Les Bucherons & Creative Arts

According to Tolstoy, the most important quality of any work of art is its sincerity.
We at Les Bucherons could not agree more.  Art is our life, both during the day while working in schools, and in the evenings, with our families and our friends.  It is not an aspect of our life, it IS our life.

Art has been defined as any of the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.  Creativity itself is defined as the very thing that stimulates this call to activity, calling forth our imagination, our spirit and our invention.  Some of us were born with this natural creativity, this burning desire to create some form of art, in others, it lies deep within, still waiting to be called out.  But surely, it lies somewhere within each one of us.  Les Bucherons is a group of creative artists, dedicating their lives to bringing forth this artist in every child, young adult, teacher, or even attending parent, that they happen to encounter along their way.

Knowing children are naturally drawn to creativity, Les Bucherons has very little actual work to do, their work is their play.  Singing, dancing, acting, making instruments, listening to music, playing musical instruments, drawing, costumes, performing, painting, role-playing, it's all naturally a part of our package.  Every student attending a day with Les Bucherons is given a whole gamut of gifts with which to choose that which will ignite their own passion and inspiration.

Les Bucherons understands that art is all-encompassing, it doesn't have to look one particular way.  It is the child that wants to bake a new recipe, act out a new play, dress up a new doll, pick a new flower, or perform a new trick.  Inspiring children to create something new and unique is our passion.  If we can leave even one child that we have spent our day with, burning to return home and create some new piece of their own unique expression of art, then we have been successful.

Our role is not to place our personal expression of art onto the children, but instead to expose them to a vast choice of materials so that they can be inspired to create their own art. Once the choices are offered, our hope is to leave a budding imagination with the tools and new resources we have offered, in order for them to start creating their own.

These budding artists that we encounter every day in the work we are doing, they have a creative spirit that often cannot be found or expressed without the exposure we are offering.  We believe that if you start early enough, right from kindergarten, and even preschool, there is a much greater chance for this creative spirit to be found, explored, developed, and, therefore, start to grow with the child.  We believe every student is already an artist, and it is our duty to incite each child into action.

We would like to share with you some of the many ways we have seen the sharing of our own creative arts impact the many children we encounter each day.

Children who may be having difficulties in other parts of the school curriculum may find an expressive outlet through art. By inviting and inspiring them to sing and dance, draw and act, we are very quietly, but determinedly, discovering and unearthing latent talents in the students that may not be seen or found otherwise.

Many students have no desire to communicate verbally, they are either shy, quiet, or maybe even withdrawn for reasons we know nothing about.  We may never know or understand even a piece of what they are going through personally or privately.  But art gives them a means of communicating their ideas, feelings, and creativity in a way other than verbally or written.  It often feels safer and less conspicuous.

Once a child witnesses their own creative genius, by turning a simple imaginative idea into something concrete and tactile, it can instil greater confidence, self worth, and their own intrinsic value they have to offer the world.

For other students, it is the offering of options to the standard student curriculum, where they may otherwise be bored, unchallenged, or under stimulated, that may literally change the direction of their lives.

We believe through experience, that an inspired child is much more inclined to attend classes, participate in school events, extracurricular events, volunteer, contribute in some way, join teams, clubs, attend fairs and rallies.  They are more likely to attend college, university, or simply continue to create their own unique expression of themselves after they leave the school system.  Art alleviates boredom, inspires new projects, calls forth action instead of complacency.  We believe art has the capacity to heal the budding artist, and therefore potentially heal their future observer.

Les Bucherons uses traditional canadian culture, history, stories, spirit, and folk lore to inspire and entertain the children.  These are proven methods of drawing children into the experience.  We strive to create an inclusive culture where a group of young learners can join together with a spirit of kindness, enthusiasm, respect and a celebration, instead of division, of their potential differences.

Les Bucherons plays musical instruments such as the herdy-gerdy, the banjo, hand made spoons, accordions, the saw, guitar and the violin.  Many of these instruments are of such a nature that children will never even have the opportunity to know of them, much less watch a traditional dance being performed live right in front of their very eyes.

We additionally supply the schools and teachers with an online program where they can continue on working and interacting with the children, using the new creative tools that we have offered to them.  Included in the package are videos, karaoke, songs, notations, everything that is needed to continue to inspire these burgeoning young artists after we have left.

We offer 2-5 day residencies, traditional maple syrup sugar shacks, Christmas concerts, Canadian cultural days, and Winter Festivals.  We create unique packages that cater to the needs of each individual teacher and school.  We are continually creating, writing and developing new songs, jigs, dances and stories, keeping up with the times of the world as it moves along.

We teach children how to make dancing men and wooden spoons, learn a line dance, a square dance or a circle dance.  We make posters, draw faces, and tell stories, but really, it isn't about us.  It is the students we are there to inspire.  We are there to seek out every single young person that has a passion burning somewhere deep within, just waiting and yearning to be developed and shared.