Montgomery Co. nonprofit ‘Story Tapestries’ transforms students into creative artists
Monday marks the first day of school for many public schools in the D.C. area. That means the local nonprofit “Story Tapestries” is ramping up efforts to inspire kids’ creativity.
“We partner with schools, libraries, community centers and other not-for-profits to use the arts as a tool to help those organizations meet their youth objectives,” founder Arianna Ross told WTOP. “We provide art and literacy kits for families that cannot afford to buy art supplies, but we actually do it all year long. … In the beginning of the school year, we also provide professional development workshops for teachers all across the DMV region.”
Ross founded Story Tapestries 13 years ago in Montgomery County, Maryland, bringing 24 years of her own experience as an outside-the-box artist, teacher and storyteller in the arenas of education and creative arts.
“It started because schools and community centers actually came to me,” Ross said. “They wanted access to programming in their environments to support their kiddos. … They asked how could they raise money to make these programs happen so they would be free to their public. Story Tapestries was born out of that desire to make sure that everybody had access to these programs and that these programs were free.”
The group offers unique Artist-in-Residency programs at schools to meet certain literacy needs.
“In the classroom environment, let’s say you’re a teaching and your children are trying to figure out how to read,” Ross said. “We might bring a dancer in who provides a lesson plan … on how you can take the words on the page and dance and move and glide and draw while simultaneously singing the words in the book, so the children develop not only a kinesthetic, but also an audiovisual understanding of what they’re reading.”
When it comes to hands-on materials, Story Tapestries is more serious than random restaurant coloring sheets, but more adventurous than standardized workbooks. Instead, the nonprofit creates specifically-tailored art kits, filled with markers, crayons, clay, pencils, drawing pads, watercolors and watercolor paper to eager students.
“My favorite is one that we use in the fall when the nights get longer that has masking tape, a drawing pad of paper, crayons and oil pastels,” Ross said. “They learn how they can take all these designs to create images of the changing sky from morning to night using the tape to show the washes of clouds or the sun rise or setting.”
These kits are not just for teachers to hand to their students at their desks, they’re also for parents and caregivers seeking extracurricular activities, enjoyable homework or even home schooling opportunities.
“Parents will share with me that the first time their child opens up their kit with them, it’s beyond excitement,” Ross said. “A lot of young children have anxiety, so part of our art-and-mindfulness kit, on page one, we have a one-page lesson plan that [is] a breathing exercise, how you can draw a squiggle line and breathe at the same time, how you can draw faces and write stories to express yourself and let go of your anxiety, your stress and your worries.”
Stress reduction is just one of the many mental health benefits, including anger management.
“Someone will let us know like, ‘My students are really struggling with anger,’ so we’ll really look into strategies … like using traditional folk tales where the character by the end develops the skills to be able to handle their anger or frustration,” Ross said.
“Them actually acting out that story … helps that child to develop the skills to express themselves — and helps the adult or caregiver to find different means to communicate with their child.”
You can donate to the supply drive at the Ratner Museum in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct. 22 from 3 to 5 p.m.