Tag: Family Days
Island of Misfit Toys- at Home!
Happy December, everyone. For over a decade, the museum has hosted the annual Island of Misfit Toys event in December. During this fun-filled, festive day, we take broken, well-loved toys, smash them to bits, then reassemble them into wacky, wonderful sculptures. It is one of our favorite days of the year. The creatures and structures that come out of the workshop are covered in googly eyes, sparkles, doll arms, and are bursting with creativity. While we can’t all get together this year to build our
Virtual Family Day: Mark-Making
Everyone wants to make their mark on life. Learning to express yourself on paper is one way to do just that. Explore many ways to draw, paint, and make your own mark. Along with the many mark-making exercises this month, this PDF offers more drawing exercises. Drawing without a Pencil When you think of drawing, you might assume you need a pencil. There are many types of drawings that don’t need a writing utensil at all. You can rip the paper with your hand. This
Virtual Family Days: Bookmaking Bonanza
Try your hand at making simple books and book-related objects. This month we have bookmaking tutorials plus some options for turning out artful bookmarks. Get Art: Why make your own sketchbook? Before we get to making, we might tackle the big question of the month. Project 1: Make an Accordion Book What do you need? Paper Try this? Fold your paper in even sections. That’s it. This is a simple book to make. Collection Connection: Muybridge was a photographer who explore motion by creating a
Family Day: Dog Days of Summer
Summer is coming to an end. It’s a time to relish freedom, enjoy family, and spend a few more minutes in the outdoors. This month’s projects celebrate the end of the holidays.
Family Day: Art-BQ
Ah, peak summer — barbecues, picnics, outdoor fun. Who says snacks need to be just for eating? Gather your leftovers, your favorites, whatever you got — and let’s have an Art-BQ! We even have a kit of supplies to help you get started.
Family Day: The Art of Water
No beach? No pool? No problem! Explore different ways to cool off this summer with water art-making activities that don’t require floaties or a vest. Water takes on many forms during the summer. For some, summer means cooling off by swimming, playing in sprinklers, or simply drinking enough water to stay hydrated. Water moves in different ways with the museum’s collection, too. We have paintings of crashing waves (Torrey, Surf), abstracted landscapes of ponds (Thomas, Pond-Spring Awakening), and even works whose movement reminds us how water can
Try This: Lanterns
Decorative arts, unlike sculptures, are meant to be useful and beautiful. These lantern projects are a perfect way to keep your creative output close by.
Try This: Animal Collages
Animals are a perennial source of inspiration. While drawing is one way to depict creatures, collage or sculpture can expand your creativity. What do you need? Scissors, glue, paper, and/or cardboard. Try this? Cut shapes from paper and/or cardboard. Challenge yourself to create an abstracted figure from these pieces. Glue your shapes onto a background. You can add a few details with a marker at the end.
Try This: Alternative Books
Bookmaking can be easy. Handmade books are perfect for pocket sketchbooks. Try This? This book is one of the easiest books to make. You need paper, scissors, and yarn. You can use a ruler to make you work neat and even. As with most books, you trim the pages to size, prepare for binding, and then bind the pages together. You can add panache to your books by using interesting colors for the yarn binding, for the cover, and for the paper.
A Lamp to Light the Way: Museum as Memory-Maker
by Amanda CroweWhile it may be every parent’s quest to be young again, time is a continuum and the creative underpinnings of childhood impermanent. Throughout the past several weeks of children’s programming, I have witnessed amazingly engaged parents and caregivers embracing moments of luminosity with their little ones simply by being present. I am told that for some, “art museum” has become part of their child’s vernacular. A hug-your-teddy-bear, meaningful kind of place, where, when given a choice whether to go to the park or
