By Heather Matthews
Staff Writer

Mirror/Heather Matthews & Eric Baxter (Above) Rick Freed will bring his skills as an artist to the Kimball-Jenkins School of Art, and a vacation class on building board games.

Mirror/Eric Baxter These handmade gaming pieces are used for a variety of older board games including Nine Men’s Morris, and the Viking hnaetafl.

More and more often kids are putting aside the classic Scrabble board and checker sets to play the newest and hottest video games.

But artist Rick Freed said video games don’t allow for the users to exercise their creative or artistic skills. Instead, Freed wants to challenge kids to think outside of the X-Box, and the television screen, with his new “Make Your Own Board Game” class at the Kimball-Jenkins School of Art in Concord.

“Video games keep getting better and better,” he said. “But what is more cool than getting a high score is being creative. It is significantly more challenging and fun than playing a video game.”

The class, for 10 to 12 year olds, will be offered during the school vacation weeks. The first session will be held from February 27 through March 3 and the second session will be from April 24 through April 28.

During the class, participants will create a game board and instruction cards, based on personal experiences.

The students will come up with a list of positive and negative experiences that are meaningful to them, their families and friends.

Each experience will be used to define a movement on the game board. For example, Freed said a student could make a card that reads, “Dad takes everyone out to ice cream, go forward three spaces” or “Go to the store and forget your brother’s bananas, go back one space.”

“They’ll be making something that is personally meaningful, fun to do, fun to look at and wonderful to play,” he said. “The rules will be based on their own personal life. They’ll be able to include things that make them laugh just to think about it.”

Freed said that the class will also help his students become more creative and take some time away from the television set and video games.

More, importantly, Freed said the class would help his students create a work of functional art.

“Art is not just something that is hung on the wall,” said Freed. It can be found in a piece of furniture, a wall, and even a board game.

“Your entire life is surrounded by artists and creative people,” he said.

Freed said creating and playing the board games will help exercise the students creative abilities – something that is not always accomplished.

Many people think that creative talents are something only some people are born with, but everyone has an artistic side to them. It just needs to be encouraged at a young age, said Freed.

“You don’t have to be born special to make art,” he said. “Being creative is at the foundation of who and what we are. Creativity is what makes us different from the animals. To use those creative abilities is a choice.”

Encouraging students to tap into their creative and artistic abilities, said Freed, can help them in other aspects of their education as well. In studies, said Freed, students who have more art education perform better in classes such as math and English.

Playing board games also has a positive effect on students. Chess and other games help students work on their problemsolving skills, he said.

“Chess is a mental exercise like the way warm-ups are for an athlete,” said Freed. “(Chess) players will better at solving problems. The more creative they are in the way they deal with life, the less likely they are to have a knee-jerk reaction.”

While giving students a chance to be creative, the course will also help the students spend more time with their family and friends. Instead of playing one-on-one with a computer, board games are generally group activities.

Freed said he loves to play board games, but it is less about the game itself and more about interaction with his friends and family.

For example, while playing the card game “Uno” with his young cousins, Freed became the object of a new rule. Instead of the players trying to discard into a general pile, they play by the rule, “give all your cards to Rick.”

Freed said while he rarely wins, some of his fondest memories are of those same games. Freed said he hopes to bring those experiences to students at Kimball-Jenkins.

“It’s not the board game, it’s the interaction with friends and family, “ he said. “We can play games by ourselves, but nothing beats the joy of playing with a friend and poking (fun) at each other like friends do. Every game is different. It’s all about having fun and being creative.”

For more information contact the Kimball-Jenkins School of Art at 225-3932, or visit their Web site at www.kimballjenkins.com.