The idea behind Kids Team Up For Art came from Brian Stanley Morgan, Kansas City artist and board member of the Westport Center for the Arts. At each workshop, children come together under the leadership of two trained artists to create both an individual art project they can take home, and a group collaborative project which often remains at the public library where it was created, to be displayed there. During the year when the Kansas City Public Library chose as its theme DREAM BIG, one collaborative project was to decorate huge foam core letters: D R E A M and B I G. Each letter was as tall as a child, and each was painted with bright colors and creative designs. When the letters were all finished, the children admired their work, but one little girl wasn’t happy to hear that the letters would remain at the library. “But I want to take my letter home,” she said. “I want the E, because my name is Eve!” Eve learned that her letter was needed to complete the theme, and she could come to the library often and see her letter there. In this way she saw that her letter was an important part of the whole idea, and was needed to make the idea complete. KTUFA (Kids Team up for Art) and the other programs of Westport Center for the Arts emphasize that when the community creates art, the arts create community. Eve was part of a creative community making art!
