Art Programs at DNDA

Learn about DNDA’s free specialized art programs for children and families living in nearby affordable housing, including affordable housing properties owned by DNDA and Seattle Housing Authority. Our Art team regularly collaborates with DNDA’s Nature department and local DNDA teaching artists to get community members outside for EcoArts activities.

Our Philosophy

EcoArts

DNDA’s unique arts-based environmental education model. Our artists and environmental educators teach participants how to preserve recycled natural materials for creating art. In this process, our teaching artists also help participants foster connections with our natural world.

EcoArts in the Woods

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DNDA’s Art program was founded to help community members connect with nature through art. We quickly coined this approach as “EcoArts.” In the process of creating art using natural and recycled materials, participants learn the value of our local green spaces, how to create sustainable art, and the healing power of engaging in nature. Our Art team, with the help of DNDA teaching artists, joins our Nature department at restoration volunteer work parties in West Seattle’s urban forests to guide attendees of all ages through EcoArts activities, including making clay using materials from the earth, constructing sculptures out of found natural objects, creating native plant identification journals, and much more. Learn more about our Nature team’s Urban Forest Restoration program and volunteering outside at dnda.org/nature.

EcoArts Spring Break Camp

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Every April during Seattle Public Schools’ spring break, DNDA’s Art team rallies about a dozen elementary school students living in Seattle Housing Authority’s High Point affordable housing site for a highly-anticipated week full of outdoor adventure and creativity. The kids spend each day getting to know Camp Long, where DNDA teaching artists and the Seattle Parks and Recreation crew teach them to rock climb, identify native plant species, create art using natural materials, photograph the forest, and much more — all at no cost. Learn more about our Neighborhood programming at dnda.org/neighborhood.

Arts After School at Croft

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DNDA’s Art team brings youth living at Croft Place Townhomes — one of DNDA’s affordable housing properties — a new art project every week, often integrating an outdoor activity during warm weather. DNDA teaching artists stop by to teach special skills to the kids, including cooking, playing musical instruments, dancing, and more. Learn more about our Neighborhood department at dnda.org/neighborhood.

EcoArts Education

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Our Art department, along with environmental educators from our Nature team, visit local classrooms to teach young students environmental science through art. EcoArts lessons provide students opportunities to learn hands on, increasing their ability to retain information and apply what they have learned outside the classroom. DNDA has guided students from Louisa Boren STEM K-8 through EcoArts projects for many years, often in the outdoor classroom at Delridge Wetland Park. Learn more about our Nature department’s educational programming and Delridge Wetland Park project at dnda.org/nature.

High Point Youth Development Collaborative

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Every month, multiple nonprofit and community organizations that serve the High Point neighborhood, including DNDA and Seattle Housing Authority, come together to bring local teens and their families together with dinner, art activities, mentorship, sports, and community resources. DNDA’s Art team offers an art activity to the kids at each session — from watercolor to persevering flowers — with help from teen volunteers.

DNDA Teaching Artists

Join the DNDA’s Art team!

DNDA’s Art team employs professional teaching artists who specialize in a variety of disciplines, including painting, multimedia visualizing, dancing, pastels, and more.

DNDA teaching artists are from the communities we serve in West Seattle — with many living in our affordable housing for artists at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.

We are dedicated to paying all of our artists equitable wages to help sustain art-making in the region.

About Art Programs at DNDAQ

DNDA’s Art team offers a wide variety of free and affordable events and classes at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and neighboring outdoor sites to community members of all ages. DNDA also provides free specialized art programs to children and families living in nearby affordable housing, including affordable housing properties owned by DNDA and our partners at the Seattle Housing Authority. The Art team frequently collaborates with our Nature department and local teaching artists to bring EcoArts activities to forest restoration events taking place across West Seattle.

Event and Classes

Youngstown Cultural Arts Center

Salmon Stories

With the NatureConsortium and Teaching Artist Ari Glass, kids decorated cut-out salmon with natural and non-toxic materials. They then shared the story of their salmon moving through the Pacific Northwest.

Natural sculptures

In a free EcoArts class led by Teaching Artist Franc Monke, attendees of all ages created sculptures out of recycled natural materials, which they first learned how to preserve.

Block Printing

Teaching Artist Jules Hepp led youth through the block printing process, which starts with carving linoleum blocks and ends with printing designs onto paper. Designs were inspired by nature and Native American storytelling.

Homemade stamps

Participants got creative with homemade stamps in a free watercolor mixed-media art class led by Art Programs Manager Erin Kollar.

Planter Boxes

During Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020, restoration volunteers decorated planter boxes with non-toxic paint, natural materials, glass and ceramic tiles, and metal. These boxes will be installed on the Pigeon Point Park toolshed and will be filled with native plants.

Collaborative Painting

During our EcoArts class series at Croft Place Townhomes, students worked in pairs to create a unified vision of what their ideal world looks like on an upcycled canvas.