Days Off is Heijeu Arts' signature workshop series for 2026—a collection of creative, hands-on experiences designed for students in grades 4-9. Each workshop is a 2-3 hour deep dive into a specific creative practice led by professional teaching artists. Choose a morning session, an afternoon session, or sign up for both and spend the whole day creating. Participants leave with new skills, completed creative work, and confidence in their own creative power.


Philosophy:

Days Off workshops are built on one core belief: creativity is a practice, not a talent. Whether you're learning to make music with your mouth, transform pillows into puppet characters, or discover how images and words tell stories together, you'll discover that creative skills are learnable, creative confidence is buildable, and creative joy is available to everyone.

Who It's For:

  • Students in grades 4-9

  • Complete beginners (no experience necessary)

  • Kids curious about creative practices

  • Experienced makers looking to expand their practice

  • Anyone seeking community, play, and creative expression

What to Expect:

Each Days Off workshop combines instruction, hands-on exploration, and peer collaboration. You'll learn from professional teaching artists, create something real, and leave having experienced genuine creative growth.

Flexible Format:

Choose a single session (morning or afternoon, 2-3 hours) or sign up for both and make it a full creative day. Families bringing kids for both sessions should pack a lunch—participants will eat together at the art center.

Pricing: Morning Session $45 | Afternoon Session $55 (full day $100 and child stays for lunch between 2 sessions)

For scholarship inquiries, please email Heidi at info@heijeuarts.org

Each Days Off workshop teaches serious STEAM concepts through creative play. The key is that:

  • Participants don't think about STEAM—they just make. The learning happens through doing, not through lecture.

  • Creativity is the entry point. People show up to make puppets, beat box, paint, tell stories—not to "learn science."

  • The STEAM is baked into the process. Understanding color theory matters for painting. Rhythm patterns emerge naturally from beatboxing. Narrative logic emerges from storytelling.

  • Confidence builds alongside skills. As participants learn STEAM concepts, they also build creative confidence, risk-taking ability, and trust in their own vision.

This is education that doesn't feel like education—because it's rooted in joy, play, and genuine creative expression.

    • Human Beat Boxing: Acoustics, resonance, vocal mechanics, physics of rhythm and vibration

    • Abstract Painting: Color theory, light wavelengths, perception, pigment chemistry

    • Junk Drawer Theater: Observation, material properties, sensory exploration

    • Pillow Puppets: Expression, character, observation of human emotion

    • Visual & Written Storytelling: Human perception, psychology of emotional response

    • Human Beat Boxing: Vocal technology, layering, recording/looping

    • Abstract Painting: Tools and materials, effect-creation techniques

    • Junk Drawer Theater: Semiotics (how objects communicate meaning), visual communication

    • Pillow Puppets: Voice as a tool, acoustic properties

    • Visual & Written Storytelling: Semiotics (how meaning is constructed), how different "languages" carry information

    • Book Arts Vision Boards: Design technology, binding techniques

    • Human Beat Boxing: Designing layered soundscapes, building rhythmic patterns from component parts

    • Abstract Painting: Composition as spatial problem-solving, balance and harmony as design principles

    • Cardboard Creations: Material engineering, structural design, building from constraints

    • Pillow Puppets: Puppet construction, working with materials to create expression

    • Junk Drawer Theater: Designing scenarios around physical constraints, working with available props

    • Book Arts Vision Boards: Bookbinding techniques, structural design for functionality

    • Visual & Written Storytelling: Narrative structure and logic, composition as spatial problem-solving

  • All Days Off workshops emphasize artistic expression, creative risk-taking, and personal vision:


    • Visual & Written Storytelling: Visual expression through image, textual expression through language, performance art

    • Abstract Painting: Visual design, aesthetic decision-making, creative courage

    • Junk Drawer Theater: Character development, performance, theatrical composition, ensemble performance

    • Pillow Puppets: Visual design through objects, character development, performance art

    • Human Beat Boxing: Musical composition, performance, creative expression through voice

