Vanessa Jones will be hosting a Music Together Class at the Linda Matney Fine Art Gallery on June 6 at 4:00 p.m. Using the current exhibition featuring Linda Mitchell and Helen Lowery as inspiration for the music selection, Vanessa will guide a class for children from newborn to 5 years old.
Parents of young kids often have trouble finding time to visit cultural events. And when they do find the time, bringing the children is often frowned upon, if not downright banned. Merging Vanessa’s class with the art at the Matney Gallery will give parents a chance to expose their children to some unique artwork and have a cultural experience together as a family.
Vanessa currently teaches the Music Together Classes in Williamsburg at the Virginia Regional Ballet building. Music Together is an early childhood music and movement program for children ages infant - kindergarten and their parents or caregivers. Developed in Princeton twenty five years ago, it has grown to become one of the leading childhood education programs in this country and abroad. Each week participants sing, dance, play instruments, and make music.
Vanessa has worked with children at the Jane Goodall Institute with the Roots and Shoots program helping kids learn to be gentler to the environment. She also worked at the National Zoo as the coordinator of the children’s programs where she created lesson plans and guided the classes for two-to-three year olds. She has an informal background in musical theatre, and currently sings soprano in the Williamsburg Women’s Chorus.
On exhibit are Linda Mitchell’s mixed media paintings and installations which are populated by animals, both real and imagined. The highly textured pieces are made with painted and photographic images, fabric, wood, glass, and found objects.
Also on exhibit is the work from local artist and teacher Helen Lowery. Her paintings focus on childhood and motherhood. She aspires to engage others through the subject of children and the feelings associated with them that resonate with many people: childhood, parenthood, womanhood, innocence, mischief, chaos, and life in or out of balance.
The Linda Matney Fine Art Gallery, located on Richmond Road, is dedicated to hosting exhibitions of innovative emerging artists, as well as displaying the work of more established national and international artists. Exhibitions displayed in the gallery include painting, sculpture, photography, video and performance.
