Session One - Open House

The first session of the Cook Arts Center's summer program has come to an end, and last night we celebrated the achievements of our participants over the past four weeks. Our B2B guest, Hugo Claudin, was also here to share valuable information about the B2B Program and the importance of family and community in order for our students to succeed. After prize raffles and performances by the students everyone shared some food from Sabor Latino, one of our neighborhood restaurants, and students had the chance to show off their work to parents and families. Our amazing instructors got the chance to show parents all of the amazing work their kids have been doing. Josh Dunigan teaches music, Karla Galvin teaches clay, Cat Timermanis teaches Visual Arts, Sara Schneider teaches dance and Nancy Gallardo teaches theater. Session One was great and we're looking forward to Session Two which starts on Monday, July 25th.

Estefania brings over some small bongos to show her dad some of the rhythms she learned with Mr. Josh. Students formed a drum circle to show their parents what they've learned.


Avelycia, Antonio, Sarahi and Catherine proudly show off their paintings of the Taj Mahal. Students learned about India with Ms. Cat Timermanis and created fabulously detailed images of the beautiful Indian monument.



Students and their families take a look at some of the fabulous elephant and 'mehndi' paintings. Mehndi is the traditional art of hand decorating done with the henna plant in India.


Students performed a short Scottish poem that they learned from Ms. Nancy Gallardo. When they used the strong Scottish accent they learned, it almost seemed like they were speaking another language!


Throughout the session students learned about other famous artists including Piet Mondrian. While creating paintings in the style of Mondrian, students were learning about primary colors, parallel and perpendicular lines, and about how math is important all the time, even in art!


Ms. Nikki Feenstra from the YMCA Health & Nutrition program was also here, offering smoothies and healthy recipes to our families at the open house.

Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities administers the programs of the Cook Arts Center.

Cook Library Center - Summer Activities

Edwin Campos, our Library Assistant at the Cook Library Center, shares a brief summary of some of this weeks activities:
"On Monday our students were excited when Mr.E (from the YMCA) arrived with a cooler of healthy snacks. Mr. E comes every week to encourage our students to be healthy and teach them how to eat right.

Before Mr. E began his class, he played an active game of Simon Says with the kids - it was a lot of fun and a surprisingly good work out! On Tuesday our students worked on their math skills by doing a fun activity using yarn and small cardboard pieces to make patterns with parabolas.

Students also made racing cars using clothes pins, buttons, and straws.

Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities administers the programs of the Cook Library Center.

Exploring Our World

It's already the middle of July and the first session of the new Summer Arts and Learning Program at the Cook Arts Center only has one week left. After three weeks, students have learned fun facts about India, Japan, regions of Africa, Mexico and our very own United States - all through the arts!

Students have also had a chance to explore our own backyard here at the Cook Arts Center. When the sun was shining, participants tested their green thumbs: together, we pulled weeds, planted seeds and learned about some of the different things that it takes to have a successful garden.





Students also had a chance to harvest some of the crops that grew up from last year like rhubarb and mint. Next week students will learn a rhubarb smoothie recipe with our YMCA Heatlth and Nutrition instructor, and they will be using rhubarb straight from the Cook Arts Center garden. Yum!

Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities administers the programs of the Cook Arts Center.

Summer Fun

The Cook Arts Center and the Cook Library Center summer programs are in full swing now, and students have been having fun while learning a lot at both facilities. Each week, Cook Arts Center students meet up with the Cook Library Center students for field trips to different locations. During the first couple weeks of programming, students ventured out to the campus of Aquinas College where they not only saw the beautiful trails and buildings, but also Circle Theater's production of Robin Hood! The performance was fabulous and afterwards, students got a chance to explore the set and talk with some of the actors and prop designers about what it's like to perform and what it takes to work on the set.



We also paid a visit to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum, where students always have a great time exploring their surroundings in a hand's on environment encouraging them to use their imaginations!




The field trips have been fun but are also just a small part of the awesome activities students have been doing so far, including dancing, clay projects, reading, theater, and more!

Below, students at the Cook Arts Center work on "Kimono Vases" as they learn about Japan.





Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities administers the programs of the Cook Arts Center and the Cook Library Center.