Contact: Tess Mayer
Director of Library Services
Berkeley Public Library
(510) 981-6100
tmayer@cityofberkeley.info
Art at the Library with the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA)
Fridays at Central & Saturdays at West - November 2022 through June 2023
Berkeley, California (November 28, 2022) – Berkeley Public Library and MOCHA (Museum of Children’s Art) expand their partnership to offer ongoing drop-in art sessions for children at two Berkeley Public Library locations, Central and West, through June 2023.Sessions take place every week (excluding City of Berkeley holidays):
- Fridays from 3:30-5pm: Central, 2090 Kittredge St, 4th Floor, Children’s Nonfiction Room
- Saturdays from 11am-12:30pm: West, 1125 University Ave, Community Meeting Room
Children of varying ages are welcome. Through unique art and craft projects, children use their imagination as they create and play with different mediums, recycled materials, and more. MOCHA instructors are trained to apply a racial equity and social justice lense to session planning and they customize sessions in response to attendee and Library input.
“It’s always amazing to see how creative everyone is when given the supplies and prompts, and to be able to offer something every week to the community with great Teaching Artists is a dream,” exclaims Elaine Tai, Supervising Librarian for Berkeley Public Library Central Children’s Services. “Both kids and their caretakers enjoy these projects from MOCHA.” MOCHA has worked with the Library to present art sessions outdoors for library patrons in local community gardens and parks this past year. Community requests for consistent offerings prompted the expansion of the Library/MOCHA partnership.
"Libraries are community hubs and spaces of belonging,” notes Ashley Aaron, Director of Community Arts for MOCHA. “This exciting partnership between the Museum and the Library will bring enhanced, consistent, and accessible hands-on art experiences to the children and families of the Berkeley community."
For questions regarding sessions at Central, please call Elaine Tai at (510) 981-6231.
For questions regarding sessions at West, please call Lissette Gonzalez at (510) 981-6296.
For questions regarding MOCHA, please email Ashley Aaron at ashley@mocha.org.
Events will be wheelchair accessible. To request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY). Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs.
For questions about additional Library events, services, hours and locations, please call (510) 981-6100 or visit the Library’s website www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.
Thank you to the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library whose generous support allows for this programming.0
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