Toys are amazing. Who among us could forget our favorite childhood toy? Odds are you may event still have it in a box in the attic, or even on display in a spare room or den (my own Care Bear play set graces one of the book shelves in my basement craft room). At the very least, you probably have photos of your childhood self with the favored toy lovingly tucked under an arm. Toys— especially the great ones — have the ability to jump start imagination, inspire play, and become objects of endearment, even into adulthood.

The really great toys also have staying power—many have remained virtually unchanged over generations. Such toys tend to be high quality, open-ended, and are often deceptively simple in concept and design. The perfect example of such a toy is LEGO. Long considered one of the best building toys available, LEGO bricks come in a variety of colors and hundreds of shapes and sizes. A bucket of LEGOs contains limitless possibilities and can be used over and over again with different outcomes every time they’re dumped out onto the table or floor. They’re also timeless and loved by all ages—brick building clubs are just as popular for adults as they are for children. They inspire experimentation and critical thinking skills, and everyone from artists to engineers can relate to and appreciate their creative potential. Few toys can bring families and multi-generational groups together to play like LEGOs!

I’m very excited to be a part of CMA’s LEGO exhibition and programming, Think Outside the Brick: the Creative Art of LEGO, and our collaboration with COSI and their LEGO Castles exhibition. Between our two museums, we’ll be sharing with Columbus  some incredible LEGO creations and LEGO-inspired art. I am especially excited to be managing our first-ever LEGO building contest, “Let’s Go LEGO!” Finalists for the competition will have their work on display at CMA and will win some great prizes. The contest is open to children (ages 6-12), teens (ages 13-17), adults (18 and older) and families or groups (at least 1 adult working with at least 1 child ages 4-17).

We have three fun and interesting categories to choose from:
• Imagination (build a creation that responds to the question, “What does imagination look like?”)
• Columbus200 (build anything you like using exactly 200 LEGO pieces)
• COSI’s Castle Challenge (build a castle that defends against dragons, catapults, and battering rams).

More details and submission information for the contest can be found at on our LEGO contest page. The deadline for online submissions is October 14, so pull out your LEGOs and start building—I can’t wait to see what the Ohio brick-building community creates!

If you have any questions about the contest, please contact me at Dayna.Jalkanen@cmaohio.org.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Dayna Jalkanen, Educator for Family Programs

CMA worked with three high school students from Linden McKinley High School to find a way to reach out to their community. The result was the design and manufacturing of QR Code plaques that have been installed at 15 locations throughout Columbus.

Once scanned using a downloaded app on a smartphone these QR codes direct the viewer to a blog post which highlights a photography program they participated in at CMA called Columbus In Focus. Students involved in this program also held an exhibition of their work at CMA. Stop by CMA to see their photographs through September 8, 2012.

Thank you to the amazing community locations for supporting our youth by installing these plaques.

Riffe Gallery
77 South High Street

OSU Urban Arts Space
50 West Town Street

Kaleidoscope Youth Center
1904 North High St,.

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Main Branch
96 South Grant Avenue

Focus Learning Academy
190 Southwood Avenue

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Karl Road Branch
5590 Karl Road

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Northern Lights Branch
4093 Cleveland Avenue

Columbus Metropolitan Library
South High Branch
3540 S. High Street

Fifth Third Bank
Hilliard Rome Branch
2455 Hilliard Rome Rd

Linden Mckinley High School
1320 Duxberry Avenue

Marion Franklin
1265 Koebel Road  Columbus

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Parsons Branch
845 Parsons Avenue

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Linden Branch
2223 Cleveland Avenue

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Shepard Rd. Branch
790 N. Nelson Road

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Northside Branch
1423 N. High Street

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Whetstone Branch
3909 North High Street

Columbus Metropolitan Library
Hilltop Branch
511 S. Hague Ave.

The work the In Focus students created is on view at CMA May 3 – September 8, 2012. Columbus In Focus dovetails with CMA’s Radical Camera exhibition, which highlights the work of the Photo League, the pioneering documentary photography movement of the 1930s and 1940s. For more information about the Columbus In Focus teen photography program please contact Kristin Lantz at kristin.lantz@cmaohio.org.

The Focus program is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Puffin Foundation West, Ltd.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Kristin Lantz, School Programs Coordinator

Thirteen teens set out to change the way you experience the Columbus Museum of Art.

Art Lab is a teen internship program at the Columbus Museum of Art. Our interns from The Arts and College Preparatory Academy, Focus Learning Academy, and Columbus Alternative High School worked all year long to plan a day of events and programming that truly engaged their community.

