A New Year often calls for new things. New furniture, tablecloths, clothes, hats, shoes, makeup, cook wear, you name it. However, what are you going to do with the old things? Why not transform old into new! Save yourself some money and let your creative juices flow. Come to Manitou Skill Share and freshen up a chair with a new coat of paint. Turn old jam jars into pencil holders or candle holders. Or dream even bigger! Build a fire pit or corn hole set for your back yard! 

pssst. The secret to sock puppets is there is no secret. Do whatever you want. Ribbons make great eyes, mouth, or eyebrows. Furry fabric makes for an excellent mohawk. Try taking a sharpie to a white sock, or glow in the dark paint to a black sock. You can use all types of socks too! Wool socks with holes, short colorful socks, super long soccer socks, or even tights! Don't let the sock confine you. Think beyond keeping your toes warm! 

Hi all,

This is year lucky 7!

We will be working again with children from Mountainside Elementary on post at Fort Carson.
If you can come to one of the training sessions, and can commit to at least 2 afternoons, then we would LOVE to have you, and ill bet you will learn something, have fun, and get warm fuzzies!

TRAINING on POST: Monday January 12, 3:30 to 4:30 at Mountainside (5506 Harr Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80902 (719) 382-1430)

TRAINING at the MANITOU ART CENTER: Wednesday January 14, 5:30 to 6:30pm (513 Manitou Avenue, 80829)

PROJECT DATES: January 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29: 2 to 4 pm each day
Saturday January 24, 9am to noon
Friday January 30: opening celebration at 1:30pm!

Each year the students pick a favorite book, and we work with them to create a giant puppet of a character from the book. This year they chose Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl.

Please let me know if you will be attending one of the training sessions.

Hope to see a bunch of you soon,

Yours in creative construction and community building,

Steve, Becky, Jerry, Joel, K8e, Hannah and Ramona!

The first day of this project was kicked off with the volunteers getting to know each other, the Concrete Couch team and the project goals. It was a little chilly but we managed to develop some really good ideas for the design. This coming Friday we plan to learn about the various tools we will be using, generate some rough sketches using cardboard, and then finalize the design. Volunteers welcome! Please invite any and all people who are willing to help out: students, teachers, neighbors, friends, whoever!

Wednesdays (September 10th – October 8th) 3:30 – 5:30 pm, at the Manitou Art Center, 513 Manitou Ave. If you would like to attend these sessions, please contact Steve Wood. 
Work will involve more technical skill, i.e. welding, tile cutting. No experience needed, we will teach you.

Fridays (September 12th - October 10th) 1:00 – 3:00 pm, outside UCCS Café 65.

Summer Community Art & Mural Program #3 -- Mosaic Lampposts in Bancroft Park July 14-18 was FANTASTIC! We were so lucky to have Naomi return to teach this project. Over forty volunteers from the community participated during the week to cut tile, affix mosaic, and make awesome chalk art. The Gazette, The Westside Pioneer, and The Cheyenne Edition all came out to show us some love!

The Old Colorado City Foundation helped support this project. Linda Shane from Organo Gold provided coffee and tea all week. Cucuru stopped by with some snacks. Front Range BBQ even donated a meal to our teachers and interns.