    • Cardboard Creations: Visual design, sculpture, creative expression

    • Book Arts Vision Boards: Visual design, aesthetic choice, personal meaning-making

    • Human Beat Boxing: Rhythm patterns and mathematical sequences, beat subdivisions, tempo, time signatures

    • Abstract Painting: Rhythm and pattern, balance and proportion, ratio and spacing

    • Junk Drawer Theater: Story structure and logic, cause-and-effect relationships

    • Pillow Puppets: Proportion (facial features), spatial relationships

    • Visual & Written Storytelling: Pattern and rhythm, structure and sequence

    • Book Arts Vision Boards: Proportion, symmetry, spatial relationships

    • Cardboard Creations: Measurement, proportion, structural geometry

STEAM BREAKDOWN

Days Off workshops are built on STEAM learning—but you'd never know it from having fun.

MEA WEEKEND / WINTER BREAK Workshops

MEA WEEKEND / WINTER BREAK Workshops

Junk Drawer Theater | Thursday, October 15⋅10:00am – 12:00pm

What story is hiding inside an everyday object? Participants are invited to bring a random item from home or from the thrift store and use it as inspiration for imaginative characters, scenes, and stories. Through fun theatre games and collaborative improvisation, ordinary objects become extraordinary as creativity and laughter take center stage. No acting experience is necessary. Artist: Heather Mastromarco

Pillow Puppets | Thursday, October 15, 1pm - 4pm

Give new life to a gently used pillow by transforming it into a one-of-a-kind creature bursting with personality! This upcycled workshop invites participants to reimagine everyday materials as whimsical soft sculptures using fabric, felt, yarn, buttons, and other embellishments. Along the way, they'll explore character design, imagining who their creature is, where it lives, and what adventures it might have, bringing their creation to life through storytelling and creative play. No sewing experience is required—just a willingness to create, imagine, and have fun.(Participants are welcome to bring their own pillow or we will have pillows available).

Abstract Painting | Friday, October 16, 10am - 12pm

Learn the fundamentals of abstract painting—color theory, composition, balance, contrast, movement. Understand why these concepts matter. Then break them intentionally. Create an abstract painting that's structured, free, and entirely yours. Artist: Heidi Jeub

Cardboard Creations | Friday, October 16, 1pm - 4pm

Dive into cardboard and creativity with Shane “The Cardboard Man” Mahon!

Human Beat Boxing | Monday, December 28, 10am - 12pm

Terrell X is out to show the world that Human Beat Boxing is FUN for everybody. His Human Beat Boxing Is FUNdamental! workshop breaks down into 1 day of engaging activities, adaptable between 1 and 3 hours.

Visual & Written Storytelling | Monday, December 28, 1pm - 4pm

Every story lives in two languages. Heidi Jeub guides visual storytelling. Terrell X'avion guides written and performed storytelling. Together they show how these languages work together, challenge each other, create meaning. You'll create a complete story—visual and written—and maybe even perform it.

Bookmaking | Tuesday, December 29, 10am - 12pm

Books are engineering marvels. Measuring, sewing, gluing—each technique serves a purpose. In this 2-hour workshop, Heidi Jeub teaches you how to construct three different book structures: an accordion book (folded, expandable), a pamphlet (stitched binding), and a hardcover (glued, structured). You'll discover the craft of bookbinding—and leave with three handmade books you made from scratch.

Cardboard Creations | Tuesday, December 29, 1pm - 4pm

Dive into cardboard and creativity with Shane “The Cardboard Man” Mahon!

Bookarts Vision Boards | Wednesday, December 30, 10am - 12pm

Create a handmade book to hold your goals for the new year. This end-of-year workshop combines bookbinding craft with goal-setting and vision work. Design beautiful, functional books that become your guides for the year ahead.

Abstract Painting (Learn The Rules / Break The Rules) | Wednesday, December 30, 1pm - 4pm

Learn the fundamentals of abstract painting—color theory, composition, balance, contrast, movement. Understand why these concepts matter. Then break them intentionally. Create an abstract painting that's structured, free, and entirely yours.

Registration