Growing Love of Art and Earth
with Children and Youth

By Penny Krebiehl
Director and Founder of Little Artshram

A childish saying goes like this: When one person says “I love... (that or this),” another says, “Oh yeah—you going to marry it?” Imagine that idea. My 5-year-old friend Issac shared with me that his favorite food in the whole world that he “loved” was spaghetti. Oh, yeah... wanna marry it? We laugh and laugh at the idea of being in love with something like spaghetti and the absurdity of marrying it. Imagine walking up the aisle with noodles and pasta sauce!

And, so too is my inspiration to connect this childlike intelligence of finding what we love and loving what we find—the beauty and basic simplicity of helping to bring justice, responsibility and humanity back into the relational, educational and daily experiences of the children and youth we have the honor of sharing time with. As an artist and a mentor, this “marriage” is very, near and dear to my heart.

Through art-making, organic gardening and the planning of community/cultural events for kids and their families, at Little Artshram Farm we’ve begun to create a coming together space of learning and exploring the big, inspiring world around us in an open, awe-filled experience. Through the language of art, storytelling, puppet theater and gardening we explore our natural world and how we live within it, and care for it as an interdependent community. To further digest and understand our appreciation for the loving nourishment from the earth we create art and stories about real work with our hands and heart, our daily rituals as creators, caretakers and worker bees. And, yes, we pick from the garden, make food and feast after our puppet shows!

We encourage children to trust their feelings and increase their ability to help themselves to grow out into the outside world, by setting up a backyard painting studio, sketching squash bugs (and removing them) from pumpkin vines in the garden, or hiking through the field to the “Julia” Tree to learn about Julia Butterfly Hill’s two-year tree-sit in a giant redwood in California. We drum, we dance, we sing.

With a shared council of community members, Little Artshram helps to organize the Grand Traverse Earth Day Parade and Celebration. We provide puppet and mask-making workshops, residency programs and sponsor a Community Art Studio at the Art Center in Traverse City for the annual Earth Day event.

Our Summer Art, Garden and Theater Camps for children and youth from 4 years to 16-years-old takes place annually, June-August, in week-long sessions.

In November, we celebrate Dia de los Muertos, with a community potluck, storytelling and Big Skeleton Puppet Pageant. Year long opportunities for older youth are offered through the Artist Apprentice Program and the OUTLOUD! Girls Group, with adult artists, gardeners, musicians and community organizers as mentors.

Penny Krebiehl is artistic director and founder of Little Artshram, a 501.c3 non-profit organization. Penny is a happy art/garden/puppet wife who has two growing-up children that continue to teach her much about life and its on-going growing cycle. Contact littleartshram@hotmail.com or (231) 228-3493 for a schedule of events.