Art in the Park

Painting Pandas is partnering with the Austin Parks Foundation to provide community art lessons and supplies through "Art in the Park." These free artmaking sessions offer participants of all ages the opportunity to experience Painting Pandas' key pillars of collaborative exploration, individual experimentation, and community sharing. We provide a curated lesson influenced by a contemporary artist and all the supplies needed for that project.

The program also includes Painting Pandas' unique collaborative "guitar" painting project. Inspired by Austin's local music scene as well as artist Jim Dine, this ongoing community art project invites children to add their creative touches (using acrylic paint and paint brushes) to a guitar painting on a large canvas that travels with the Painting Pandas team to all our Austin Park Foundation events. Dine is an American painter, sculptor, and poet known for his innovative works that combine a painted canvas with ordinary objects from everyday life. Our hope is that the project encourages artistic collaboration, community connection, appreciation for public spaces, creativity, and teamwork. Most importantly, we love to see the children's faces when they get to hold a "real" artist paintbrush and dip it into "real" acrylic paint and get the unique tactile enjoyment of painting.

We love watching as the painting evolves with each event, connects our many events with each other, and encourages families to share their experiences on our Painting Pandas social media platforms @thepaintingpandas with the #PaintingPandasGuitar.