Tip and Trick #5: Make a Museum Sketching Bag

 

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, as my five year old would say.

1) Take a bag (bonus if it's Italian leather and hasn't been used since momma's college days) and put paper and colored pencils inside.
2) Carry to museum.
3) Settle in a gallery (on a bench or on the floor, either will do) and sketch away.
4) Look at your clock 45 minutes later and wonder how in the world you just spent that much time quiet and busy in an art museum.

This'll work wonders for the preschool set--and for years after--in all sorts of museums.  Try at any art museum, at the natural history museum, maybe even for a moment of peaceful quiet time at a science or children's museum.

 

The greatest part for me, that I hadn't planned on, was the spontaneous guessing game that started.  The children drew and I had to guess which picture they were drawing or were inspired by.  I especially loved that the conversation got around to what was the difference between copying and being inspired by a masterpiece.  One thing I love most about exploring a museum with my children is that questions are asked and answers are searched for on topics that I would never think to open in every day life.

Please indulge me in a fond mommy moment.  I just like catching the action in moving pictures every now and again.

Even baby sister gets in on the action.

What have you and your littles sketched at the museum recently?  Or brought paper and pen outside and sketched from nature, like many of our best naturalists and artists?  Remember if heading to a museum gallery to leave markers and pens at home.  Pencils, colored pencils, crayons, perhaps charcoal for older kids ought to do the trick and keep the mess and the risk to the objects themselves down.  Check with your local museum for their specific guidelines and policies.  Happy sketching!

Christmas (in July) from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England

Things have been very quiet on this blog space for the past month plus because we just relocated our family abroad to British green pastures (as much as you can get in a busy metropolis).  It's been a whirlwind process.  We're not yet settled completely, but enough so that I'd like to update here with a few museum experiences sooner rather than later.  Some gems are backlogged from our Boston tenure!  But for now, let's start with a truly English museum.

While on a day trip to Oxford and environs, we popped into the Ashmolean Museum because I'd remembered vaguely that that was one I wanted to visit.  Bonus, it's the oldest museum in the UK.

The moment we stepped in the front doors and turned down the first gallery lined with sculptures on either side, I thought that I must have somehow (in another life?!) been there before.  It was so familiar.  It wasn't until we hit the big wall of sculpture busts above a flight of stairs (where we paused to let the baby roam free) that my husband turned to me and said, "Isn't this wall in that Christmas video you showed me last year?"  Ding ding!  We have a winner!

If you haven't seen this yet, enjoy.  If you've seen it before, enjoy again!  My kids and I have watched it multiple times many days in a row.  And our favorite line that comes up at most meals is "Graaapes . . ."  So very educational, I know.

I'd return to the museum in a heartbeat if given the chance.  Such treasures!  I kept turning around and seeing some object or other that I'd written an essay for a test in some class in college, or another object that had been the star of a term paper.  I'd forgotten--or never known--where they resided and so it was like meeting old friends around every corner.  Happy surprise!

The kids, naturally, loved the Egyptian mummies most.  There was a great video that showed the mummification process that my five year old watched at least three times before we pried him away.

For future reference, there is a fabulous family/little children museum explorer cart right behind a little wall by the entrance.  I didn't see it until we were on our way out, though now I know where it is it would be easy enough to spot on the way in.  There were several fliers with different paths or scavenger hunts.  Pencils and clipboards were available.  Blank scratch paper for sketching was abundantly supplied as well.

 

Have you met any "old friends" at a museum recently?  I'd love to go back to some of my old Art History and Classics text books to look more closely at the small print and see which museums hold which treasures.  What do you think about the sense of humor the Ashmolean Museum shows about their art in the video?  Anyone else hoping for another holiday greetings from the museum this year?  ;)

A Little Hands On: Making A George Washington Wig

 

 

 

Step One:  realize that in a short time you and your family will be leaving the USA for an international adventure and (Step Two) pull out a book you've had unopened on the shelves for too long.  

Step Three:  decide that you will make King Tut's headdress another time and concentrate on making a wig like George Washington's.

Step Four:  gather supplies needed (pulling some out of moving boxes if necessary).

Step Five:  do your best to follow instructions but mostly just wing it.

Step Six:  try it on!  Apparently we used the wrong size bag, as the fit was a bit snug.  Or we just have really large heads, all of us. 

Step Seven:  laugh uproariously and continue to make other things with the paper bags and string (walkie-talkies and boots being the main construction on this occasion).

And finally, Step Eight, visit the museum and see a heroic sized portrait of the great general himself, wig and all.  Happy (belated) Independence Day!