Patchwork Central’s annual Holiday Art Sale is this Saturday, November 5 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Included will be an eclectic mix of artwork from both established and new artists. 
There will be paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewelry, greeting cards, fiber arts, sculpture, and more. 30% of sales at the event will be given to support Patchwork’s programming.
Included among the art and artists will be the latest quirky nativity sets created for you by the children in Patchwork’s Art & Company. In Art & Company, children build art skills by learning to create the nativity figures in our ceramics studio. These are not your ordinary nativity figures! They include pregnant angels, minimalistic Marys with fancy hats, and Christmas dinosaurs. The children learn how to be good salespeople and then staff the Art & Company table at the Sale. Afterward, we calculate the “company’s” profits and each child receives a company dividend check whose amount varies based on his or her investment of time and good behavior.
To illustrate the learning that happens as part of Art & Company, Jane tells this story:
Elijah was making something out of clay and was doing it well. He had started out making one kind of animal, maybe a cat, but at one point he looked at it and said, “Well, this will just be a lion.” To me, that was huge. 
Normally, he would have become very frustrated because he couldn’t do what was in his mind, and he would deem both his art and himself a failure.
I have been talking to the kids about how often I will start to make one thing, but the clay wants to be something else, and so I roll with it. This is what Elijah must have done, and it is wonderful that he did it all on his own. I didn’t have to lead him through that thought process.
That was huge. Elijah really struggles with getting frustrated and angry and giving up because he feels that what he has created does not match what was in his mind. I’m excited that he changed his expectations and just went with what the clay wanted to be. He made a really nice lion!