Your Kid Can Paint That: Artist Trading Cards are for Children, Too
My little girls recently took part in an Artist Trading Card swap for children. Not only did they have a blast, but among other equally valuable and equally unteachable lessons they learned that art is accessible, that art is fun, that art is a process (hello, experiential education!), and that they, just like the creators of the works they see on our every museum visit, are themselves artists.
This concept of themselves as artists and their creations as art is great for my girls, sure, but it’s also great for the world: empowering our children to create instead of consume, and teaching them that their creations are valid and satisfying and meaningful can help them place less emphasis on a mass media, consumer culture and more on a person-to-person, handmade, emotionally satisfying lifestyle.
Artist Trading Cards are the big thing now among artists and crafters, professional and casual, and this activity has recently become the easiest and most accessible it’s ever been, especially for kids. Here’s how to get started:
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Artist Trading Cards are for artists what baseball cards, or Magic the Gathering cards, or any other kinds of trading cards are for their fans–collector’s items. They are trading card sized real live pieces of art, meant to be freely given or swapped and NEVER sold. They’re a terrific thing for a kid to collect, and an even more awesome thing for a kid to create and send out into the world.
There are only two rules that all Artist Trading Cards must follow:
- They MUST be trading card sized (2.5″x3.5″), always.
- They MUST have as their base professional-quality artist’s paper. Although your kiddos should feel free to glue on construction paper, typing paper, or whatever their little hearts desire, a base of professional-quality paper not only handles all sorts of media (watercolor, chalk, colored pencil, crayon, etc.) the best, but is also very sturdy and archival. Strathmore makes their paper in ATC size, or you can cut down larger pieces to the correct size (2.5″x3.5″–don’t forget!).
What can kids do? They can trade with friends. They can participate in world-wide ATC swaps. They can participate in children’s ATC swaps. They can post their cards to ATC flickr pools. They can start their own collections.
Heck, they can show their work in a gallery exhibit, if you want my opinion.
What an excellent idea! I now know what to do with all my kids paintings from their Waldorf school who uses Strathmore paper and they have some beautiful water colors. I also really like the idea of a worldwide swap = that would lead to such multicultural understanding — thanks so much for the inspiration!!
Aren’t watercolors on that Strathmore paper the best? We’d never tried it until my girls were doing their children’s swap, and then I bought us all this professional-quality paper, and now we’re in love.
I’m seriously considering organizing a children/parent ATC swap through my personal blog–I loved mediating when my girls were doing their ATCs, but I’m really into adults and children doing meaningful work side by side, so I think that my swap will also get us big kids creating!
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Hi
I am doing some research of the interaction of parents and children specifically in the creation of ART TRADING CARDS. This research is part of the video documentary, “The Lost language of Children” that I am doing. I am particularly interested in hearing about your projects. Are you aware of any other parent child interaction ART TRADING CARDS and their outcomes.