kid's art adventures!
We walked the five minutes over to Boboli Gardens...and by the time we got there, the kids liked Andi so much that they waved goodbye to us! Three hours later we met them at the gate and the kids couldn't stop talking about the scavenger hunt and showing us their drawings. We've done many workshops and activities around the world and this is literally the only one where we were separated from the kids and it was great with all of us. - Eric
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I just wanted to thank you... It was the perfect tour to do with the kids. They loved it! Andi made it interesting the entire time and kept the kids all totally engaged... They truly loved the hands-on art project as well. This experience was our favorite part of Florence. I would absolutely recommend this tour to friends and would recommend Andi to anyone. - Amy
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Young artists
discover the secrets
of Renaissance masters
by making art from
the masterpieces
right before
their eyes!
Artist for a day kids' art adventures are an exciting mix of treasure hunts, engaging conversation & questioning, hands-on sketching & painting, and bring-it-to-life history where young artists learn the value of their imaginations & natural sense of wonder
by taking inspiration from the masterpieces
& even the very words of the Renaissance masters
whose works they can see all around them.
Each workshop incorporates either a walking tour, museum or garden visit,
or other excursion into the heart of Florence to experience its treasures up-close
& personally. They experience the Florentine traditions
of making beauty & touch it through the work of their own hands.
How long? Workshops last 3 to 3.5 hours
choose morning (10:00-1::00p) or afternoon (3:00-6:00p)
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How many? Workshops are private unless otherwise booked.
(open to a maximum of only 5 artists)
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Slow? the "slow art" experience means small groups & maximum engagement,
individual encouragement & personalized attention so that
fun, creative expression &learning are guaranteed!
Fee? Includes all materials & entry fees
Private - 150 euros
Semi-private 2 artists are 125/artist
Groups of 3+ 100 euros/artist
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Workshop 1: Draw with DaVinci - Secrets of Seeing Things Around You
Get inspired by Leonardo DaVinci’s amazing sketchbooks & learn his secrets of how to see things for the first time every time so you suddenly have superpowers!
You'll visit the Da Vinci Muesum to touch with your own hands his many inventions & then even invent our own. You'll learn about his secret "language" & try it out yourselves in your very own sketchbook that you get to take home.
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Workshop 2: Michelangelo’s Secrets - How to Draw People
Why does Michelangelo's David sculpture look like he could breathe? He studied real bodies & knew the muscles, bones, and all the beauty hidden under the surface- and you get to figure out how to make our people drawings more real, too!
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At the Accademia Museum, you'll learn some great tricks like “proportion” and “negative space” drawing that will make things appear on your page like you see them, and the world's most famous man- the massive marble David Michelangelo sculpted when he was just 26 years old, will be your model! You'll also understand his messages & the passion of the artist who created him.
Workshop 3: Brunelleschi’s Magic - How to Make Flat Paper Look 3-D
Go see the world's largest freestanding brick dome and learn about how a simple egg trick changed history! Find out how the architect of the "cupola" (the dome of Florence's huge cathedral) figured out how to build it & learn his special way of making flat lines drawn on paper look like buildings, bricks, and real streets in space with a set of tricks he discovered called “perspective”.
We’ll learn step-by-step how to do it and have fun making our own “snapshots” of the architecture of Florence using Brunelleschi's magic.
Workshop 4: Caravaggio’s Amazing Light - "Chiaroscuro"
We will visit the Pitti Palace's painting gallery to see the amazing way that the Renaissance artist Caravaggio inspired artists to paint light.
Using your charcoal and erasers in a fun and original approach to draw light like Caravagio, you'll take your inspiration right from paintings in Palazzo Pitti’s collection, learning to see "shadow shapes" that seem to make things magically appear when we draw with our erasers.
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Workshop 5: Being an Artist Gives You Superpowers - Seeing the Invisible
Wander and play in Boboli Gardens, a beautiful Renaissance earthly paradise, and follow a special set of instructions to go on a treasure hunt that gives you artist's superpowers to see what no one else sees!
Exploration and play are half the fun as we make our adventure unfold, finding out how our learning to see & using just a pencil and a piece of paper can show us what isinvisible to everyone else’s eye. The end of the treasure hunt will lead us to a hidden treasure with clues that only someone with superpowers can see & decipher.
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Workshop 6: Paint & Taste Colors on Your Plate - Natura Morta- Still Life
Go back to the medieval period and enjoy learning how by using everyday food items (an egg, a few pieces of fruit), you can actually make paint and discover the "models" sitting on your plate!“
You'll explore how painting in the Renaissance "Natural Morta" tradition were people's way to celebrate and see beauty in the everyday, simple things all around them. We'll pick out our own colors of delectable Italian fruit and vegetable appetizers from a local stand & then use our "snacks" to inspire our own Natura Morta (Still Life), learning to mix vibrant colors and create harmonious shapes and use all our senses to enjoy and paint our "models" before eating them!
Workshop 7: Grottesques - Fantastical Creatures & Fairies on the Ceiling
You will be a secret agent in one of the world's most amazing museums, the Uffizi, looking to find the “hidden museum” that very few people ever notice, and that is because you will not be looking out at pictures, but UP at the ceiling!
After making sketches of what inspires us, you will invent your own cutout paper and tempera creations inspired by these “Grottesques” for your own amazing creations of fantastical creatures which are both plant, human, animal, and geometrical.
Workshop 8: Create Your Personal “Scudo”- Family Crests
Discover the many hidden family "advertisements" posted on so many small homes and huge palaces all along the streets of Florence. Why are they there? Some are topped with metal crowns, some large, some quiet and small, and how they tell the story of who lived and loved this place before us.
You'll know all about them before you get to design your very own “Scudo” or personal/family crest, choosing from a symbol and color meanings "dictionary", and then painting your unique design onto a wooden panel that will be finished with a brass hanger & a cloth cord or ribbon for display when you return home.