Art and Music Class for Los Ninos in El Valle

For the last several years we have had summer art programs for the local kids in El Valle; each program has been about 8 weeks long.   Last year, all the art projects were made with recycled materials, including the kids' carnaval masks and costumes.  This year we had sponsorship from the Fundacion Parroquia de San Jose, and we were fortunate to have two teachers from the Museo de Arte Contemporano (MAC) in Panama City.   The kids learned basic painting and color mixing, and employed those skills to make and paint their carnaval masks.  It was such a delight to see the kids' creativity grow, and see their joy in achieving some really interesting work with novel approaches.  In about a week, we will put up an exhibition of the kids' best work (as chosen by them) in the El Valle Library; we will post a note to let you know when the exhibition opens and how long it will run.

Also, during this summer's program we employed four young teenagers as aides to the MAC teachers. These teenagers were chosen from the previous year's program when they had demonstrated their own creativity.  It was so gratifying to see these teenagers grow in responsibility and initiative, and share their artistic ability with the younger kids.

We are now starting to organize additional cultural classes for the kids; these new classes will be conducted during the school year.  The classes are being sponsored by the Fundacion Parroquia de San Jose, with the assistance of some of the nuns.  In April we will re-start the weekly painting classes with the MAC teachers, and we hope to add other classes, such as: acoustic guitar, ballet, singing, theater, music reading and appreciation, choir, creative writing and any others which fit into the general category of "culture". 

We are currently looking for teachers for these (and other) classes.  Do you know of someone who could teach any of these courses?  Would you like to?  What resources do you need to teach that course?  Knowledge of Spanish will be VERY helpful since most of kids speak only Spanish.

If so, could you contact Christine (shevek26@live.com) or Barbara (tbcamph@aol.com).  Appreciate it....and thanks!