Searching for clues and new image ideas with ink
Our world is full of contrasts: detail meets the big picture, unity meets strangeness. Based on the exhibition ‘PARADISE. Cityscape as a Mirror of Time’, this workshop invites children and young people to embark on a creative search for clues – with pencils, ink and an open eye for the inconspicuous and invisible.
What happens when we look at just one detail?
The starting point is a small section – a fragment of a work of art. In the exhibition, participants independently select a detail, which they view through a peephole and trace precisely.
Experimenting with ink and tools
Back in the workshop, the playful exploration of materials begins: ink meets unusual drawing utensils such as feathers or homemade brushes. The focus here is on trying things out, changing them and expanding them.
From detail to new artwork
In the second part of the workshop, participants work with a copied image detail – a fragment from an exhibition piece. This becomes the starting point for a new drawing composition. Lines, structures and patterns are continued, broken or reinterpreted. In this way, the original detail merges with a self-created visual world – the fragment becomes part of a larger whole. The focus is on artistic questions: When is an image ‘enough’? What happens when we exaggerate, condense or abstract a work of art? And how much of the original actually remains – or does something completely new begin here?
Creatively exploring social issues
The workshop picks up on central themes of the exhibition: possession, alienation, loss, search. These are questioned creatively and translated into individual images – beyond conventions and with room for personal perspectives.
Who is the workshop suitable for?
The offer is aimed at kindergarten groups and school classes aged 5-18. The theoretical input and artistic requirements are adapted to suit the age group.
From 28 July up to and including 1 August, the Werkstatt für Kreative will be opening its doors daily from 10 am to 1 pm for children from the Pichelswerderstraße shared accommodation. We look forward to welcoming them from 10 am to 1 pm for art and creative activities in the Werkstatt für Kreative and hope to give them a wonderful, creative first week of the summer holidays. Our independent museum educators will be taking around 20 children aged 6-12 to visit the summer children’s exhibition at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank over the 5 days. Together we will look at art from the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank and artworks by children from the Lietzensee primary school project and let them inspire us. We build a mobile out of branches and tie them together with cords. We hang a wide variety of elements on them, including exploring the body, drawing arms, legs, eyes and noses, cutting them out and hanging them on our mobile. We paint, draw, glue and perhaps model. If the weather is nice, we’ll go to the park and can draw there too. Let us surprise you. It will be a great week. We look forward to seeing all the children.
In the first half of 2025, Lietzensee-Grundschule was a guest at the Werkstatt für Kreative for the second time for a long-term project. Classes 2a and 4b were able to gain artistic experience over several weeks in nine and eleven consecutive workshops respectively – led by experienced art educators in an age-appropriate manner.
The aim was to give the children space for their own forms of expression, to sharpen their aesthetic perception and to encourage them to actively engage with art. Regular visits to the current exhibition MENSCH BERLIN at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank also contributed to this. The children were allowed to express their thoughts on the exhibited works, learned about various artistic techniques and developed their own ideas. The focus was on themes such as the body, the world of thought, urban experience and community.
The combination of art education and the freedom to experiment with different materials resulted in imaginative works – from body drawings and personal stamps to a large map of the neighborhood and giant mobiles.
The highlight of the project was the vernissage on June 26, 2025, where the young artists were proud to present their works to their families. The students prepared their own presentation with short speeches, which they gave themselves. This enabled them to leave their comfort zone and surpass themselves in an interdisciplinary way outside of their artistic activities.
Long-term projects such as this one enable deep immersion in artistic processes. They create space for building trust, promote creative self-efficacy and strengthen social skills. The children not only develop artistically, but also learn how to talk about art, listen to each other, develop ideas and find solutions together.
Capital City People
Jubilee-Mobile
In our workshops to mark the 20th anniversary of the Werkstatt für Kreative and the 40th anniversary of the Kunstsammlung der Berliner Volksbank, we are building simple mobiles. In the accompanying anniversary exhibition MENSCH BERLIN, we will be inspired by the works and motifs of the exhibited artists.
