Flax Art & Design’s location in Oakland, California holds a KidsFest every year: a Saturday of arts, crafts, kids and fun! KidsFest is the result of a partnership with community organizations including the Museum of Craft and Design, the Museum of Children’s Art and Twirl. Participating vendors included Speedball, Faber-Castell, Fabriano, Savoir-Faire, Pacon, Strathmore, Snazaroo, Grafix, Marabu, DecoArt, STABILO, MONTANA-CANS, Art Alternatives, POSCA, Jacquard and Sennelier. Can you guess this year’s theme? If the giant fossil, made by Flax staff, keeping watch over the entire event doesn’t give it away, the two children in full Tyrannosaurus Rex outfits (pictured below) should make it obvious.
During KidsFest: A Land Before Time, kids and their parents flowed through the store where vendors set up booths with various dino-related activities. Yellow “passports” ensured that most families kept it moving, encouraging them to try every activity and earn a goodie bag with a fully stamped booklet. This annual event is a great opportunity for kids and their families to visit the store, see new products, get some hands-on experience and discover that art supplies provide new opportunities for learning and play. Children and their families know Flax, not only as the venue for KidsFest every year but also as a place they want to revisit, a place where they can find inspiration and bring the fun home.
Art Dog writer Catherine Monahon and Category Manager Jeanine Davids ran the POSCA booth, which featured the art of stenciling with Dover Mini-Stencil Books on Art Alternatives canvas panels that our team had prepped with various MONTANA-CANS colors. The two-toned canvases were especially popular. We saw interest from toddlers, elementary schoolers, tweens and older siblings. Oh, and the occasional parent, too! Young artists were so absorbed in creating their favorite dinosaur that their parents often had to pull them away to the next activity.
Several kids circled back to make more dino portraits. KidsFest was a flurry of activity (three hours passed by in the blink of an eye!) with engaging, hands-on activities including printmaking, face painting, shrink film dinosaurs, rock painting, tie dye and more. Congratulations to the FLAX team for creating and sustaining such a well-attended event!
Two T-Rexes flex their creativity; a mother-daughter duo show off their work!
