Category Archives: News

 
 
 
Want to build a sweet, little community parade to celebrate the natural world and our beautiful planet??? We have TONS of experience and stories to share, AND, experienced artists to connect you with!
 
Little Artshram offers programs that celebrate creativity and encourage fun, hands-on exploration through the fine-art of observation. We focus skill-building in three areas with a variety of programs: Community Art and Music, Permaculture for kids and adults, OUTLOUD! Girls Groups, Mentoring Youth through our Artist Apprentice Program.
The parade and festival community projects that Little Artshram creates involve LOTSA’ fun and amazing art-making in preparation for what has great potential to become a beloved, annual event! We are artists, musicians, educators and permaculturists that creatively respond with positivity to the problems, solutions, beauty and art of the natural world, for which we are a part of. We believe in celebrating and bridging art + community + the places that we love and share our home with!
 
We have an outline of “how-to” begin organizing for what we call a Storytelling Parade and Festival, along with basic directions on how to build larger than life-size puppets, masks and costumes. We work with classrooms, organizations and community members to develop a story or theme that can be made into a pageant, parade or performance. Our goal in creating this kind of social art is based on recognizing and developing a way to speak to our love of the places both common and wild that invigorate us as human beings to be the best possible caretakers.
 
We praise and encourage community building and are not afraid of using the word “volunteer”. Volunteering is a great way to be part of a festival or parade community and to meet like-spirited people. Volunteers make it possible for organizations and our friends and collaborators to offer community based art events like a festival or parade, while acquiring hands-on puppet & mask building skills. More than 43 individuals volunteered nearly 1350 hours to Little Artshram EACH YEAR of parade-building and community events held in Traverse City FOR MORE THAN 12 YEARS. Wowza!
 
Our artistic staff provides professional leadership(3 full-time artists) for contribution of a planning and design team with community members. These artists ask for and will be paid a living wage. Most of the materials, supplies and additional human-power can be found, donated and gathered from community recycled and natural resources. We invite and encourage community involvement from the very beginning, and this is the way we design and create our work. And, it works!
 
Here is a video and pictured above and below are a very few examples of our parade work with the Traverse City community, with thanks to videographer/photographer, Petra Daher!
We give recognition and much gratitude to In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, who mentored us for many years!
For more information or to schedule a consultation or presentation contact:
penny.ok.art@gmail.com
 
Social Art: Community + Art + The Places we Love — LittleArtshram.org
 
 
 

For the past many years, with many hands and hearts involved, we have been gathering notes and class outlines/schedules, developing a permaculture design course aimed at children and youth. This is a full permaculture design course (PDC), developing design and art skills, creating projects, playing games, involving puppet theater and music—and is totally imbued with learning from nature, creative empowerment & FUN.

Want to find out more about a Permaculture Design Course for Children and Youth, or a Permaculture Teacher Training, and how we might bring it to your school or organization in 2018?

We have over twenty-five years of experience sharing art, environmental, garden-farming and permaculture design education with hundreds of children, from ages five and older. Many of them have joined us as apprentices, and teacher assistants, or returned after college or schooling elsewhere to join our Little Artshram teaching teams. Some have been inspired to create their own programs and workshops, spreading this work even further and further.

Since 1993, Penny Krebiehl. Little Artshram’s directress has offered permaculture inspired activities, classes and workshops, along with art and design education to youth of all ages, and adults through the following organizations: ARTSPACE, Little Artshram, and O’k CSA. Penny has taught everything from general introductory courses (Drawing, Cartooning, Painting, Summer Beehive Camps, Permaculture for Kids) to specific subjects (e.g. Urban Permaculture, Worm Composting, Seed Saving, Annual and Perennial Food Gardening, Medicinal and Herb Gardening, Drawing, Cartooning, Puppet and Mask Theater) to adult level 72-hour Permaculture Design Courses and Permaculture Teacher Trainings.

In 2003, Little Artshram began a permaculture program for children and youth, blending lessons in our “wild and tame” outdoor classroom gardens which has been based in the TC and Grand Traverse region ever since. With the official development of a permaculture curriculum, that shines a light on developing art and design skills, as well as, regenerative education that includes: Introducing Permaculture, Living Nature, Design, Growing Food, Built Environment and Resource Use, and Cultural Emergence (Social).

After a 3 year program hiatus, while developing a neighborhood/community garden-farm business, we are pleased to re-introduce a Permaculture Design Course for Children and Youth, with a deeper level of organizational structure, meeting national standards for public schools, and with a commitment to reach even more kids and their families with our “permaculture toolkit”.

Interested in taking a Permaculture Teacher Training, specifically focused on sharing permaculture with children, youth and families?  A 3-day Summer training program will take place prior to the PDC for Children and Youth. Dates tba.

