About

I care deeply about children’s art education and believe that creative experiences offer many benefits to a child’s healthy development, cognitive abilities, and life skills. With my background and BA in Art Therapy and Special Education Therapy from the University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, Germany I’ve designed and taught various art programs, after school art and full day art workshops in several preschools, kindergartens and elementary schools over the last 10 years, and until recently at the the Trailhead Children’s Museum in Crested Butte, Colorado. I’ve decided to start WonderBar as an in-home art enrichment program for toddlers to young adults, offering specialized art classes and one-of-a kind projects.

Why “Wonderbar”?

Wonderbar is a German expression meaning “wonderful” or “full of wonder”. Since I’m German and seek to inspire wonder, creativity and imagination, “Wonderbar” seemed like a fitting name.

My Approach

Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. Brian Eno

I strive to offer developmentally appropriate art classes that inspire creative thinking, self awareness, independence and exploration. Rather than following step-by-step instructions children make their own creative choices and are encouraged to experiment with various materials and techniques to suggested topics and projects. Children will be given the freedom to work at their own pace, follow their own ideas and curiosities, take risks, choose and use materials creatively. Through exploring art with an attitude of play and discovery they are given the opportunity to grow inner confidence, competence, and creative self reliance in creating and problem solving – skills that future academics will build upon.

Benefits of Arts Education

The true purpose of arts education is not necessarily to create more professional dancers or artists. It’s to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers, who have curious minds, who can lead productive lives. Kelly Pollock

Creativity at its core is all about making connections, either with ourselves, our ideas, or those around us. Meri Cherry

Motivates and engages children in learning, stimulates memory, facilitates understanding, enhances symbolic communication, promotes relationships, and provides an avenue for building competence. Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections, Sara Goldhawk and the Task Force on Children’s Learning and the Arts, 1998

Creative activity is […] a source of joy and wonder, while it bids its students to touch, taste, hear, and see the world. Children are powerfully affected by storytelling, music, dance, and the visual arts. They often construct their understanding of the world around musical games, imaginative dramas and drawing. Theories and Research That Support Art Instruction for Instrumental Outcomes, Hamblen, Karen A., 1993