Reciclarte, a Workshop to Explore Creativity

From an integrating view of art, the José White Concert Hall has hosted the Reciclarte visual arts workshop for two years. In recent days, the project, made up of about 50 children and adolescents, inaugurated an exhibition with works whose creators range between seven and 14 years old.

«We have had the workshop open since August 2024. There are children who started with us from the first day. We have opened several calls since then, and we currently have several groups of children; some younger ones are working on color drawing techniques, and others a little older created the works in pencil.

«We have gone through several stages of artistic expression, from knowledge of the three-dimensional to now being in the two-dimensional part, which is drawing specifically with colored pencils,» explained Ada Isabel Durán, one of the workshop’s teachers.

Amaya Abreu García, ten years old, is one of the girls who is part of the Reciclarte workshop exhibition. «I like being in the workshop because I learn new things, and that is very important; besides, they teach me many drawing techniques, and because I really like coloring and art, the colors of the rainbow.

«I learn many techniques like pointillism — that to color you always have to do it softly so you don’t go outside the lines, coloring with varied colors.»

Her mother, Dania García Cruz, recognizes the benefits of integrating the little ones into this creative project. «I enrolled her because I see that the girl has aptitudes; she really likes painting. The teachers are excellent; they teach her many ways of drawing, and the girl has grown a lot. I believe that contributes a great deal to her for tomorrow.

«She really likes art, and she has developed very well. I am very happy with this workshop, and I believe it is a very good option for all children.»

The inauguration of the exhibition included a creation exercise in which the parents also had to develop a creative project based on the visual arts, which contributes to strengthening the ties between teachers and the family.

Ada Isabel details the preparation process prior to this exhibition, which filled the lobby of the White Hall with colors and human warmth. «We have several months of continuous work for this exhibition.

«They have prepared themselves, evolved, done a lot of reproduction work, and become familiar with several techniques, such as line drawing, like the pointillism technique of which there are several works. The children keep developing and improving their skills and creative work continuously. They are making beauties.»

In addition to contributing to the preservation of historical memory and cultural identity, the process will favor access to documentary sources for present and future generations.

Added to the benefits the workshop reports to the creative capacity and imagination of its members is the opportunity it opens for the institution, formerly the Artistic and Literary Lyceum of Matanzas, to win new audiences among the children and young people who are part of the visual arts workshop and their families.