Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Special Family Day at the ICA
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How many times have you promised yourself you would get the kids into the museum to talk about art? The thought’s always there, beckoning, until it gets buried under soccer games and Halloween costume shopping and similar nonsense. Luckily the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston has a solution: they organize Play Dates. All you have to do it show up and enjoy.
ICA Play Dates last a good chunk of the day (10am to 4pm) and take place all over the museum. Family Programs and Art Lab Coordinator Kathleen Lomatoski explains that the ICA works hard to make sure these family days include something for everyone – from toddlers to adults, from art enthusiasts to skeptics. “All of our activities are designed for adults and children to do together,” she says. “The adults really get into creative mode with their kids. It’s fun to watch them open up and get into it.”
On October 27 the museum hosts “Ordinary to Extraordinary” which focuses on art and Transformation. Visitors will learn how artists have used ordinary objects to create remarkable new works of art. Then the whole family can experiment with their own projects in the Art Lab.
At 11:30 am and 2 pm Mystic Paper Beast a theater troupe from Connecticut, will perform their play “Art Fool” using over 50 hand-made masks to transform themselves into a hilarious cast of characters.
From noon to 3 pm the authors, Saul Griffith and Joost Bonsen, and illustrator Nick Dragotta, of Howtoons will give a lecture and demonstration on how to build, create and explore with things found around the house.
Play Dates require no advance sign-up and everyone 17 and under gets in for free. On family days two adults can visit free of charge as well. For parents who might be hesitant to introduce their children to contemporary art, the free admission makes it a much easier decision.
Play Dates are designed to keep kids from getting restless or feeling left out. Lomatoski stresses that the ICA is passionate about education – and part of this means making the museum setting more inviting and inspirational with each visit. Why not respond to that inner voice and make good on your promise to yourself? Your kids will thank you for it!
Sound and Vision
Comments
Great piece on a great institution. I would also recommend a walk along the water to the museum. It gives parents, and maybe even the kids a context for the architecture and makes the computer information room that is cantilevered over the harbor all the more inspired.
Excellent. Sounds like a lot of fun with a lot of potential for kids to use those imaginations. I agree with Susan—walking to, or at least around, the museum is very impressive. Plus the steps in front of the museum on the water side are the perfect structure for kids to let loose and expend some energy after (or before) being in a museum. Marty
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