Love Creek’s Allread creates joy through art

One Monday morning, a gathering of child-size blocky characters from the Minecraft video game greeted Love Creek Elementary students as they entered the school’s main lobby.

“The kids just lost it,” smiled art teacher Forest Allread when recounting the public reveal. “It was a simple, but effective, way into their world.”

As a group project, students had used the well-known computer-generated protagonists as models when creating their cardboard replicas in Allread’s classroom, where student work is driven by their own curiosity.

Allread, whom children call Mr. Red, Señor Rojo or sometimes even Mr. Artread, manages his class under the teaching for artistic behavior model, in which students are responsible for their own learning.

It’s not a typical art class where all students are doing the same thing, Allread explains. Rather, the classroom is a studio where artists develop their own processes through exploration and discovery. Students choose their projects based on their passion and the materials they want to use.

“They’re always asking, ‘Can I do this?’ or ‘Can I do that?’” he said. “I try to say yes all the time.”

Allread said it’s his first year teaching in this model, which represents a shift in direction for art education and education as a whole. 

“Students have more autonomy of choice,” he said. “It’s the heart of what artmaking is.”

Class is structured as a workshop, so Allread spends, at most, 10 minutes instructing and demonstrating an activity, while the remaining 30 minutes is devoted to solid artmaking. 

“Cleanup is a race,” he laughed.

One of the biggest surprises with the new model, Allread said, is its impact on special-needs students.

“A number of students from the Sussex Consortium come here, and they are shining more than ever in this environment,” he said. 

Sporting a paint-smeared apron, the energetic teacher weaves through his classroom, where stations exist for painting, ceramics, drawing and even Legos. Recycled materials find new life in young hands.

“The kids are encouraged to improvise and experiment, to really work through the process rather than just generating a product,” Allread said.

Children of all ages are capable of making art, Allread says; it comes down to proper and safe use of tools. Kids are excited to do things that are a little challenging or even dangerous, he said, like hammering a nail, using a glue gun or handling carving tools in linoleum block-cutting activities.

“As an artist, I know what authentic artmaking is, and that’s what I want our students to do,” he said. “It’s not always a masterpiece; sometimes it’s a complete flop. I tell them they’ll learn more from failure than, at times, from success.”

Actively involved with Developing Artist Collaboration and its West Side Creative Market, Allread typically exhibits pieces for purchase at Dewey Beer Company in Dewey Beach. 

Allread describes his paintings as brightly colored abstracts, influenced by the bold colors and culture that surrounded him when he lived in Miami.

“It’s what it looks like when contemporary painting meets folk art,” he said. “People say it’s like graffiti, like street art.”

Follow his work on Facebook at Forest Allread Art and Instagram @finlimbwing.

In much the same way Allread influences his students, he takes ideas, such as painting on cardboard, from them as well. 

“In my work, and for my students, I’m most interested in getting our hands on new materials, experimenting with mixed media and new themes, and working big on large-scale projects,” he said.

Getting kids to work together as a team is beneficial because they learn how to problem-solve, he said. It’s also challenging but the results are very rewarding when they persevere through a collaborative project.

“And the administration is totally on board to let me loose,” he said. “They’re super supportive of the arts and that’s been really cool.”

In Allread’s class, kids listen to music while they work. They get dirty and make a mess. Children move from station to station with their materials and don’t need to ask if they can go wash their hands or get more paint – they’re working in their own studio.

“That’s what’s really rewarding,” he said. “Because it’s important to have joy in elementary school.”