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THE CRATE OF CURIOUS THINGS
Connecting Kids with Artists
In-home Lessons
One-on-one customizable lesson plans with 1, 3, or 6 lessons per series at flexible rates. Lessons offer a large range of accessible art techniques tailored to the student’s particular interests.
CR8 Workshops
Offered for any age group in educational, recreational, and corporate settings. Specific themes and key takeaways are available and adjustable upon request.
Cardboard Club
Groups of 8-12 partake in progressive teamwork and skills-based meetings revolving around the versatile and ever-abundant medium that is cardboard. (ages 10+)
Schedule or Support
Due to the customizable nature of our services, the best way to schedule a workshop, lesson, or club is to contact us at crateofcuriousthings@gmail.com.
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Something as simple as "Hi, my name is Sue and I live in this town in Indiana. I'm interested in lessons for my kid." is enough for us to begin the appropriate customer onboarding process.
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We look forward to hearing from you!
Why the "Crate"?
Consumer cultures bring unfathomable waste.
The Crate aims to give items another life through recreational creativity.
Using a process called "Upcycling," we teach art and environmentalism to all ages across Indiana. The Crate offers One-off "Cr8" Workshops, Cardboard Clubs, Private Lessons, and more. If a van can get there, we can have a blast there teaching art using old junk.
Collaborative
Art is better together. Sure, it can be a fantastic therapy alone, but the Crate chooses to prioritize teamwork. Our best collaboration often requires a level of comfort, so the "Cardboard Club" series emulate this value best with their consistent community-building approach.
Recreational
When the goal isn't to create art professionally, it should be to have fun. The Crate attempts to structure its workshops in an engaging, enjoyable way that emphasizes impermanence. Toys made out of cardboard aren't meant to last: they're meant to be fun.
Artistic
The term "art" is arguably the most vague descriptor to exist. "Everything is art," right? The Crate therefore uses the term "art" to mean something created as a product of careful consideration. We encourage students to explore the question "why" as they are working. That makes it "art."
Thrifting
"Thrifting" involves used goods, which is the primary supply of Crate workshops. We take unwanted items and give them another life through art. This isn't a permanent solution for keeping items out of the trash, but if paired with conservation education, the art can instill a mindfulness in participants regarding what they might waste.
Experience
The projects the Crate guides participants through in an hour and a half are not meant to last forever. These are impressively impermanent products paired with ideally influential experiences. A single cardboard box could be used as a fort, a clubhouse, a racecar, and a dance floor before finding its way to the recycling. The experience is what matters.
CRATE stands for
Meet the (soon to be bigger) Team
The Crate operates to connect art to students, but more importantly to connect them with people.
Here is a growing list of those people.
ENDORSEMENTS
SPECIAL THANKS TO
