Sunday, November

24, 1991 - North Shore News - 48

of . =

Welcome to the Art Gecko zone

Drop-in studio gives children
free rein with their creativity

NEWS photo Cindy Qoodman

FOUR-YEAR-OLD Dana Fisher and Stuart Malcolm, five, pass the

time away at the Art Gecko
Shopping Centre.

drop-in centre at the Park Royal

THERE’S AN intense look on Dana Fisher’s face. The
four-year-old is making something with a small glass bottle
and some string. What could it be? Only Dana knows for

sure.

She is only one of several
youngsters sitting around a taole
in a smail art studio just outside
of uhe Bay department store in the
Park Royal Shopping Centre.

Welcome to the Art Gecko
zone, a drop-in art centre for
children between the ages of three
and 12.

Most malls and shopping cen-
tres have areas where parents can
leave their children to play while
the adults do some shopping, but
Art Gecko is not your normal
drop-in centre.

It’s an art studio run by West
Vancouver artist Laurie Skinner.

Instead of playing with toys,
these youngsters are playing with
clay, paint and an assortment of
other environmentally-friendiy art
material.

“Part of the plan here is for
kids to learn how to recycle clay
and stuff,”? says Skinner, who is
more commonly known as ‘‘Mrs.
Gecko.”

“Because of the environment
the kids reuse a lot of the materi-
als they bring in. The clay is one
of the more popular things, and I
have a kiln in the back.”

Skinner used to run her own art
studio in the Dundarave area but
closed it because she felt it was
not visible enough to people.

She decided she would receive
more exposure in a shopping cen-
tre and also felt a shopping centre

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

needed a children’s drop-in art
centre,

“IT think this is probably one of
the things a mall needs to have.
There’s not a lot of art museums
in West Vancouver, and I think

66 Children learn

to become aware
of the
environment. 9?

for the future there will have to be
more drop-in areas where you can
accommodate this kind of stuff,’
says Skinner.

The children take home all the
art projects they make at Art
Gecko.

Skinner says that one of the
hardest parts of the Art Gecko

experience is for parents to get
their children to leave wher they
have finished their shopping.

While Art Gecko is a drop-in
centre, Skinner also holds regular
art classes for children. Perhaps
the most important aspect of the
drop-in centre, she says, is that
the children fearn to become
aware of the environment.

“The glazes that they use for
the clay are all lead-free. Dana is
doing something with a glass bot-
tle she brought from home and
she knows that she'll be turning
garbage into something useful,”’
says Skinner.

“They use so much glue tha.
you can’t imagine. Glue is some
thing { don’t want to pour dow:
the drain so what we do is dry it
along with paint, and then chip i:
up and use it as glitter on pic-
tures.”’

And so why do they call Skin.
ner Mrs, Gecko?

“It’s pretty much a nickname
from the geckos (lizards). A lot 0:
people didn’t know what geckos
were and so when | worked in th:
schools the last two years in North:
and West Vancouver, the kids jus.
picked up on it.

‘*I overheard a couple of then:
‘calling me Mrs. Gecko becaus-
they couldn’t remember m-
hame.”*

‘WARMUP |
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NOTICE TO MOTORISTS
LIONS GATE BRIDGE
SINGLE LANE TRAFFIC.

The Ministry of Transportation and Highways announces there will be
single !ane, alternating traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge from Sunday,
November 24 until Friday, December 20. Single tane, alternating traffic
is needed to ailow replacement of the expansion joints on the bridge
and will be in effect as follows:

Sunday to Thursday.
11:30 PM - 5:00 AM

Motorists should expect delays or plan to use an alternate route. For fur-

ther information, please cail the Ministry of Transportation and Highways

24-Hour Road Report at 525-4997 (Greater Vancouver), 938-4997

(Whistler), 371-4997 (Kamloops), 860-4997 (Kelowna), 855-4997 (Ab- :

botsford), 380-4997 (Victoria), *4997 {Celiular). In all other areas please | my 7 : a

call 1-800-663-4997. s f.: —~
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