April 9, 2020 | UHCL Staff
To the relief of frazzled parents searching for activities for their children during the COVID-19 quarantine, University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Art School for Children and Young Adults Director David Moya is transitioning art classes to an online format.
“Like everyone else, we have had to cancel our programs, and since we don’t know if the quarantine will go past April, we created a virtual presence and have started livestreaming classes on Fridays to make sure people’s interest in the arts keeps going,” Moya said. “We did a pilot livestream on our UHCL Art School for Children and Young Adults Facebook page last week and invited our current students so that we could try out the new format and work out the logistics. We had a great response.”
He said the next free livestreamed class will be Friday, April 10, on Facebook, and the lesson is about frottage, the process of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface to form a new piece of art. He added that there would be a free livestreamed art class on Facebook every Friday for the month of April.
“On Facebook, when the red icon under ‘video’ is lit, that’s when I’m live,” he said. “Frottage is fun to do at home, and in creating these lessons, I have tried to keep in mind using materials that people would have on hand and just be creative with them. While we’re doing the lesson, I’ll be telling everyone that I’ll be offering a pilot class on Zoom in May, and then a full program for tuition on Zoom in June.”
To join in the frottage lesson, he said students will need an 8.5 x 11- inch piece of paper, some glue and a pair of scissors, and drawing materials like charcoal, crayons or colored pencils.
Moya, who has just completed his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at UHCL, said that art combined with technology was his passion. “I think this is why we have to be progressive in how we think about doing our programs,” he said. “We have to be flexible and creative because we don’t know what might happen.”
He said it felt natural to him to use his art and technology skills to make something available so the kids can do the projects. “Technology is the tool to solve problems, and everyone is having to do the same thing we’re doing. We have to ask ourselves how to leverage our tech tools to create a learning opportunity. For me this is fun, and this is what it’s all for.”
To link to the Facebook livestream, visit www.facebook.com/UHCLArtSchool/live/. Learn more about UHCL's Art School for Children and Young Adults online.
