January 3, 2001
Clinch Park Zoo visitors wild about art class
Children make wreaths, tour zoo
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
For a mid-break art break, the Clinch Park Zoo offered a wreath-making class last week for kids ages 5-12. Eight students came out on a snowy morning last Wednesday to make a wreath, tour the zoo and get at glimpse of how art and nature fit together.
Starting with a pre-made circle of vines, each student used dried flowers and grasses, ribbons, feathers, eucalyptus leaves and candy canes to personalize their wreath.
From these simple, natural ingredients, gourmet imaginations sprouted.
"We're making dream catcher wreaths," said Mo Stych as she and her friend Kristina Buntic wove twine into a web in centers of their wreaths.
"I just looked at my wreath and saw the middle was kind of boring, and I wanted to put something in it," said Buntic, a sixth-grade classmate of Stych's at Eastern Elementary School.
With a nod to life Down Under, Rein Bruning, 8, added a wire sculpture of a koala bear to his wreath. The pile of dried eucalyptus leaves inspired his theme.
"I turned mine into an Australian wreath," said Bruning, a second-grade student from Suttons Bay. "I found out koala bears eat eucalyptus leaves."
Led by art teacher Stacey Balchuas, whose affiliation with the Clinch Park Zoo stretches back to her high school days selling concessions, the class used hands on lesson in the natural world.
"In our classes here at the zoo, it is a smaller group of children, so the projects can usually be more involved," said Balchuas, who teaches in the Benzie County school system. "I can be more individualized with the students plus I really make it more thematic towards the zoo."
Members of the Grand Traverse Zoological Society created the Zoo Art program two years ago to allow children ages 8-12 a chance to explore the zoo and use the animals there as a background and inspiration for creativity. While Zoo Art classes have been offered during the summer for the past few years, this is the first time a winter session was available. Organizers decided to offer a class during the winter break figuring there were some kids out there who might need a respite from holiday revelry.
"Art is a good way to get the kids to appreciate nature," said Ken Gregory, director of the Clinch Park Zoo. "It's fun, and that is probably the most important part."
Balchuas agreed that putting kids, art and the zoo together is a natural fit.
"I think students respond to natural materials," said Balchuas, who also took her students on a tour and talked about nests in the zoo education room.