We then design the mobiles – moving figures that dance through the room. This can be based on sections of the body such as heads, noses and ears as well as observations we made in the exhibition and in the urban space around us: Shapes and figures that we have discovered, as well as memories and experiences associated with them. Where do we come from, where are we at home and where do we want to go?
We make the framework of a mobile from various tree branches and bamboo canes. Then we draw on paper, cut out shapes and assemble the individual elements into a marionette. The result is a floating aerial sculpture that reflects the thoughts, feelings and creative exchange between us. During the process, we discover not only the peculiarities of the sculpture, but also the principles of balance and movement.
There will also be a summer anniversary workshop offer from the end of June to August 2025.
On 19th of October 2024, the Werkstatt für Kreative will be taking part in the KinderKulturMonat.
Aleks and Lilla are looking forward to welcoming you with two workshops from 10am to 12pm and from 1pm to 3pm and are hoping for a large number of participants.
Children aged 5-8 years can register for the first workshop from 10am-12pm with an accompanying adult and children aged 9-12 years are welcome to attend the 1pm-3pm workshop, even without their parents if they wish.
They can visit the exhibition free of charge during this time. There is space for a maximum of 20 participants for both workshops, otherwise it will be too crowded. Look forward to a great workshop and exhibition visit with us.
Uncanny figures. The hidden in textile reliefs.
Grab some fabric, wool and threads and transform our background into an intricate relief! Preferably so intricate that fantastic figures could also be hiding in it … We can discover them in the exhibition we are visiting. Let’s take a closer look at the pictures: How are the colours and shapes used here in the works? And do we always see everything at first glance? Or is there much more hidden in some of the works than we thought? Back in the workshop, let’s take another look at what we can find in the folds, pockets and knots of our relief…
Registration via the KinderKulturMonat from around beginning of August: www.kinderkulturmonat.de/
Werkstatt für Kreative in Oranienburg!
The Werkstatt für Kreative is also there for you during the summer holidays. Inna and Lilla are looking forward to a great creative workshop for you at Kids kreativ in Oranienburg.
Happiness in one piece – we knead our talisman.
A talisman is a small object, a memento to which magical, lucky properties are attributed. We use modelling clay to create an object or figure that celebrates everyday life and embodies our own talisman. The small sculpture can be a fantasy creature (monster, ghost, wizard) or something abstract. After drying, the object can be painted.
This time we won’t be on site in one go in the last week of the holidays, but spread over the whole 6 weeks, so there’s sure to be a suitable date for everyone. We look forward to seeing you! Your Inna and Lilla
Inna is looking forward to seeing you on the following days during the first three weeks:
29.07., 12.30-14.30 and 15-17 h
07.08., 12.30-14.30 and 15-17 h
12.08., 12.30-14.30 and 15-17 h.
And in the last three weeks Lilla is on site.
23.8., 11-13 and 13.30-15.30 h
26.8., 11-13 and 13.30-15.30 h
28.8., 11-13 and 13.30-15.30 h
For children and young people aged 5 to 18, max. 10 people per workshop.
Registration under: https://www.kids-kreativ.de/projekte/anmeldung/
Kids kreativ e.V.
ORANIENWERK
Kremmener Str. 43
16515 Oranienburg
www.kids-kreativ.de
20 minutes on foot from Oranienburg railway station or 5 minutes from the Kremmener Straße bus stop (line 824).
In the Unheimliche/s Gestalten (Uncanny figures) workshop, we will be inspired by the diversity of textiles and create a three-dimensional relief in an intuitive way. We will deal with different textiles by folding, crumpling and knotting them and surrendering to chance. It is a creative journey in which we explore the boundaries between control and spontaneity and let our instincts guide us.
In the next step, we delve deeper into the world of fantasy and uncanny figures. We investigate exactly what hidden creatures could be hiding in the folds, knots and tangles of the relief. We go in search of the secrets hidden in the surface structures of the textiles.
