Something I’ve been growing into for a long time
- frida@artyardbklyn.org
- 22 hours ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
ART YARD BKLYN welcomed 2026 with excitement, fabulous artmaking, and enthusiastic planning sessions. On Wednesday, Dennis and I met to assess the year so far and plan for the spring semester. We are thrilled to be back in action at PS 6!
Now in our final semester of the AYB Year of Migration, and ideas are flowing—space travel, time travel, animal migration and embracing the adventurous spirit of Alice Through the Looking Glass, by viewing our surroundings at a different scale.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” ~ Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass, 1871
If you read our abbreviated recap last week, you will know that we are ensconced in the making of the doll house version of the spaces we work in at 180 Franklin Avenue.
For our first Advanced Studio zoom session in 2026, I (Meridith) asked participants to use their ingenuity and readily available materials to make tiny books to fill the shelves of our The Tiny Library of Miniature Books for our AYB at 180 Franklin Doll House.
Karla used “a jumbo deck of playing cards from my grandfather’s stash. Advertising architecture and architects in the Pre-1930’s NY architects project on box. Cards were sponsored by a weatherstripping company 😀 The AYB miniature books were all so creative! It was challenging and controlling and fun too! Dealing with scale is such a great lesson and Meridith’s presentation really brought visual realities together with creative interpretation and new ways of seeing!!!!”
Karla Prickett, Tiny Books
Travis recaps: “Tonight’s Zoom session really inspired me. I usually draw during these sessions, but this time I started building instead. It was actually my first time creating a miniature art piece. We were given the freedom to work independently, while still contributing to a shared goal—creating a library filled with mini books that reflect our individual creativity.
The materials felt endless. I found myself searching around my apartment for anything that could be transformed into a book and ended up using an old cellphone package. I wanted to create something that functioned like a vintage keepsake or book safe, paying homage to a time when people hid valuables or spare keys inside what looked like an ordinary book.
During the critique, I was really taken by how other class members used materials like cardboard, nutritional labels, and carefully sourced text. Seeing how thoughtfully everything was scaled down made the pieces feel alive and intentional—true miniature works of art.”
Sigrid Dolan, Tiny Books
Richard Lee Chong, Tiny Books
“Making the mini-books was fun as well as challenging.”, enthuses Marilyn, “What an amazing collection of tiny volumes were created in less than an hour!”
Ajani Russell, Tiny Book
Fisola Famuyiwa, Tiny Books
Margaret explains how she approached the project: “I like to collect tickets and other miscellaneous as keepsakes. For this class, I cut up an old brochure from my trip to Sir John Soane’s Museum. This museum is his personal collection of paintings and sculptures in his historic home in London. It is a remarkable space — similar to the layout of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston — there is a skylight in the middle of the home that allows you to look down on the floors of art below.
Margaret Hardigg, Tiny Book
The hand and face on my miniature book, “Here to Help,” are from an image of the Apollo Belvedere. The Apollo Belvedere is a famous sculpture said to have inspired the work of Michelangelo among others. A Roman marble copy is in the Vatican Museum and there is a plaster cast at Sir John Soane’s. To read more about this lost Greek statue’s history, click here.”
Lilo, who regularly attends in person Advanced Studio sessions writes: “As a newcomer to AYB zoom class it was nice to still be able to make art with my mates from over 2000 miles away. A lot of my art references my experiences as a Trinidadian and a first generation American so it is a full circle to make things here in Trinidad that will be shown in New York. 10/10 would recommend.”
Lilo Lewis, Tiny Books
Do you know how it is when you decide to ruthlessly de-clutter your bookshelves and box up several boxes to donate only to realize that the book shelves seem to be as full as they were before you started? That strange book shelf math is at play here on the doll house shelves and we have a lot to fill!
Would you like to make a book or two for our library?!! You are welcome to do so, the finished piece will be on view in our spring exhibition.
It was so exciting that life-long participating artist TJ Edgar taught her first Advanced Studio session in person at our studio at 180 Franklin Avenue this week!!
In TJ’s fabulous session we created a piece of artwork inspired by passports. We were given the leeway to decide whether to reinterpret the cover, or the inner stamp pages, with no real boundaries on how to rethink the document. It can relate to political issues, space travel, the movement of ideas, identity, or physical movement.
