Fun With Crayons

A total of 134 crayon art pieces by students of YMCA Student Care Centre (SCC) @ St Margaret’s are currently on display at the PAssionArts Community Art Gallery at Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council.

Featuring the works of some 120 Primary 1 to Primary 6 students, the A4-sized art pieces were made under the YMCA SCC’s ‘My Fun Crayons’ programme over the course of one school term.

Revolving around a different theme each week, the programme comprises a Foundational Level and an Advanced Level for all the students to reach their fullest potential.

For the Foundational Level programme, teachers were encouraged to create differentiated learning between lower and upper primary classes. ‘My Fun Crayons’ provided students with the foundational knowledge of art theory in the elements of Art and equipped them with basic colour rendering skill sets. Students worked on a different theme each week including ‘Cupcakes’, ‘Ice-Cream’ and ‘Ice-Kachang’.

Through the foundational level programme, YMCA aims to nurture the children into confident learners who can freely express their ideas and passions in life creatively through art. Teachers saw their efforts come into fruition as Cherelle Wong , a Primary 3 participant from YMCA SCC @ St Margret’s said, “I like ‘My Fun Crayons’ because it helps me to be more creative, imaginative and confident. This programme has made me more interested in art. It has taught me the proper way of blending, the elements of art and how to choose matching colours. I am thankful that YMCA has introduced this programme to me and my friends. I am now able to complete an art piece beautifully and confidently.”

The Advanced Level programme for Primary 2 to Primary 6 students aims to instil values such as responsibility and compassion to nurture students into caring individuals in society. Using crayons as a medium, the students look at the world from the perspectives of different artists, learn about their artistic intentions and proceed to create artworks which convey their dreams and aspirations through the artist’s signature art style.

For instance, one of the themes the students were given was ‘The Future Me’. Prior to creating their masterpieces, the teachers shared a story about how world renowned painter Pablo Picasso encouraged a girl to never give up on her dreams. This encouraged the students to think about what they wanted to achieve in the future and they drew their future self with the element of Cubism as a reference to Picasso. Students’ depictions of themselves range from becoming a baker, dance teacher to even becoming a boss of a fast food chain!

Dana Leong, a Primary 2 participant said, “I like My Fun Crayons because it teaches us how to be creative and if you make a mistake they will teach you how to turn the mistake into a beautiful thing.” Shayna Chua, a Primary 6 participant added, “In every advanced lesson, the YMCA teachers showed us slideshows of artists which let me learn more about them. When I want to give up on my art piece, the teachers convinced me to continue and not redo my artwork. I hope this programme continues.”

The Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council is located at Blk 256 Bangkit Road, #01-71. The art pieces will be on display for a period of 3 months beginning 19 March 2016.

PAssionArts Community Art Gallery is a PAssionArts Programme by PA Community Arts & Culture Clubs. This programme invites residents and community artists to display and share their art works at community places for residents to appreciate art at their doorstep. PAssionArts is established by People’s Association with support of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.