The Art Lab teens were challenged with thinking about alternative learning environments, making everyone feel welcome in a museum and how the museum can be relevant to everyone’s lives, including teens.

Can people change how we interact with art in a museum setting? Our Art Lab teens think so. They examined the perception of teens in roles of power and responsibility, inclusiveness of museums, and what real community engagement at museums can look like.

We brought our Art Lab interns in on a recent Sunday to put their plans into action. They were on a mission to create a museum experience like none other.

Tommy found that parts of the museum seemed inaccessible so created a barrier to artwork. Latisha and Jessica included a fashion show to the museum halls. All garments were inspired by trends seen in the artwork of the museum. Aaron played live music throughout the museum. Jarred curated an exhibition with five urban artists. Jacob created a recorded sound scape for CMA’s New Materials Gallery.

It was quite the engaging Sunday! We are lucky to have our museum embrace youth as valued guests, to highlight their creative learning processes, and to embark on a future of informal learning and alternative ways of thinking about museum experiences.

What will our teen interns bring in the 2012-2013 school year? Well that is a question for a new group of teens with fresh ideas.

To be continued…

“Before Art Lab I did not feel like I had a place in the museum. I was nervous to interact with the art or engage in talking with people about art. Now I feel like those boundaries have been taken down.” – Tommy Bowen

For more information about the Art Lab teen program please contact Kristin Lantz at kristin.lantz@cmaohio.org.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Kristin Lantz, School Programs Coordinator

Game Show hit the road last month to participate in Open Engagement, an international conference hosted by Portland State University’s School of Art and Social Practice. The conference focuses on art practices that engage local communities and break down barriers between creators and audience. Since it’s the audience and community partners who really makes Game Show come alive, the conference was a terrific venue for this project of CMA’s Center for Creativity.

Game Show performed in two untraditional venues. The first was near the Fifth Avenue Food Carts in downtown Portland, where we attracted an enthusiastic lunchtime crowd. The second was at Mummy’s, Portland’s only Egyptian theme restaurant. Check out some highlights from Game Show’s performance in Portland.

Just look at these creative contestants.

In addition to the performances, we participated in a panel discussion called “Representation of a Non-Object based Practice,” about documenting socially-engaged artworks.

We were excited to see the terrific work being done by other creative museums and artists to engage audiences with art in innovative ways. Some of the projects we learned about are linked below.

Blind Field Shuttle Artist Carmen Papalia led a group of us with our eyes closed through the Portland State University campus to the Portland Museum of Art where we were provided the opportunity to take non-visual tours of the museum. Papalia offered similar tours at Columbus Museum of Art in January of 2012.

Landfill, described by project founder Elyse Mallouk as “an online archive, quarterly subscription service, and print journal that studies socially engaged artworks by way of the surplus materials they produce.”  Mallouk participated with Game Show representatives in a panel discussion about documentation.|

Oakland Standard, a program of experimental contemporary art exhibitions at the Oakland Museum of California, are doing really innovative things to connect their communities to art.

Allison Agsten is engaging audiences at UCLA’s Hammer Museum with contemporary art projects in ways that are fun, open, and accessible.

The overall feel of the conference was welcoming, handmade, energetic, and open to new ideas. It was an inspiring weekend for the Center for Creativity staff who attended.

Game Show 101; Jeff Sims (A.K.A Stu Cartier) and Susie Underwood (A.K.A. Susie Starliner) talk about Game Show’s mission at the Open Engagement Conference in Portland. Photo by Kristin Lantz.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

After a relatively mild winter, spring and summer in Columbus is quickly on its way. I love the this time of year: the warmer weather, the baby animals, lighter clothes and jackets and, of course, the green sprouts of new plants. While my thumb is only somewhat green, I do love to garden! Being able to grow and harvest my own vegetables and flowers just brings me so much joy. I also think gardening is a great family activity; between the planting, weeding, composting, mulching, watering, and harvesting, there is plenty for adults and children to do together. And who doesn’t love the excitement and anticipation of checking the plants daily to watch them pop up out of the ground and turn into beautiful flowers or tasty food?

