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 8 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 I thought this would be 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 confidence, competence, and creative self reliance in creating and problem solving – skills that future academics will build upon.

Benefits of Arts Education

Strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success. Benefits of the Arts, Americans for the Arts, 2002

Stimulates and develops the imagination and critical thinking, and refines cognitive and creative skills. Benefits of the Arts, Americans for the Arts, 2002

Provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality. Why the arts are important, Dee Dickenson, 1993

Plays a central role in cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional development. Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections, Sara Goldhawk and the Task Force on Children’s Learning and the Arts, 1998

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

Brain research is showing that the stimuli provided by the arts – pictures, song, movement, play-acting – are essential for the young child to develop to the fullest potential. These activities are the ‘languages’ of the child, the multiple ways in which he or she understands and interprets the world. Active use of these forms also pave the way for the child to use verbal language, to read, and to write. 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