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With children continually bombarded with digital gadgets, video games and TV shows, traditional hands-on crafts are gradually being replaced by the latest in computer graphics and iThemed activities. While kids might be able to beat the 37th level of the new fantasy quest, they may be at a loss when wielding paint, scissors and glue.

In response to the deluge of technology, graphic designer and fashion stylist Liesna Shaw founded an arts and crafts program in 2009 specially designed to nurture children’s artistic flair, and unlock their inner maestro.

The 39-year-old mother of four believes that artistic and creative skills can and should be shaped and sharpened during a child’s golden age, when they are in kindergarten or primary school.

“We are helping the children discover their passions in the arts,” said Liesna, who pursued her master’s degree in design at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia.

At Marvelous Little Maestro (previously named GaleriLiesna’s Arts and Crafts for Children), students are trained to explore their creativity through coloring, painting, shaping and designing patterns using acrylic paints, pencils, crayons, watercolors and paper.

“We teach them how to create 2D and 3D artwork, and make fun objects using materials they see every day around them,” she said.

The students’ completed works are displayed on the school’s walls, boosting their confidence, Liesna said. “The students are always very excited and proud when they see their art pieces displayed in our school,” she said.

Liesna incorporates traditional Indonesian art and culture in the Marvelous Little Maestro programs, so children can learn about and recreate local motifs. Some of the cultural infusion programs include making batik dolls, creating batik patterns on paper and T-shirts, decorating kaleng kerupuk (cracker cans) and drawing little bits of everyday Indonesia, such as the notorious three-wheeled bajaj.

The children attending the school in Kemang, South Jakarta, are a mixed bunch of Indonesian, French, Irish and Dutch descent. “We want all our students to be familiar with the local culture, hence the immersion in that subject,” Liesna said. “We are trying the best we can to teach children to be creative, and at the same time to learn to interact with other people.”

“I also believe that every child is blessed with an abundance of imagination and creativity, and that those can be nurtured to become useful things,” she said. “A maestro is not created in a blink of an eye; they are shaped through gradual learning and experimenting.”

Although most of the “little maestros” are between 5 and 10 years of age, some are as young as 2, and Liesna said there was no age limit for anyone wanting to join programs at the school. She also plans to start a special arts program for teenagers.

Liesna, who also teaches design at Pelita Harapan University, said the teachers at Marvelous Little Maestro were graduates of art and design schools.

The creative concept of the school has generated interest from people wanting to open branches in areas such as Bintaro, Serpong and East Jakarta.

“I plan to start a franchise system soon,” Liesna said. “But of course our main goal in the near future is to keep up the quality of the school and to create more interesting and fun projects.”

Marvelous Little Maestro
Kemang Point, 1st floor
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 3 South Jakarta
Tel. 021 719 85 78