and their families on a drop-in basis. Head to Sticks, the Park’s outdoor education area, where children can work with a different artist each week, exploring innovative art mediums and a variety of subject matter.
Note: If arriving in a group of 10 or more, please contact us the week prior to your visit by calling 718.956.1819.
May 19: Kick off the 2018 Saturday Sculpture Workshop season by crafting colorful inflatables with plastic sheets and tape. Participants will start by sketching out their ideas, creating patterns, and then cutting and taping the pieces together. We will inflate the balloons in the open space of the education area and then create an interactive movement piece!
May 26: Celebrate the International Day of Light by creating a sculpture and then capturing it as a hologram in 3D with laser light! Join Dr. Martina Mrongovius from the
Center for the Holographic Arts – HoloCenter to explore light, shadow, and form in this unique workshop.
June 2: Join a variety of Socrates artists and local partners for fun activities and art-making opportunities as part of the new Queens Green Day, a celebration of local ecological initiatives, food justice, urban farming, gardening, healthy living including bike safety, and all things “green.”
June 9: If a sculpture could come to life, what would it do? Participants will use the art of stop-motion animation to explore the possibilities of moving sculptures. Come create your own small sculpture and bring it to life! Teaching artists from The Little Animation Studio will guide you through animation basics using professional grade animation software and equipment.
June 16: Come learn the ancient art of weaving in this creative and practical workshop! Use this new skill to create a beautiful wall-hanging or apply it as a method for repairing clothes, such as worn out socks and ripped flannels. We invite you to bring clothes that are in need of minor repair and we’ll show you how weaving can breathe new life into your old favorites!
June 23: Travel with us to Oaxaca, Mexico for the day to create alebrije marionettes from recycled materials! Alebrijes are colorfully patterned, never-before-seen creatures that appeared in artists’ dreams and were later carved in wood for remembrance. This is a chance for participants to bring to life their own creations, whether it is an imaginary friend, a creature from a dream, or a new combination of animals you’ve always wanted to see!
June 30: Who are the helpers in your neighborhood? What are their super powers? Do they have any secret identities? In this workshop, we’ll create capes or masks that celebrate the heroes right here in our own neighborhoods – parents, teachers, nurses, crossing guards, sanitation workers, and more. Each participant will create a colorful logo with letters or symbols that represent someone important in their daily life, attaching the pieces onto a fabric cape they can actually wear. Participants may also be able to hide their secret identity by creating a matching felt mask.
July 7: Become a work of art and change the shape of your body – transform your human form into a sculpture! Participants will create 3-dimensional interactive artworks using their bodies and sustainable materials. Think about your body as the foundation of a sculpture and then exaggerate parts of yourself by extending, contracting, and deforming your body in new, fun, and fascinating ways.
July 14: In 2018 we are surrounded by computer games, smartphones, and apps, so why not take a moment to go old school? Learn how to build and fly your own kite made out of recycled materials sourced locally in Queens! Participants are invited to add positive messages to their kites, sharing them with the world as they fly through the sky.
Jul 21: Participants will investigate the process of creating a three-dimensional copy of a living human body. Participants will use their own or a parent / friend’s body parts as a model to make casts with plaster bandage. This method of life-casting allows creation of exact portraits and body reproduction, through the use of mold-making techniques.
July 28: Join us as we explore the Park’s geological topography and transform rock samples into awesome Pet Rocks. Did you know that NYC and parts of the East River waterfront are giant rock deposits from a glacier? Did you know you can tell the difference between rocks by identifying what types of minerals they contain? You’ll learn more cool facts like these while gaining a new appreciation for the unique land formation of Socrates. Best of all, you get to design and take home your very own Geological Pet!
August 4: What is precious to you? How do you protect it? What form could you build to do that? In this workshop, participants will reflect on what they consider to be precious, and what kind of structures would serve to protect it. Using fabric strips, paper mache, popsicle sticks, wire, and string, participants will combine symbols, words, and sculptural elements to build a nest-like assemblage for their treasure.
August 11: Couture magic happens with everyday plastic bags by turning them into a large fashionable tote bag of your own brilliant design. This simple cut and fuse process using an iron turns throwaways into a colorful, customized tote bag.
August 25: Using the techniques of pinch, coil, and simple press molds, we will build decorative pots to hold our wishes. The technique is ancient and universal, used worldwide to create vessels without a potter’s wheel. Methods will include pinch pots or small fragments inlayed into a pre-existing bowl form, optionally built higher with coils – and with your wishes carved inside!
September 1: Socrates’ beautiful waterfront landscape is the perfect setting for a dreamy weaving and journaling session. Participants are invited to explore their creativity through crafting personalized dreamcatchers as well as special booklets to capture thoughts and reflections.
September 8: A wearable banner-making workshop with the artist who activated Socrates’ Broadway Billboard with her work Word on the Street: Love Not Hatred. Participants are invited to respond honestly and creatively to the political climate of today by making capes, sashes, badges, signs, and banners out of colorful felt. Participants are encouraged to wear their gear to simply celebrate their freedom of speech or to their next protest. The point of the workshop is to spark face-to-face political dialogue, connection, and physical creative response. Everyone is welcome in this safe space for participation and engagement.
September 15: Isamu Noguchi once wrote about working with clay as “my close embrace with the earth, a seeking after identity with some primal matter beyond personalities and possessions.” Join
The Noguchi Museumeducator Harumi Ori for a clay workshop and consider the possibilities and limitations of sculpting with clay. Find natural materials at Socrates and embrace the earth while creating an entirely organic sculpture.