Art Workshop given by FCA designers opens up a world of possibilities for youngsters at the Instituto Árvore da Vida (Tree of Life).
October 21, 2020 - Drawing is one of the first resources that children use to represent and understand the world. As they grow, the lines on the paper acquire complexity, boosting their cognitive and expressive development. What many of us forget is that the importance of drawing is not restricted to the education of the little ones. Those who continue to exercise this skill in adulthood use it in varied fields ranging from plastic arts to graphic and product design.
Understanding the transformational force that design is capable of motivating, professionals from the FCA Design Center in Latin America started, in 2019, a partnership with the Tree of Life Institute (IAV), to offer the youngsters of the project an Art Workshop. Valéria Carvalho Santos, designer of colors and finishes at FCA and one of the creators of the workshop, reveals that developing a work with IAV was an old dream of the team. “I am part of the FCA Latam Sustainability Committee, representing the Design Center. In conversations about possible projects, designer Renan Oliveira suggested creating a course to share drawing knowledge with young people. Until then, our closest relationship was with the artisans of Cooperárvore ", she says. In this cooperative, accessories and bags are produced with the leftover materials from the production of automobiles.
The pilot course took place in June 2019 with a pre-selected group of IAV students. “During our Human Development workshop, which brings together all 176 students of the institute, we invited those with a knack for drawing and, without mentioning the workshop, asked them to bring us a project. Together with the FCA designers, we selected the most promising works and set up two groups, in the morning and afternoon shifts ", details Maiara Wenceslau, IAV project manager. In the first year, the classes had approximately 10 students each, aged between 13 and 15 years.
Time to Teach
In order to share their knowledge, FCA designers had to exercise their skills as teachers, something unprecedented for most of them. "We were ten designers involved in the preparation of the classes for the 2019 edition. Our goal was to present the students with an overview of drawing skills", recalls Leonardo Campi, one of the designer-teachers. During the monthly meetings held during the second semester of last year, students learned about the different types of pencils, posture and gestures suitable for creating good lines for geometric shapes as well as light and shadow exercises. Classes were approximately four hours long per shift.