Hervé Tullet is a bestselling children’s book author and illustrator who has been making books for kids for decades. He is also an art teacher. Or perhaps he’d prefer the label ‘art leader.’ He’s a bit of a rockstar, drawing crowds on tour where he stages, conducts, and shapes a participatory art-making activities for children. Art Workshops for Children are his notes on these events (he includes loose instructions for 11 different workshops), with bright bursts of advice dashed off here and there for the grown-ups who know and practice his truth: “art is a means and not an end."
Hervé Tullet on the art of running art workshops:
“Running workshops with multiple participants creates an energy… I might play a game with them, or speed things up or call out a list of vague instructions."
“All mistakes are permissible and there’s no such thing as being over the top..."
“The Leader’s only caveat is to know when to stop, to avoid things becoming over-painted and sludge: to recognize which combinations will undo the beautiful shapes and colors painted."
Contributor Sophie Van der Linden on Hervé Tullet:
“The artist explains the experience [of art-making and process] by quoting jazz musician Martial Solal: You feel like you’re falling, but you never fall."
“Tullet’s work invites children to a place where play is king; the kind of play envisaged by Bruno Munari, the great Italian artist and designer, who dedicated the end of his career to creating delightful, interactive books for children."
“He perfectly embodies the poet Charles Baudelaire’s wonderful theory: Genius is nothing more or less than childhood recaptured at will."
