Gathered in the Dartmouth Cultural Center at 404 Elm Street, kids were painting away at some pumpkins.

Volunteer Brenda Moreira said the center wanted to do something festive and had some pumpkins donated. Twenty-four kids signed up for the painting event, with Moreira expecting additional walk-ins.

And while their pumpkins dried, kids were able to head upstairs for snacks and face painting. 

Bishop Stang High School senior Emma Perry, 17, and Jack Nylin, 15, who are a part of their school’s theater program joined the Cultural Center Saturday to help with the face painting.

New Bedford’s Bailey, 4, was working on a pumpkin with her grandmother, Leslie Melby, said she was making it to look like her baby brother, Elijah. 

Living right in Padanaram village, Molly Calzone and Piper, 3 stopped by the Cultural Center for the art.

As she was adding some final paints and googly eyes to her pumpkin, Piper said she was looking forward to Halloween when she plans to dress as Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen.”

New Bedford’s Kyliee, 7, and Kahaya Alves, 5, were excited to do the pumpkin painting as they began to layer an array of colors.

Kahaya wants to be Poison Ivy for Halloween and Kyliee said she wants to be a vampire.

Moreira said, “Nowadays, there’s so much screentime and computers and tv — this is something they can do. They can be expressive, creative and hands on and come in and have some fresh air and collaborate with their fellow little painters.”

She added, “Who knows, maybe they’ll become future artists someday.”