A little under a year ago, I decided to ramp up my community art project for children and families here in Figueira da Foz. After a few positive test runs with friends in the area, I decided to check out an open day session held by the local small business incubator Microninho ISI (https://www.microninhoisi.pt/). Going along to this event and meeting other people in similar situations was the final push to go about setting up my own business here in Portugal. I enrolled into the Microninho ISI entrepreneur program that very day!
I have decided to call this project, Free Play Art, the name is a nod to a brilliant book:
Free Play
IMPROVISATION IN LIFE AND ART
By Stephen Nachmanovitch
I want this project to be a way of mentoring children to realise their own individually-led art projects. The project is about creating space for play and personal discovery in art.
Free Play Art evolved out of earlier, informal “Art in the Park” jam sessions that had I started in Tainan, Taiwan with my wife and young daughter around 2017, after we had started a local playgroup there to connect with other families.
The informal play sessions of “Art in the Park” created opportunities for me to collaborate with a couple of local private schools called Sapling Environmental Workshop and Story Time with Art, both wonderful experiences to add to my time in Tainan!
It was at Sapling where I had a unique opportunity to develop, test and run my own weekly classes and summer holiday camps over the two years that I lived in Tainan.
In my open studio format, I discovered that by acting as a studio manager and less of a traditional teacher, I created space for the children to develop their own unique artworks. This revelation was really profound for me!
Another important discovery for me was the teaching methodology of TAB: Teaching for Artistic Behaviour (https://teachingforartisticbehavior.org/)TAB presented a wonderful framework to consolidate all the work I had been doing at Sapling, and the many years of experience as a Youth Arts Worker for local councils in Australia.
2025 Archive Note: You can visit the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/freeplayart and see how the two-year project turned out!
MICHAEL MENEGHETTI 