Students from all over the St. Louis area visit Craft Alliance from 1-4 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.The students are members of a program in which they work in the specific groups they are assigned to. The three groups include, clay, metal, and fiber. Fiber includes cloth and sewing as well as 3D printing, which takes place in the computer lab. Students get a chance to participate in each one of the three groups. Members then have 3 days to finish their main projects, which once completed, are displayed in a gallery.

The Craft Alliance Artful after school program was created to help expose the students of GCAA to the available Craft Alliance studios.

“We wanted to provide students something fun and engaging that the students could do if they were not already involved in other extracurricular activities after school,” said Danielle McCoy a Craft Alliance employee.

The Saturday program is known as the grant funded Emerson Free Family Studios program which allows Craft Alliance to offer three sessions of free family programing to community members in and around St.Louis. Families are able to rotate through different studios, which permit them to learn and create new things that they are allowed to take home that day.

“Participants are able to create dyed silk scarves using natural plants as pigment in fibers, cuff bracelets in metal, monster heads out of clay, and work with Photoshop and photography to make colorful silhouettes in graphics. Once the word spread about the program we maxed out quickly!” said McCoy.

GCAA has been involved with the Craft Alliance after school program since September 2014. Each session of the afterschool program brings the middle school and highschool together to work with clay, metals, and graphics.

“Students work with professional artists learning how to throw clay on the potter’s wheel, different hand-building techniques in clay, photography and manipulation of photos, and metalsmithing techniques.” said McCoy.

The program is for grades 6th and up. The afterschool program is $116, this price covers all the materials needed and tuition for four weeks. Students currently meet Monday and Wednesday from 3:40- 5:40 at Craft Alliance. Craft Alliance offers a 50% discount for students that qualify for free or reduced lunches, as well as some available scholarships from Craft Alliance donors and GCAA.