We love art galleries in our family. We regularly stop at them when we visit area cities, from the Sculpture Walk in Sioux Falls to the community art gallery below the library in Worthington to the Cottonwood County art and history museum in Windom.
We've found lots of fun ways to get something extra out of them. Here's a few ideas to try next time you get a chance to visit one with your kids.
Pose by your favorites. Have each family member stand and pose by his or her favorite piece (if photographs are allowed). Ask kids what elements of the works make them favorites.
Borrow innovative ideas. The works of art at most museums go far past your standard oil paint on canvas. We love to see what creative ideas artists have come up with and then try something similar at home. For example, at a Native American art exhibit at the Prehistoric Indian Village in Mitchell, SD, we got the following art ideas from the works:
- Trace round objects with a permanent black marker and then paint in the overlapping spaces with different colors of pastel watercolor paint.
- Paint a canvas with several colors of paint to simulate a certain time of day or mood (such as oranges for sunset or blues and whites for a snowstorm) and then use a stamp to stamp simple black images over the background.
- Do "ledger art" and create paintings on top of used pieces of paper.
Encourage kids to borrow general ideas from artists (such as noting that an artist has incorporated bits of yarn into oil paint on the canvas), not to actually copy works.
Have treasure hunts. Scope out the pieces ahead of time and give each child a list of items to find in the works. Kids can then write down the name of the piece where each item was located. For instance, a list might contain items like: a bird, a baby doll, a leaf, fire and a book.
Play I-Spy with younger kids. As you're browsing, ask toddlers and preschoolers to spot colors, letters, numbers and objects.
Talk up the staff. We've had wonderful conversations with volunteers who have been more than happy to tell us background information about the artists and exhibits. My kids have always been even more interested in the works when they hear something about the artists, like this artist is visiting from Africa and this one didn't start painting until she was in her 60's.
Make it into a geography lesson. Many galleries tell the artist and his or her location by each piece. Pay attention to where the artists are from and talk about how far they are from you and what's typical for that region. At home, find the locations of some of the favorite artists on the map.
Make it into a creative writing assignment. When you go in, ask the kids to pick one piece to write a short story about later. Ask them to each write a fictional background for either what's going on in the piece or what was going on with the artist when he or she created it. Try to either take a picture of the piece or find a brochure that includes a picture of it to go along with the story at home. With more famous pieces, you may also be able to find them online.
Be sure to let the kids sign the guest book, too. Have fun!