TJ shared fantastic artist examples to inspire the artmaking for this session:
TJ writes: “Teaching my first lesson felt like a full-circle moment for me. I’ve been a student of Meridith’s since I was about four years old. She always tells the story of how no one knew how I ended up in the Kids (ages 7 & up) classes when I was so young, but I fit right in, so they let me stay. Stepping into this new role as a teaching artist at 20, and as a college junior at Spelman College, was both exciting and emotional in a new way. This community has seen me grow and has shaped how I think, make, and see art, so being able to return as a teaching artist felt like a natural next step—something I’ve been growing into for a long time.
Speaking of Time Travel! TJ and Dennis, back in the day! TJ at work on Tuesday
The lesson itself started as an idea I had a few months ago when I was home for the summer. I attended the AYB Summer Session on postage stamps taught by Mia Lew and began thinking about how passport stamps could be another way to approach the theme of Migration. I was able to develop the idea further with my sister Tiffany (who participated in our classes as a teen), and through those conversations, along with talking it through with Meridith, it slowly opened into something much broader and more inclusive. We decided to move beyond traditional ideas of passports as travel documents and instead create space for people to think about migration and movement in all forms—emotional, imagined, remembered, and future. That process pushed me to think more carefully and flexibly about how ideas are interpreted and how they can expand when needed.
Scroll through images of artists at work using arrows
After walking everyone through the idea and giving them free rein with a range of materials, it was amazing to see the final results. Starting from the same general prompt, everyone took it in completely different directions, while still sharing points of overlap. The work expanded far beyond what I originally imagined for the lesson. Overall, teaching this class was a really meaningful experience for me, and I appreciated being able to share an idea I’d been thinking about for a long time in a space that feels so familiar.”
Suzanne Santiago, Passport Duolingo (front and back)
Ajani Russell, Passport Forgotten Language of Childhood (front and back)
Kevin Anderson, Passport Places to Go l & ll
Maria Polanco, Passport: A Lived Life
Jules Lorenzo, Passport: Childhood
Alicia Douglas, Passport: Time Travel
Meridith McNeal, Passport: Time Travel (180 Franklin Ave)
Jacob adds: “I was so excited to attend TJ's first art lesson with ART YARD BKLYN. TJ was one of my students for the very first art class that I taught in 2013, so I was thrilled to be a student in her class. I appreciate that we can all learn from each other; we can take turns being teacher and student.”
Dennis and AYB Teaching Artist Evelyn Beliveau were back for ART YARD Art Matters at PS 6 in Jersey City today kicking off our next cycle: Migration of the Animals: inspired by artist Dahlov Ipcar.
Evelyn reports from the Path Train: "We had a great first day back at PS 6. Our team this week was myself (Evelyn), Dennis, Simone, and special guest Jess, my sister who's in town for the weekend.
PS 6 Students deeply engaged in artmaking
We began a lesson cycle in mixed media fiber art inspired by animal migration and the work of Dahlov Ipcar. Students in grades 3 and 5 looked at images of Ipcar's paintings and fiber artworks and discussed the imaginative scenery and dense textures and patterns that they saw.
Our project started with pencils and stencils on toned tan paper. Students chose one of six animals that migrate--Canada Goose, Whale, Monarch Butterfly, Wildebeest, Zebra, or Sea Turtle--and traced their outlines once or multiple times on the paper. Some chose to add details within the silhouettes. Then, they began to add color and texture using glue and colorful yarn. We discussed how to carefully apply glue in a thin line to avoid a mess and achieve a precise shape with the yarn, and the students took it from there--creating outlines, dot patterns, spirals, and more. Most students started with just one color today. Next week, they'll branch out into more colors with yarn and colored pencil to fill out their mixed-media pieces."
We are thrilled that PS 6 Principal Joe Apruzzese filmed this video about successful partnerships in the ART YARD Gallery at PS 6!
Other Art News
Congratulations to AYB Board Member Cecile Chong on her exhibition Broken China/Porcelana Trozada opening January 21, 2026 at Q Galería in Quito, Ecuador.
It has long been a goal of Cecile to show her work in her home town, and it is just fantastic that she is accomplishing that aim! We will share installation photos in an upcoming recap, after the show is open.
💖