Through this creative process, we begin to discover uncanny shapes and figures that are just waiting to be brought to light. Using colours, paper and other materials, we emphasise these hidden creatures.
The result is a three-dimensional image that tells stories ranging from funny to scary monsters and their fascinating stories. These are works that not only appeal to our senses, but also stimulate our imagination.
In the current exhibition Durchdringen: Das U/unheimliche s/Sehen (Inter/Penetration: The Uncanniness of Seeing), the works by artist and curator Michael Müller and other artists explore pairs of opposites such as abstract/figurative, conscious/unconscious and visible/invisible. Together we will be inspired by the diverse aesthetic and artistic practices, strategies and methods expressed in the exhibited works. We will examine how the artists of the 20th and 21st century play with different materials, colours and forms. In doing so, we reflect on how art as an individual means of expression contributes to bringing the unconscious into the individual consciousness and open up new perspectives for us.
“As one dreams, so one should paint” (Werner Heldt)
Dream, longing, home Berlin and freedom are the themes of the exhibition by artists Werner Heldt and Burkhard Held at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank.
In the workshop, we would like to concentrate on our own view and ask ourselves how our surroundings can change in the future.
With pen and paper, we will visit the exhibition 100 Years of Held(t)en: Werner Heldt and Burkhard Held and explore the composition of the pictorial worlds, the staging and their stylistic forms of expression. How are pictures constructed? How are people and their surroundings depicted?
We make a spontaneous, spatial sketch on site and let the works of art inspire us. The way there and the street in front of the Kunstforum can also be included.
In the workshop, we take this first draft as a starting point and continue to draw our imaginary space from it in our heads. Future architecture, our own spaces, Berlin and excerpts from the neighborhood are our graphic introduction to the topic.
The near and the far are connected. A window, a view from the inside to the outside, can transport us to another world or reveal layers of history. Starting from this site-specific sketch, we develop our own spatial image. Pencils, markers, wax crayons and other graphic tools are our basis.
This creates a connection between dream and reality, from which an abstract, invented and utopian space can be assembled.
The Werkstatt für Kreative is participating in the KinderKulturMonat in October 2023!
On 14 October, we will take part in the KinderKulturMonat and offer you two great workshops at Kaiserdamm 105. You can take part in the workshop MENSCH UND EMOTION from 10-12 am and from 13-15 pm. All children aged 4-16 are invited to register for a workshop via the KinderKulturMonat website from 3 September. www.kinderkulturmonat.de
For the workshop, our art educators will be waiting for you at the Werkstatt für Kreative at Kaiserdamm 105. After a short introduction, we will go to the current exhibition at the Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank right next door. You’ll see lots of great works of art, explore them with your eyes and ask questions about them in a short discussion session. Afterwards, you will move back to the Werkstatt für Kreative and give free rein to your feelings with brush and ink on paper. Spontaneously and with verve, you put your feelings on paper and capture the moment.
First you experiment with black and gradually add the primary colours yellow, blue and red.
A picture emerges and in the end it is an expression of yourself. Be curious about what develops on the paper before your eyes and just stay spontaneous.
A maximum of 20 children can register for each workshop, parents can take a seat in the waiting area.
The Werkstatt für Kreative is on the road for you again this year and will be at the Kids kreativ summer holiday camp in Oranienburg from 21-25 August. Every day from 10-12 and 13-15, Lilla welcomes you to the workshop ” Mensch und Emotion auf Papier” (“People and Emotion on Paper”) and looks forward to your active participation. This time, drawing with Japanese ink brushes on watercolour paper is the order of the day and you can and should give free rein to your feelings. Spontaneously and with verve you will put your feelings on paper and capture the moment.
First you experiment with black and then gradually add the primary colours yellow, blue and red.
A picture emerges and in the end it is an expression of yourself. Be curious about what develops before your eyes on the paper and just stay spontaneous. The course is suitable for children and young people aged 5-18 and there are still places available.
Registration at: https://www.kids-kreativ.de/das-sommerferiencamp/anmeldung/
Your team from the Werkstatt für Kreative