One of the things I love about gardening is it’s so versatile; anyone can grow a garden. All you need is some dirt, seeds, water, sunlight and voila! The plants do the rest on their own. Even if you have a tiny yard, porch, patio, or even just a windowsill, you can still grow a garden with just a little extra planning and creativity. If you’ve never tried to grow a garden before, I encourage you and your family to give it a try. Stop by your local garden center (I like Straders and Oakland Park Nursery, but I also often shop at Home Depot or Lowe’s) and ask the nursery staff for their recommendations based on your gardening availability. I’ve found that most peppers, tomatoes, herbs, bulb flowers, wildflowers, and perennials are fairly easy to grow, even in pots. For those of you who are more experienced gardeners, I encourage you to try growing something new this year. I think I’m finally going to try my hand at some beans and potatoes, which I’m really excited about. If you have any helpful tips, please let me know.

If you’re really pressed for space, you can even try guerrilla gardening with projects such as seed bombs. We had a lot of fun creating seed bombs during the March 1st Saturdays. This great project was led by 1st Saturdays Instructor Renee Zamora. Here’s directions to create your own seed bombs.

There are also many blogs and websites devoted to gardening, some of which I’ve listed here for you to check out:
For creative gardening and unique containers:
http://tipnut.com/creative-container-gardening-tips-ideas/
http://www.avant-gardening.com/
http://www.littlecountryvillage.com/Creative_Gardening_Ideas_-_Garden_Paradise.shtml
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/creative-container-garden-ideas.htm

Kid-friendly gardening tips to help everyone in your family get involved:
http://fun.familyeducation.com/outdoor-activities/earth-day/29440.html
http://www.hgtv.com/gardening-club-seed-tape/package/index.html
http://family-fun.kaboose.com/gardening-ages-stages.html

I wish you success in your gardening ventures, and I hope your family enjoys it as much as I do! If you’d like to share your garden stories or photos with us, please send them to Dayna.Jalkanen@cmaohio.org.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Dayna Jalkanen, Educator for Family Programs

Adventure Out Celebration
May 5, 2012, 10 AM – 5 PM

What happens when art educators and a museum’s permanent collection intersect with preschoolers? Join us as we celebrate our Adventure Out program, an in-depth art program for preschoolers at OSU’s Schoenbaum Family Center in Weinland Park. In the galleries, experienced facilitators will guide playful conversations about Columbus Museum of Art’s collection. In the studio, families can participate in a special exploration project. Adventure Out is made possible by funding from JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

Utilizing the power of photography to engage teens in socially relevant conversations, the Columbus Museum of Art’s Columbus In Focus program invites students from two Columbus City high schools, Linden McKinley and Marion Franklin, to examine the rich history of Columbus and document it during the Columbus Bicentennial. With these photographs, students invite you into their world as they uncover their communities past, confront today’s most pressing issues, and explore their place in their city and the world at large.

This years participants also looked to extend their reach into the community. Three students from Linden McKinley helped create QR Code plaques that are installed in locations thoughout Columbus. These plaques direct viewers to their exhibition at CMA and online resources located on this page.

To see more student work please visit the Columbus In Focus Flickr Group or check out the Columbus Underground story on the Columbus In Focus program.

The work the In Focus students created is on view at CMA May 3 – September 8, 2012. Columbus In Focus will also dovetail with CMA’s Radical Camera exhibition, which highlights the work of the Photo League, the pioneering documentary photography movement of the 1930s and 1940s. For more information about the Columbus In Focus teen photography program please contact Kristin Lantz at kristin.lantz@cmaohio.org.

The Focus program is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Puffin Foundation West, Ltd.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Kristin Lantz, School Programs Coordinator

What would you say if someone asked you, “What really matters to you?” It seems like that might be a straightforward question, but take a moment to think about it. Now think about what you might have said when you were in the 7th grade …

This is the second year I’ve had the opportunity to co-teach with the social studies teachers at the Columbus Collegiate Academy. This small charter school serves around 100 middle school students from Columbus’s urban center. Due to a generous grant from Chase Bank, we have been able to partner with this school and create a program entitled “Critical Works” that utilizes art to foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity.

We start by asking the students what critical thinking looks like. What do you do when you are being critical? When you are thinking? One student responded, “I hear the root word ‘critic,’ so you’re being a critic and forming an opinion.” To my question about thinking one student said, “You are expanding your view of the world.” Throughout my time with the teachers and students at CCA, I have considered myself a co-learner. As I ask the students to think, form an opinion, question, take risks, I am doing this along side them as a teacher. We bring a selection of prints to the school that deal with social issues such as inequality, poverty, oppression and race relations. I was impressed with the connections the students were able to make to historical events, literature, and our modern culture.

