A Circle in the Trees

Using Art as a Way to Connect to Nature

Abstract

This paper describes a program for children that integrated arts activities with exploration of a park environment. Working with children from an urban ghetto, the project was primarily concerned with using the arts/environment experiences to build the children's sense of freedom, confidence, and empowerment. Activities such as making collages can be transferred, with changes in scale and material, to outdoor spaces. The children's aesthetically oriented work in the natural environment seemed to reflect and enhance their growing confidence and freedom of expression. These experiences encouraged the children to find connections between their own symbolic work and the symbolic and aesthetic traditions within their own community.