Twice a week Meagan Buckmaster-Ross covers the basement floor of her studio at Orange Blossom Society with cloth and paper to create a barrier against the debris splattered by her sensory art students. She then leads youngsters ages 1 to 3 on epic journeys through their five senses using anything from paint and paper to pumpkin guts and goo.
“In the sensory, it’s an all-body experience,” said managing director Sharman Ghio.
Orange Blossom Society is an enrichment center for young children located in downtown Redmond in a refurbished Craftsman bungalow.
Buckmaster-Ross taught sensory art to toddlers at her own studio in Redmond Town Center eight years ago, but gave up that business so she could see more of her own kids. She was hired by Orange Blossom Society last summer to help with birthday parties. Soon after, she and Ghio decided to add her class and it was put up on the facility’s schedule in mid-September.
“I owned a business called Art Experiences and my marketing person put me together with Sharman,” said Buckmaster-Ross. “Basically we became friends and I talked to her about my concept that I used to do and we brought this here.”
With more than 20 years of experience working with children and a degree in early childhood education, Buckmaster-Ross says her “whole life has been basically based around children.” She is a proponent of the sensory arts and their impact on childhood development and has structured her class to be both educational and enjoyable.
The class is designed to use art to stimulate an open-ended learning environment, which is a key for developing creativity, problem-solving and communication skills, as well as physical coordination. The Orange Blossom website warns students to “dress for the mess” and that’s not an empty caution. In the class, kids paint their feet and hands, splash in a bucket full of cornstarch-based sludge, create collages with ripped up construction paper and translucent, legal-sized stickers, and write on walls, among other things.
Parents are even encouraged to join in on the fun and often find themselves wrist deep in the same substance that their son or daughter is rubbing on his or her nose.
Sarah Carvalho, a Redmond resident and mother of two who lives just a five-minute drive away from Orange Blossom, recently started bringing her 2-year-old son Matías to the Art Expeditions class. As a former Montessori teacher, she said she understands the value of hands-on time with different materials, though projects at home can be limited.
“It’s nice to have the opportunity to just get messy and be free,” she said. “We have plenty of art supplies at home but I’m always a little more cautious about making a giant mess in the living room.”
While parents can participate, Buckmaster-Ross says it’s important that the kids explore at their own pace.
“Everything I lay out for the children to do is something they can do on their own,” she said. “In fact, I have to slap parents’ hands and say ‘Don’t do that, that’s their artwork,’” said Buckmaster-Ross. “[With] a 12-month-old, even, I show them the paintbrush once and brush across the paper and it’s like it connects and they get it right away.”
Carvalho appreciates Buckmaster-Ross’s hands-off approach.
“Matías here was stuck a little bit at first, not knowing quite how to get into things. She brought some of the paint over to him and that was good enough and that seemed to stimulate him to get started,” said Carvalho. “So I think she’s good about just kind of watching and seeing what people need but otherwise being in the background and letting the kids take the lead.”
The sensory studio classes last for 45 minutes each and are offered on Tuesday and Wednesday. For more information visit www.orangeblossomsociety.com.
Scott Panitz is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
