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!

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!

Does it Count If We Didn't Go Inside? (Just Another Museum Visit)

A couple weeks ago my cousin was married in Albuquerque, NM.  My family was feeling desperate to escape a long winter in Boston, so we hopped a plane and crashed the wedding (with an invitation, of course).  In addition to the fun family festivities and lots of treats, we sampled a bit of the charm of this town.  But can you believe it?  We did not visit one museum!  There is a fabulous children's museum, Explora, a hot air balloon museum, some fantastic art museums, even a snake "museum" (I wasn't sure it qualified as a museum as I am 95% sure it was not a non-profit organization, being in a tourist trap shop.  :) ).  And we went in none of these--this visit.  Our one foray into the local museum world was spending a lovely hour in the sculpture garden outside the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. 

There are a couple of different opinions about how art should be treated when it is not behind a rope or a glass box or a security system.  I've been told--at the same place--by two different authority figures not to touch/climb on the art for fear of breaking them, and by another that it was meant to be a tactile experience and was designed to withstand people interacting with it.  I can understand both viewpoints.  I suppose I think that unless an object outside is placed in an out-of-reach location (say, a heroic statue of George Washington in a public plaza) or has a sign saying "don't touch" the art/object is fair game.  Obviously this opinion is qualified by treating the objects with respect, as you would any property not belonging to you.  Plus, I figure that if a bronze sculpture, discovered under the ocean in a shipwreck from ancient Greece, is still in decent condition two thousand years after it was created, my five year old can hardly do much more damage to a recent art creation exposed to weather.  I assume that metal and cement are pretty hardy materials and can withstand my three-year-old and your three-year-old as well.

Oops, I didn't ask my mom's permission to post this picture of her!  I am including it because it illustrates one of the aspects of the power of art to simultaneously bring out the playful in us (whatever our age), as well as the deeply, quietly thoughtful.  Whether actively engaging with the art, pondering by ourselves in a separate space (for example, playing with the gravel rocks by oneself), or in conversation with other observers, the links between art and our perception of our world, our reality is sublime.  I sometimes learn the most from my children, sometimes from people who normally have nothing to do with art in their regular routine, and sometimes from learned scholars who study nothing but a single work in history.  Don't you just get tingles when you think of how much insight and beauty there is to be told or shown by those around us?  I hope it's not just me!

Finally for this pseudo-museum visit recap, my personal favorite was a piece that was reminiscent of a Native American sacred circle.  I climbed in and lay right down in the ground to look up through the rainbow-hued shapes framing the sky.  It was such a calm and peaceful moment.  I may even have closed my eyes for a moment to soak it all in.  Then all of a sudden I hear, "Mommy?  What are you doing down there?"  Quiet moment over, but sweet tender feelings overwhelmed me as I peered up at my children peering down at me all surrounded by a cozy space.  A space that could fit all of us together and eternity besides.

 

Do you count this little wander as a museum visit?  Have you explored a sculpture garden recently?  What are your opinions on touching the art work if there is not a sign explicitly saying not to?  Have you and your children felt broadened in spirit and in mind by interacting with art?  I'd love to hear all your thoughts on any of these topics!