Guild Hall's Annual Student Art Festival Youth Programming Announced

Sometimes, when you need a superhero, you get to create one yourself. That's one of the primary messages in the new five-week Loot Comics workshop at Guild Hall, Create Your Own Comic Book, starting January 21 and running through February 18. This hourlong weekly virtual workshop caters to kids 8 to 12, and explores the drama and thrill of storytelling and character development through the art of comic books.

In reflecting on their own pasts, and learning the genesis stories of famed superheroes and comics, children will inhabit and imagine characters and fanciful futures, resulting in a comic book of their own creation.

The Brooklyn-based Loot Comics is known for being very kid-centric: only allowing adults into the inner sanctum if they're accompanied by kids, and offering monthly memberships that enable children to meet with artist-mentors, borrow comics from the copious library, and create art to their heart's content.

During the Guild Hall sessions (which is limited to 15 participants) children will delve into the world of superheroes and far-off places-reading, writing, acting, and illustrating the genesis stories of various heroes, led by the enigmatic "Professor Joe." They will have an opportunity to create their own imaginative and action-packed comic book through the lens of their own lives.

More than just an accomplished performing artist, writer, and storyteller, Joseph Mann-aka "Professor Joe"-grew up in the art world, and has spent most of his life learning illustration, painting, graphic design, art history, and art education. With a deep knowledge of comic book art, and a high-energy personality, he leads Loot Comic's educational efforts.

All sessions are led remotely via Zoom. Each child is provided with a kit of materials for the workshops, available for pick-up at Guild Hall the weekend of January 15.

This series is produced as part of Guild Hall's Student Art Festival 2021: Past-Present-Future, which opens January 16 and runs through February 21, 2021. As a celebration of both Guild Hall's 90th Anniversary, and the centennial of the Village of East Hampton, this year's festival looks to both our shared past and an imagined future. Through the practice of art and design, ranging from imagery of natural growth and metamorphosis to Futurism and Science Fiction, students across the East End will collectively produce an exhibit that reflects our past, acknowledges and celebrates our present, and imagines a changed and hopeful future.

Create Your Own Comic Book will be held on Thursdays, January 21 to February 18, 3:30 - 4:30pm. The price is $175 ($140 for members of Guild Hall).

Also for three weeks on Mondays, beginning January 25, Guild Hall will present a family hour, Stories and Crafts with the East Hampton Library, for ages three and up. At each session, "Ms. Anna" Healy of the Library will read a children's book, followed by a related hands-on craft project. The sessions will be held on Zoom; there are take-home art supplies available to participants for pick up at Guild Hall the weekend prior to each session.

The themes explored in the Student Art Festival are echoed in this series, bridging the questions and themes students explored in their classrooms and exhibit at Guild Hall to their homes and families.

Anna Healy is new to the East End. She has taught art classes for children and adults at the East Hampton Library, Golden Eagle, and Guild Hall. Prior to bringing art and stories to families in East Hampton, Anna taught in schools, libraries, and cultural institutions in both Oklahoma and the greater Chicago area.

The one-hour classes are free and take place from 3:30 to 4:30 PM on January 25, February 1, and February 8. Pre-registration is required.

Education Programming supported by The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Lucy and Steven Cookson, The Wunderkinder Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and funding from the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment. The Remote-School Artist-in-Residence Program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Christina and Alan Macdonald, Bobbie Braun -The Neuwirth Foundation, and Nina Gillman.

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