For those of you whove been to Play Dough Land lately you will have noticed there have been some changes!!! Here is my story and some info on what the whole Creative Space thing is about.... The Creative Space Story… Peta Chalmers has been practicing and exhibiting her Art throughout Australia since the mid-90s. After receiving a Diploma of Visual Art and a Bachelor of Fine Art she spent the first decade of this millennium teaching all areas of Visual Art at the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE. Then as a young Mum, Peta found she was really awesome at making Play Dough and became official Play Dough maker for her Play Group. This led to other Mums wanting to buy her super soft Play Dough and before she knew it kids were calling her “The Play Dough Lady”. Word quickly spread around town and friends encouraged her to develop a Facebook identity. Two thousand fans later Peta left her government teaching job to spend more time with her young children and her alter ego. The Play Dough Lady’s success grew until demand surpassed supply, but being a stickler for detail and having some obvious control issues Peta continued to do it all herself. When waitlists grew and people started putting in orders for as-yet-unborn-children, Peta couldn’t handle the idea of never leaving her kitchen and decided to change things again. Scaling back the Play Dough production she started to teach classes. With both of her children now at school she had the time to begin teaching again and this soon spread from Play Dough back to Art. Working alongside Damien Kamholtz in the PoP Studio at TheGRID:Hybrid Arts Collective she knew he had the Creativity classes covered, but had often heard of the shortage in Toowoomba for Art classes for those with varied needs. With a special interest in Asperger’s Syndrome and children with sensory issues this was an area Peta felt passionate about. She then approached fellow Artist, Peter Davison, to see if he would be keen to begin this new venture with her. His seven year experience in the disability sector with high support care and clients with challenging behavioural issues, as well as his current study in Psychology and Anthropology with a view to Art Therapy, made him the perfect teaching partner. So Creative Access Toowoomba was born. The first Creative Access classes attempted to teach to a schedule and although the students were enjoying their learning, it wasn’t the ideal experience. They wanted it to be better. School holidays were approaching and Play on Play had many requests for some kind of Art based holiday program. Damien turned his room over to them and after brainstorming they decided to build a Play Dough Land that would grow over the holiday with kids adding to it as well as having other Art activities set up around the room for them to explore. With a week, word spread and a bigger room was needed. It was a truly amazing experience! Play Dough Land was super busy and super fun! During this time they observed the way children used the room, and noticed how when left to make their own decisions they kept themselves non-stop busy and happy. So when holidays were over this style was kept within the programs. Moving with Play on Play to a bigger studio within theGRID allowed Creative Access to become open ended Art classes with the studio set up to allow students to choose from a wide range of materials and activities each session. With two teachers available to guide and encourage students as they explored at their own pace, Creative Access became a brilliant alternative to sit down lessons for the more active learners. Artistic expression is also a great way to reduce anxiety and a discreet way to introduce new materials, textures and smells to those with sensory issues. Then the day came when Damien secured a position as the Creative Arts Coordinator with the new Childrens Ground organisation. So Play on Play would be moving on and they asked if Peta and Peter would like to take on their classes. Filling such truly awesome Artistic boots was a task taken seriously and so ART CLASS was born into The Creative Space. ART CLASS continues on the PoP ethos of emphasising artistic, cultural and environmental education through creativity.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 11:06:03 +0000
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