As someone who develops programs and resources for families, I often think about the role of adults during a museum visit. In MoMA Art Lab: Places and Spaces, our interactive space, we are sensitive to the fact that each family has their own way of relating to one another, which might change from day-to-day. Some caregivers read a book while their child builds a tower on the floor; others might work with their child to design a structure at the art-making table;
Posts by Cari Frisch
Piecing it Together: A Family Artist Talk with Susan Kaprov
As part of Family Programs at MoMA, we invite artists and designers represented in MoMA’s collection to share their work and engage in conversation with family audiences. During the programs, artists show images of their work, share what inspires them, and give kids a sense of what it means to be an artist day in and day out.
Pop-Up Play @ MoMA
How often do kids get to hear, “You can do whatever you want with any of the materials you see”? Well that was the case one Friday in August for visitors to Pop-Up Play @ MoMA.
The Shape of Things
A seven- or eight-year-old boy sits at a table and carefully sifts through a pile of brightly-colored laminated shapes. I have posed a challenge: can you show a person running? At first, he is stumped. He picks up some pieces but then declares, “I can’t.” So I pose for him. I bend my arms and legs and ask him to look at the shapes they are making, and then ask him to see if he can find or even combine some shapes to show that movement. I leave him for a few minutes and then return. He proclaims, “I did it!” and indeed he did. Using shapes such as simple rectangles and squares, and the more complex “L” and rectangular “U”s, he has created an abstracted figure of a man running. Later I ask if he can document his creation with a drawing, which he does.
Such is a typical experience as a facilitator for Shape Lab, our latest interactive space at MoMA.
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