OCEAN CITY — When Ocean City Primary School celebrated the Week of the Young Child earlier this month, one invited guest held preschoolers’ rapt attention as she painted a colorful giraffe.
Sue Rau, an artist who teaches classes at the Ocean City Arts Center, impressed the children and their instructors.
“You’re a great inspiration for the preschoolers,” special education teacher Karin Stanton told her. “You’ve really entertained all of them with your ability to express yourself.”
The children were focused on Rau as she kept adding elements and colors to a colorful portrait of a giraffe, explaining her process along the way. The children asked her to add elements and colors and one even noted a tiny little spot in an eye that was missing a dab of paint. She happily filled that in and then granted another request to add “sparkles” to the painting, some of which she then turned into flowers.
“It’s fun to watch them grow and develop,” Rau said of the children, “and they need art and they need creativity. And what I’ve seen of the imagination these kids have — astounding.”
Rau has always been an artist. Many people may not even realize they have seen some of her public work — murals around town she did with Nancy Palermo, murals at the Ocean City Tabernacle, in some hotels and on the boardwalk — and on those painted electrical boxes around the city.
She is currently teaching classes titled “Folk Art” and “Fearless Watercolor” at the Ocean City Arts Center. (oceancityartscenter.org).
Stanton explained preschoolers and teaching staff participated in the Week of the Young Child, an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
“The annual event focuses on young children and their learning, early childhood teachers, families and community,” she said. “A full week of activities included blowing bubbles for autism, exercising, working together, art appreciation and engaging families in our classroom.
“Mrs. Susan Rau was a special guest from the Ocean City Arts Center,” Stanton added. “Students were inspired by Mrs. Rau’s paintings. Back in the classroom, each student created a masterpiece on canvas.”
Stanton explained that families were invited into the school during free choice time so they could get a first-hand experience of being in the classroom and seeing what students do during that time. The day before Rau’s visit to Ocean City Primary School, the children did a STEM activity with materials including cups and popsicle sticks, jellybeans and toothpicks. They engineered towers for little animals to be sheltered in.
“It was great fun,” Stanton noted.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff