Art Recess for Adults

When I began my role as Director of Continuing Education department at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design the summer of 2019, one of the first things that I wanted to accomplish was testing low-stakes creative making opportunities for adults in our community. While we had classes for beginners, they required a commitment of more than one evening or weekend, the need to purchase supplies that one may or may not ever use again. I wasn’t sure what that would look like but I wanted to be able to make space for my team to prototype and test possibilities.

At the same time I still had to keep current program running as it should. I spent many lunch breaks cleaning out small spaces that had collected random supplies from events, youth classes, and donations. I found myself with a large collection of art supplies that didn’t have home or plan for use. I also started to realize that I should actually take my lunch breaks as breaks and get away from my work so I could come back refreshed and engaged.

These factors all contributed to the creation of Art Recess of Adults. My program coordinator and I set a schedule to use an open classroom on campus where adults from the community could bring their lunches and play with the supplies with guidance or prompts or on their own. Participants were also welcome to bring projects they were working on. We attracted individuals as well as departmental teams from various organizations and businesses in our community.

Programming paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but came back in 2021 and has continued to evolve in its content and location. Today Art Recess for Adults takes place the second Wednesday of every month at Zoetropolis Cinema and Stillhouse from 4:30 - 6:30 pm.