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Art Classes    with  Helen Savage
RAUMATI SOUTH, KAPITI COAST
ABOUT HELEN
 

Helen Savage art tutor - classes for children, Raumati South, nz

preparing wax and melted coloured crayons

Helen Savage, art tutor, art classes for children, Raumati South, nz

Having taught art classes consistently now for 11+ years Helen has built up a repertoire of hundreds of different classes with variations for different age groups and abilities.

Helen's Art Teaching Background:

"When I was 9 years old I planned several art and craft activities for my friends and called our gatherings the 'Rose Red Club'. With the help of my Mum, friends came over for an arty club afternoon."

Helen began facilitating groups in Wellington in 1981 as a founding member of the New Mother Support Groups. In 1988 as the co-ordinator at the Brooklyn Community Centre she advertised her first children's holiday programme and to her surprise 60 children showed up!

"I was inexperienced and chaos followed and yet it was enormously fun for everyone. We were making miniature gardens inside on a rainy day! We had bags of peat and succulents from Mum's garden. Fortunately the support of my family and my tendency to over-cater saved the day."

Helen began teaching children in 1989 as a Child Care Worker. She moved on to advocacy work for the Wellington Community Childcare Association (WCCA) before moving to Christchurch.

Between 1992 and 2003 Helen managed after school programmes at Wharenui, St Albans and a holiday programme for the OSCAR Network. The St Albans programme provided before school, after school and holiday programmes for 55 children daily for the 5 – 12 years age group. The role involved the supervision of 10 staff, parent liaison, conflict resolution, behaviour management and the facilitation of activities.

The Wharenui Programme: “…I marvelled at Helen’s ability to multitask and coordinate potentially chaotic situation with children arriving from seven different schools and keeping up to 50 children safe and constructively occupied with her calm and cheerful manner.”    - Margareet Stronks, Oscar Development in Christchurch

In 2001 Helen completed her Bachelor of Design (Craft Arts) at the Christchurch Polytechnic.

In 2002 Helen's "Marks of Existence" art work was exhibited at the Centre of Contemporary Art as part of their Emerging Artist Series. Click here for her other works.

Helen began working in two areas - as an art tutor and as an art consultant for several Christchurch galleries. At these galleries she learned about local artists, the sale of art, framing consultation, and installing and hosting exhibitions. As an art tutor she set up an art department at Floyds Creative Arts and in 2005 began teaching a children's art class at COCA.

By 2008 this had evolved into teaching 5-6 art classes each week in the school term, plus several classes each school holidays.

Helen has been enjoying teaching so much that in February 2009 she began studying for the Graduate Diploma In Teaching at Canterbury University's Teacher's College.

In 2010 Helen was relief teaching in primary schools and also completed the acclaimed CELTA (Cambridge English Language Teaching for Adults) course.

2011: Helen taught at Hong Kong Academy, a private international primary and secondary school in Hong Kong.

2014: Art teacher at Yew Chung International School - an English language private school in Shanghai, China. Helen taught primary school art for 4 years in a multi-cultural setting with 14-17 classes per week.

July 2018: Returned to New Zealand and living in Raumati, Paraparaumu, on the Kapiti coast. Art classes starting soon!

 

Last updated: Feb 11th, 2019


 

 

Creative Kids   © Helen Savage 2008
Raumati South, NZ
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