1. LSU Museum of Art’s Shaw Center for the Arts
introduces chalk cloth art to locals
A Donaldson bride-to-be and a Ba-
ton Rouge toddler made the same
plans Saturday, April 11.
Katie Roach, a former University
graduate student, and Isabel Kea-
ton, a 4-year-old preschooler, both
envisioned a Saturday morning
filled with family, fun and chalk.
The LSU Museum of Art’s Shaw
Center provided all three at no cost.
Saturday Arts for Families is a free
program the Shaw Center offers the
second Saturday of each month.
The program has been in place for
the past two-and-a-half years.
Roach’s and Keaton’s session, enti-
tled “Unusual Masterpieces,” culmi-
nated in the use of chalk pastels to
design milk-soaked fabric. When
ironed, the protein in the milk
caused the chalk to seal the fabric.
The Roaches and the Keatons congregate to the fifth floor artroom of the Shaw Center to learn about
chalk art and create their own unique fabrics. Their April 11 session is called “Unusual Masterpieces.”
By: Caitie Burkes

2. Instructor Lucy Perera demonstrates to her students the process behind chalk cloth art, displaying the
milk-soaked fabric they will draw on.
“...it’s much more about just expressing yourself and not
the finished product. It’s the process.”
--Lucy Perera
“I think it’s important to make art
fun for families,” said program
instructor Lucy Perera, “so they
realize a museum is a place where
they can bring their kids and where
they can learn to see art a different
way.”
Perera’s “Unusual Masterpieces”
class included Keaton’s mother and
Roach’s mother and sister. She said
a typical class has approximately 15
students.
Previous activities included em-
broidery, book making, printmak-
ing, collage, shadow boxes, water-
color and sculpting to name a few,
she said.
“It’s a quality free thing to do,” Per-
era said.
Perera said each art lesson is tied to
a specific exhibit or work of art in
the museum at the time of the class.
The chalk-and-fabric activity drew
its inspiration from “Whistler Wall
Drawing,” a chalk masterpiece by
University Fine Arts senior Ja-
cob Cobb as part of the museum’s
Whistler exhibit. The charcoal on
wall hangs in the museum.
Cobb’s atmospheric rendering of
James McNeill Whistler’s “Long
Venice” is influenced by surrealism,
symbolism, dreams and fantasy,
according to his bio.
The powdered-rock illustration

3. Isabel Keaton, 4, puts her skills to the test as she puts chalk to fabric
and designs a whimsical red pattern. Keaton is a Saturday Arts for
Families regular and has been a participant for the past year.
“I thought it was going to be awk-
ward having 3 adults following kids
around. But it really is interesting ...I
think that everybody can get into it.”
--Katie Roach
caught Perera’s artistically trained
eye, and she incorporated it in the
class.
Born in Boston, Perera grew up in
“a house filled with art” before ob-
taining a degree in art history. Her
first job after college was teaching
art to elementary students.
“What fired me up was trying to
bridge the idea of art looking at art
in museums to what little kids re-
ally want and making it accessible,”
Perera said, “showing people how
magical a museum can be.”
Following her teaching gig, Perera
moved to Colorado for graduate
school and then to New Mexico,
where she furthered her experience
in the field for the next 15 years.
She relocated to the capital of
Louisiana two-and-a-half years ago,
when the Saturday Arts for Families
program launched.
“I know I am not a skilled artist,
but... it’s much more about just
expressing yourself and not the
finished product. It’s the process,”
Perera said.
Nancy Keaton, Isabel’s mother, has
attended Saturday Arts for Families
for the past year with her young
daughter. She said they try to make
it every month.
“It’s something fun for us to do
together, and she gets to learn a lot
of different mediums of art, which
she wouldn’t necessarily get to learn
in school,” Keaton said.
On the opposite end of the age
spectrum, Roach said she wanted
to have one last prenuptial hurrah
with her mother and sister in Baton

4. After being soaked in lactose, freshly pressed with an iron and washed diligently in a Maytag, the
finished products, pictured above, are ready for a photo shoot. The artists, from top left to bottom right,
are: Katie Roach, Morgan Roach, Haley Rowe, Jane Roach, Isabel Keaton and Nancy Keaton.
Rouge.
Roach said she wanted to share a
new experience with them before
she tied the knot. When she goo-
gled the Shaw Center’s program,
she said, she was worried it was
only for small children.
Roach said she was proven wrong.
“I thought it was going to be awk-
ward having three grownups fol-
lowing kids around,” she said, “But
it really is interesting...I think that
everybody can get into it.”
Perera said she loves her job be-
cause she creates a different activity
every month and thinks of how to
put various materials to use. This
creativity can be implemented in
audiences both young and old, she
said.
“It’s about how you make art in-
teresting to new audiences,” Perera
said.
The next Saturday Arts for Families
event will take place May 9 on the
fifth floor of the Shaw Center for
the Arts.
For more information, call the LSU
Museum of Arts at 225-389-7200.
“I think it’s important to make art fun for families so
they realize a museum is a place where they can bring
their kids and where they can learn to see art a different
way.”
--Lucy Perera