Each day brings new information about
COVID-19 and how different organizations, businesses, and schools are being affected by the virus. Here at
The Clay Studio, staff is working remotely and our studios are closed to the public. You might be wondering what this looks like for a program like the
Claymobile which relies on human interaction in this time of social distancing? Each member of our team is affected differently. At this time, all Claymobile programs are postponed/canceled through March 29 and will resume when schools are open again. One big project we are taking on right now is creating an online platform for sharing lesson plans for the larger art education community. Our staff teaching artists are working from home to write out some of our favorite Claymobile lessons. In the coming weeks we hope to make this resource available for everyone on our
website. Stay tuned for updates!
Spotlight: Clay, Play, Read
The Clay Studio, in partnership with the
Kensington and
Cecil B. Moore branches of the
Free 
Library of Philadelphia, has debuted a new clay and literacy program for families called Clay, Play, Read. At each library we will host 6 different workshops for families with children ages 3 to 8 years old focused on a new book each week. Each workshop includes a read aloud led by the librarians, an art activity, and a clay project inspired by the stories read. Families who participate also receive a Clay Kit to continue the lessons learned in the workshop at home. Each Clay Kit includes a copy of the book read in the workshop, a piece of clay, clay tools, and a play page to help caregivers activate the kits at home. On March 7 we hosted our first workshop in the series at Kensington Library for 25 participants and everyone had a blast! At this time we have decided to postpone all scheduled workshops at Kensington Library and will share an updated schedule as we know more.
To learn more about this program, please visit the
Clay, Play, Read page on our website where you will find the program schedule, a sample of our first
Play Page, and a
video for our first at home project demo! In the future, we hope to take Clay, Play, Read on the road to other sites where we can share this program with our larger Philadelphia community. For more information about this program, please contact Megan Millman Lasiter at megan@theclaystudio.org.
Our book from workshop #1 is called "Claymates" and tells the story of two balls of clay as they transform into wonderful creatures. You can watch the story being read aloud here. Our art activity this week was a family exquisite corpse drawing. Check out one of the creations in the image on the left. This is a great activity for the whole family. You can also find some history on these drawings and see other samples from the MoMA here. We would love to see your family exquisite corpse drawings too!
Interested in bringing Claymobile to your school or organization?
Visit us at
theclaystudio.org/claymobile to fill out
our partnership form.
Sincerely,
Megan Millman Lasiter
Community Engagement Manager
megan@theclaystudio.org
215-925-3453 x15