To find out more about the Teacher Training and/or Permaculture Design Course for Children and Youth, contact:

Little Artshram’s directress, Penny Krebiehl:  231-922-2014     penny.ok.art@gmail.com

Permaculture for Children and their Families — LittleArtshram.org
 
 
 

We are one of dozens of organizations that have been involved with and sharing permaculture design and education with people of ALL ages, from all backgrounds, in different parts of the Great Lakes bioregion for many years.

Now, Little Artshram is very excited to announce that the Permaculture Women’s Guild’s new online Permaculture Design Certification Course is now launched! And, Little Artshram is a part of this global educational sharing community!

We feel honored to have Penny Krebiehl, our Founder and Directress to be a part of an international team of more than 40 women from 13 countries who put together this online course.  This permaculture design course not only provides the standard 72-hour permaculture design curriculum, but also an additional 42 hours of study and hands-on practice in cultural emergence, social justice & decolonization, seed stewardship, egalitarian group process, working with volunteers, regenerative entrepreneurship, art of hosting, designing for children (which Penny leads), and permaculture pedagogy.

This is the first of it’s kind!

Sliding scale available, and early bird rates for those enroll within the first 100 people! Course includes certification, curriculum, and 3 hours of personal mentorship with Penny or another stellar teacher! 😊

Here’s the link to sign-up or please feel free to share!

https://coursecraft.net/courses/z9Thn/a/cpmYFEtTZ

The above collage of our International teaching team was made by one of our teachers, Kareen Erbe, who is doing the Appropriate Technology Module and also happens to be a total superstar permaculturist. Check out her website www.brokengroundpermaculture.com

Sharing Permaculture with the World in a New Online Course! — LittleArtshram.org
 
 
 

Preview of “TC PDC 2016 Header-NMI Permaculture”

How can permaculture design help urban, suburban, and small-town dwellers meet our needs in sustainable, resilient ways? Toby Hemenway’s book The Permaculture City is one of the course books that expands beyond the “garden-gate” to offer solutions for energy, community, place-making, livelihood, decision-making, and many of the other challenges of living in cities and towns. Toby Hemeway offers innovative examples of urban permaculture from all around North America, and his book, focusing on an urban environment offers inspiration and hope for moving toward a regenerative culture.

This is the first year the course, organized by Little Artshram and Northern Michigan Permaculture is to be housed at the Greenspire School and the GT Food Innovation Hub at Cherry Capital, in Traverse City, Michigan–each hosting three weekends.  We’ve been able to offer the course to representative students from each of our host location sites and Little Artshram  has also  been very, very supportive of making the course available to students through payment plans and work-trade.

In addition, Little Artshram would like to build a scholarship fund for students to be able to take the course. If you can make a (tax-deductible) contribution to that fund (however small),  and it would be used well. You can use our donation link through Paypal here or send a check to Little Artshram/Northern Michigan Permaculture. Either way, please note “PDC scholarship” with your contribution.

There are still a few seats in our upcoming city-based design course in Northern Michigan, and we hope to include all who are interested. Register by March 1st, at a reduced fee of $950 for the Traverse City Permaculture Design Course.

SPECIAL OFFER: Former PDC students, may take the course for one-half price!

To ask additional questions or set up a payment plan for the course fee, contact the course registrar: penny.ok.art@gmail.com On-line registration here: www.nmipermaculture.org

And here in a youtube video is one of the best in depth explanations of permaculture we have heard. It addresses the many challenges and tools for decision making we face today. Toby Hemenway new book “The Permaculture City” covers these, and is one of our main course books for this 6 month PDC.

https://youtu.be/WI4GrRxLAmY

On-line registration or to download a pdf:  www.nmipermaculture.org

Contact:  penny.ok.art@gmail.com

Traverse City Permaculture Design Course, begins March 19th — LittleArtshram.org
 
 
 

“A Permaculture Primer-Image”Imagine being able to live in a sustainable way in all areas of life, achieving energy efficiency, water and food security, and rehabilitating landscape into productive land. These ideas are all part of the matrix of Permaculture Design, a method of planning that can be applied at many scales; from the home garden to city block, to village to farm.

Find out more about permaculture in a FREE introductory workshop on Feb. 6th, at the Traverse Area District Library:
A Permaculture Primer
Saturday, Feb. 6th, 1-4 pm
Traverse Area District Library
McGuire Room, 610 Woodmere, Traverse City, MI 49686
This FREE 3-hour primer is a great introduction to permaculture, ideal for those who are curious and want to know more before committing to a full Permaculture Design Course, or are simply interested in learning what permaculture has to offer.
We will cover permaculture ethics and principles, why we need permaculture, show real world examples of permaculture projects and present information on our upcoming 2016 Traverse City Permaculture Design Certificate Course.
This is FREE to the public, but we do request that you RSVP ahead of time, as space is limited.
RSVP: penny.ok.art@gmail.com
We look forward to seeing you there!
Click here for information on the 2016 Traverse City Permaculture Design Course
Permaculture Primer, FREE Informational Class, Feb. 6th, 2016 — LittleArtshram.org