Posts Tagged 'family classes'

Say What?

Being a part of the family programs team here at the DMA means that we spend a lot of quality time with children of all ages. Whether it’s singing songs to babies, or challenging a group of 8 and 9 year olds to try and beat their parents at a game of art trivia, we engage in tons of fun AND funny conversations. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the funny things we’ve overheard lately in the galleries and studios.

Messy Homechool project

During a homeschool class, my colleague Jennifer gave the kids an overview of what they would be doing. Upon hearing that the studio project for class was going to be messy and fun, an 11 year old boy said, “Miss Jennifer, I’m so glad my mom brought me today because you said it would be messy and fun. THOSE ARE MY THINGS!”

lions

As an introduction to a lesson focused on different lions in the collection, I asked the children what they knew about lions. In response to the question, “what do lions eat?” a flurry of responses bubbled up: “grass?” “worms?” “WAFFLES!” (which resulted in lots of giggles).

elevator pic

Overheard while waiting with a group of children to get on the elevator: “I want to live here!”

dogs in gallery

In a discussion about how some dogs have what we might think of as jobs, I showed the children images of rescue dogs, guide dogs, and police dogs. When I showed a picture of a therapy dog at a hospital comforting a child and asked the students what job this dog has, a little girl called out, “It’s a love dog!” (which prompted a bunch of “awws” from the grown-ups in the group).

mom hero

During a lesson about heroes, I talked with a group of 3 and 4 year olds about what makes a person a hero and who our heroes are today. Three year old Lily piped up, “My mom is my art hero because she watches while I paint.”

We’ve also managed to capture some funny faces:

Leah Hanson
Manager of Family and Early Learning Programs

Blast Off Art for All!

Throughout January, our preschool visitors went on an imaginary space journey through the contemporary galleries where they learned about outer space and the roles of astronauts. We pretended Martin Puryear’s Noblesse O. was our rocket ship as we blasted off to look for new planets in the Museum. Some of the planets we discovered were John Chamberlain’s Dancing Duke and Alejandro Puente’s UntitledThe kids were asked which planet they would live on, and what else they would find there. Lots of young explorers said Dancing Duke would be full of robots and skyscrapers, while Untitled would be very cold and icy!

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After our gallery adventure, the kids went to the art studio to make some outer space art to take home. For Arturo’s Art and Me classes, the young space explorers made galaxy paintings. The studio was split into two stations: the first was a splatter paint station to fill up their night sky canvas with colorful stars, and the second, a shaving creme station where they made planets for their galaxy.

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The young artists gently dipped, dabbed, and dripped onto their backgrounds.

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(Some not so gently…Our friend here doesn’t seem too upset about the paint on her face and hair bow though!)

Once their backgrounds were completed, it was on to the shaving creme station. Here, kids dripped vibrant liquid watercolor into trays of shaving creme, then swirled it together to create a beautiful planet pattern. Next, they pressed pre-cut circles into the shaving creme, then squeegeed off the excess creme to reveal a beautiful intergalactic swirl left below!

Next, the young artists glued their planets onto their backgrounds, and viola! A whole new out of this world galaxy painting. Their work speaks for itself, I think!

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This activity is super easy to do at home! If you don’t have liquid watercolor to add to the shaving creme, food coloring works great too! If you need some more instructions on the shaving creme prints, check out Jennifer’s great blog post on the topic, and if you are interested in attending Arturo’s Art and Me or any of the other great classes at the DMA, click here!

Grace Diepenbrock
McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching

Friday Photos: Egypt’s Youngest Queens!

During our recent Divine Felines themed Arturo’s Art and Me Family Workshop, some of the participants pretended to be the ancient queens we learned about. Here they are in all their regalia!

The royal kiddos learned about how the Ancient Egyptians loved their cats so much that they gave them fancy jewelry to wear and turned them into mummies once they passed away. They then made their own bejeweled cat sculptures out of Model Magic and a personalized sarcophagus for them. Here are some of the finished kitties!

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Our next Arturo’s Art and Me Workshops take place on December 7, 8, and 10th. Click here for more info!

Grace Diepenbrock
McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching

Glow Babies

Pop! goes the art in our Art Babies classes. Take a peek at what we’ve been up to as we’ve explored the International Pop exhibition over the past few months. With its bright colors, oversized pieces, and recognizable objects, this exhibit is perfect for our littlest visitors. We’ve been counting pies and cakes, searching for hidden turkeys, and ooh-ing and ah-ing over giant French fries in our investigation of the paintings and sculptures featured in the show.

Inspired by the fun factor in Pop art, I tried something new for our sensory play session in the studio—glow in the dark play! We strung up twinkle lights, plugged in black lights, and used glow sticks throughout the room. With the overhead lights off, the studio turns into a magical place and creates a new environment for the babies to explore. At first the children are quiet, taking it all in. But as soon as they realize that they don’t have to take a nap, there are shrieks of laughter and lots of giggles as they shake bottles filled with water and immersible LED lights, crawl around on a shiny emergency reflective blanket, and try to catch bubbles. It’s a glowing good time!

If you’d like to join us next time, tickets for the January-March classes will go on sale December 3 at 10:00 am on our ticketing site.

Leah Hanson
Manager of Early Learning Programs


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