Orange Splot Art Spot Brings Kids into Peekskill’s Downtown Art Scene (VIDEO)

Playing in front of a colorfully painted wall three-year-old Jake Malfant used his imagination to build a train station with people on the train, a platform, a staircase and all the other details a toddler knows about train stations.

He created his own world while other kids around him played with blocks, shapes and Play-Doh.

The kids were hanging out in the new Orange Splot Art Spot in downtown Peekskill, which owner Justine Rae Spilotros opened during the first week of October.

“The idea was in my head for ten years,” the Peekskill native said. “The place worked out with space and timing. It felt cool. It felt right. And I like that it is in the center of town," she said of the location at 1009 Park Street.

The name comes from a book by Daniel Mancus Pinkwater, “The Big Orange Splot,” about a man who got a splot of paint on his house and turned it into a thing of beauty. This inspired all the neighbors to do the same.

Rae Spilotros is hoping to have a similar affect with the children of the Peekskill-Cortlandt area by offering affordable 10-week programs.

“It is a spot between planning something and wherever the chips may fall,” Justine said, about the idea behind Orange Splot.

On her website she describes it as a “progressive, eco-aware, child-centered, Socratic & Constructivist-style, multisensory, hands-on, interactive art workshop for every artist at heart.”

Rae Spilotros offers classes for kids of all ages and their parents and has drop in hours for less structured art time. The class names themselves are inspirational: peace-skill, peach-skill, super fab fam lab, arts smarts, caution cones and take apART. Read about the classes on Orange Splot Art Spot’s website. The classes run about ten weeks and cost about $20 a class or $120 for the whole session.

Growing up in Peekskill Justine Rae Spilotros remembers being a kid when then- Peekskill Mayor George Pataki worked to bring more art into the city. She went on to study early childhood education and work in the education department of many of New York’s most famous museums – the Smithsonian, MoMA, the Guggenheim, among them. Now Rae Spilotros lives back in Crompond and is raising her three-year-old son Wade here.

Rae Spilotors said she is happy to see there is so much art in Peekskill today, decades after Pataki, but wanted to open a place where kids could go to be part of the art scene.

“I thought maybe since Peekskill pushes for arts it would be a good place to open," she explained while Wade greeted new friends coming in the door.

On one of her first days open during a “drop-in” time moms stopped by to check out the place. Some were friends of Rae Spilotros, others had heard about it through a breast feeding support group, Linda’s Ladies.

“It is interesting,” said Mirna Handelman, a mom of one of the toddlers. “There are not too many places like this around here and this will be good (to take the kids to) in the winter when it is cold and you can’t be outside.”

Handelman’s friend Martina Grattan agreed and added that she likes the look, colors and feel of the space.

Peekskill mom Faith Chanda was visiting Orange Splot last week with her three-year-old Maile and four-month old Palmer and said she is looking forward to classes that start next week.

“I think it’s fantastic, it is a great lively space for kids to create,” Chanda said. “I am really excited to start our classes.”

Orange Spot Art Splot begins classes on Oct. 17 that will run through Dec. 1. For more information call 914-736-1278 or visit www.orangesplotartspot.wordpress.com.

---

Thanks for reading. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter.