By John Picinich
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get a camper. Pack up everything. Hit the road. It would be a fun getaway from their home in Philadelphia, PA. And it was, for 6-½ months.
“But then my husband and I realized that, with a 1-year-old in tow, it was not so romantic,” recalls Ashley Ernest. She and her husband, Matthew Werkmeister, decided to return to RI. Their son, Tate, is now 4 years old.
They kept the camper, which turned out to be a good move.
Once settled in their new digs, Ernest wanted to do something with kids and creativity while she was at home with her son, so she started thinking of starting a home daycare.
And she was still teaching from-home workshops on The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a self-help book she calls a great inspiration for creativity. She was first acquainted with the book when she started doing virtual workshops while on the road.
For more than 20 years, Ernest worked professionally as an artist, jewelry designer, arts educator, creative wellness facilitator and coach, and community health worker.
She spoke with her friend Fran, who is a mentor with SCORE, a nonprofit in New Jersey serving small businesses. Instead of opening a stationary studio somewhere to teach art, Ernest proposed a mobile one that would host private art parties, and go to schools, libraries, hospitals, and other places.
“My mentor said ‘Do it!’” she recounts. “Really, it was just a matter of combining everything that I love.”
And Creative Wanderings Art Center was born.
The Artist’s Way could be considered the midwife. “It brought me to a place where we got things rolling,” Ernest says.
She and Werkmeister stripped down the camper, and filled it with all sorts of art supplies, along with tables and chairs. The final touch was getting the sign she had designed put onto the sides of the converted camper a smiling sunburst painted on its doors.
She started marketing Creative Wanderings on social media and soon families and schools started to contact her. “We bring everything with us. After we pull up, we put up the awning, bring out the tables and chairs, and then all the materials needed for a particular art project,” she explains. “The kids just love it, because it’s different.”
Ernest has two employees. Christine, a teacher at an after-school enrichment program, helps her run classes and oversees projects. Lindsey handles the online marketing from her home in Philly.
She says her husband, a mechanic, does a lot of work behind the scenes in keeping Creative Wanderings going. They’ve introduced a woodshop program in which children and students can build fairy and gnome houses.
Children can also choose to make wind chimes out of metal pieces, sea glass, or plastic beads.
Ernest enjoys working with the kids on these art projects. “One thing I’ve found is that kids can easily go with the flow,” she says. “They just need a little encouragement to bring out their creativity.”
She marvels at the way the children like to work with clay. “They are really good at expressing themselves that way,” she says.
The converted camper has gone to numerous schools, as well as libraries, hospitals, farmers markets, Boys and Girls Clubs, Girl Scout troops, and more. They also conduct art parties for children’s birthdays, mother-daughter events, and for adults.
Projects conducted by Creative Wanderings run the gamut from beadwork to clay to jewelry to painting to sewing. Teaching sewing to the children by using scraps of fabric and felt is particularly rewarding. “It’s fun to see what turns out. It can be wonky, but it’s always cool,” she says.
Ernest holds a BA from Rhode Island College and an MFA in Metalsmithing/Jewelry Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Werkmeister has a BA from Goldey-Beacom College and a Media Degree from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting.
“As far as we know, we’re the only mobile art center in New England,” she says.
Which makes sense. Because who else but a couple of Rhode Islanders could go on a road trip, and then come back with a quirky and fun idea to literally deliver art classes to children and adults via a converted camper?
Art projects, and a lot of smiling faces, can be viewed at their website creativewanderingsart.com and their Instagram @CreativeWanderingsArt
