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KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Heartland kids will have the chance to get in touch with their artistic side this summer.

The Kirksville Arts Association and The Missouri Arts Council are teaming up with Kirksville Parks for the 4th Annual “Art in the Park” event.

The main purpose is to help the kids do something over the summer months and learn about art.

Program supervisors say the best part is seeing how the kids get creative and express themselves through hands-on activities.

“It's really important for the kids to take some time out of their daily games and do something that's fun, but also creating things.” Said Program Supervisor Toni Brister.  “It's wonderful to see what the kids can create because they're at such a good stage in their life to just do pure creation. Just everything they do creates something wonderful and new. Every kid has some new image all of their own”

This week they made clay figures and over the next few weeks, they’ll learn about various types of art.

“Next week we are doing book arts. So we are going to be doing a Japanese scroll and some flipbooks.” Said Program Supervisor Amanda Rispoli.  “Then we are doing motion arts, so we'll have kaleidoscopes and more flipbooks. Then we are going to do figure drawings where we'll have the kids do self-portraits.”

The program is free for all ages and runs through the end of the month. The group meets from 1-2:30 pm on Mondays and Thursdays in Brashear Park, Tuesdays in Jaycee Park, Wednesdays in P.C. Mills Park, and Fridays in Memorial Park all in the city of Kirksville.

There will be an exhibit of all the children’s works at The Kirksville Arts Center the first week of August.