Kickstarter

My name is Michael Goins, and I am the lead creator of OwlHill.org. Because funding for arts and music education is being cut across the board, we are working on creating an in-depth, diverse website where children can freely access a broad spectrum of artistic and musical educational activities. Our goal for this Kickstarter project is to build the core content within one year. Not only will we provide lessons in the fundamentals of art and music, we will also go deeper and teach the science and history behind these things as well. We want to inspire kids to cultivate an emotional connection to the arts by being able to use every one of their senses to absorb the beauty and wonder of creative, imaginative learning.

All of this will be done in a way that engages children and excites them about learning more. How will we engage them? Through puppetry, video lessons, interactive games, artist interviews, exposure to a wide variety of music and crafts, and more. By not only showing them things but also providing them with ideas for experimenting artistically at home and in their communities, we hope that they will tap into their unique creative juices and learn something at the same time.

How will Owl Hill teach art?


One important way in which we will teach art is by visiting professional artists with our puppets so that they can show children what they do and how they do it in real life. Then, we'll create projects a child can do at home that are based around that artist and what he or she has shown during the visit.

Here are some examples demonstrating how we would teach a fundamental topic such as color:

·A puppet show that discusses the science of color, including what is happening inside the eye, or why some colors look good together and some do not.

·A color wheel game where the child matches up coordinating colors.

·A project in which the child listens to music and colors what they hear.

·A video and project involving mixing colors.

·A video and project involving the child creating warm and cool compositions.

·A video spotlight an on artist that uses color creatively.

How will Owl Hill teach music?

Music has the undeniable ability to move children – emotionally, mentally, and physically. We plan on using music in many ways, including:

·Video lessons that concentrate on the fundamentals of music.

·Games that teach the child things such as rhythm and tone.

·Video clips that teach the child how to build simple instruments, as well as how to play them.

·Puppet shows that explore the world of music. This includes meeting with individual musicians and bands, featuring individual instruments, and introducing children to all types of music. Examples include: classical, bluegrass, zydeco, rock and roll, jazz, blues, and folk, just to name a few.

We will also demonstrate the important connection between music and visual art by creating projects that blend the two together. We will show how music can inspire art and how art inspires music.

What happens after our Kickstarter project is complete?

My wife and I own a successful online children’s wall décor company and have already funded a lot of the initial Owl Hill project ourselves. We need Kickstarter funding to bring on board other artists, musicians and programmers in order to develop the site within one year. Once the project goal is complete and the core website has been built, we'll be able to maintain the site with funds donated by our wall decor company, and even add more content into the future.

Children, learning, and the arts are our passion, and we believe that children everywhere should have access to education and information to help them grow creatively. This is why we are excited about investing our own money into this project, and we hope that you will be too.