If you haven’t heard Steve Johnson’s TED talk, “Where Good Ideas Come From” it is worth a look. He explains how ideas come from conversation … not in isolation. I can see this in the classroom when the students are debating and analyzing the art works. When looking at Thomas Hart Benton’s print entitled “Jessie and Jake,” the discussion went from Little Red Riding Hood, to child abduction to No Child Left Behind.

The students are asked to make a statement about a social issue that really matters to them. It surprised me that these students had very little trouble coming up with issues that they cared about. One student wrote about the ways African-Americans are portrayed negatively in the media. Other students chose issues such as gang violence, bullying, and immigration. The teachers held class debates and we spent time brainstorming, discussing the issues and gathering research.

For the final project the students created hand-printed flags that make a statement about their social issue. We asked students to consider words and symbols that would communicate their message, and also where they would install their flag to have the greatest impact.

When we asked Catera where she wanted to install her flag about HIV AIDS, her reply was, “Well, at first I told my mom I was going to put it on her car … but she said I wasn’t going to put it on her car, so I’ll put it on my dad’s car.”

Well, art is often controversial so I take that as a measure of success.

Over the past 18 months, in preparation for opening CMA’s new Center for Creativity (on Jan. 1, 2011), the entire education staff immersed ourselves in research on creativity, particularly what is necessary to cultivate creativity.  Musings from the Center for Creativity is an opportunity for us to share our thoughts on this topic.  Please share your views and resources with us, as well.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Emily Reiser, Educator for Family Programs

If you spend time in the Wonder Room, chances are you will meet Alvin. Alvin White has a very important job at CMA.  He gets paid to play.

It may seem odd that we pay someone to play.  But many adults, and even some children, are not sure how to play at an art museum. Alvin shows them how.

He shows young couples how to make a silly face with common household objects.
He leads a family in a pirate adventure through the Fort.
He brings multiple families together to create a story out of clay.

What is his greatest challenge? To engage adults in this hands-on, family gallery. When an adult professes a lack of creativity, Alvin steps in to demonstrate the simple joy of making a newfangled animal or manipulating clay.

“It’s always interesting to see kids and adults think with their hands.” Alvin told me recently.  “When they get a chance to make something, or do something with their hands, it seems to get their brain working too.”

Alvin takes his playful job seriously. He has a special knack for leading visitors of all ages on a personal journey of looking, thinking, wondering, imagining, experimenting and playing.  An artist himself, Alvin encourages visitors to look closely at the great works of art throughout the gallery.

Although he enjoys spending time with visitors in the space, his biggest concern is what they take away from their experience. “I hope that families leave the Wonder Room with an expanded idea of what creativity is….and what art can be.  I show them that artists try to push the definition of what creativity is.  But it isn’t just about art.  Even if a visitor is an engineer, I want them to think, ‘oh a computer doesn’t have to be this…it can be that.’”

Alvin began working on the Wonder Room project as a volunteer, assisting artist Sean Foley with the fabrication and installation of Fort. Since then he has spent countless hours helping to make this unique gallery a success. He makes repairs, cleans up, and cares for hands-on activities throughout the museum. Although it may appear easy, his job would challenge most of us.  Playing is hard work, after all.

I asked Alvin how he would describe his role in the Wonder Room.  “The space is a vehicle for creativity.” he said, “I am just the person putting the pedal on the gas.”

Over the past 18 months, in preparation for opening CMA’s new Center for Creativity (on Jan. 1, 2011), the entire education staff immersed ourselves in research on creativity, particularly what is necessary to cultivate creativity.  Musings from the Center for Creativity is an opportunity for us to share our thoughts on this topic.  Please share your views and resources with us, as well.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Merilee Mostov, Manager for Creative Initiatives

I love the holiday season. I really do. I love the lights, the music, the decorations, the baking, the shopping, and, most of all, the Christmas tree. I know that many people (including my roommate, who has been proclaiming “Bah Humbug” for at least a month now) hate the bustle and craziness, the traffic and long lines. And, of course, one of the biggest complaints about the season is the commercialism. Somehow, the Christmas shopping season seems earlier and earlier every year, and all of the emphasis is placed on getting the best deals and the most fashionable and expensive presents.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like presents—both the giving and the receiving of them. However, I decided this year I’d like to try something other than going to the crowded mall and checking out the same stores and websites. I’m ready to give something unexpected. An obvious solution to my present conundrum is to shop (or make) handmade.

One of the things I like best about living in Columbus is its great art and craft culture. I am a crafter myself, but I mostly scrapbook and occasionally make cards, so my present creation is pretty limited (I’ve been working sporatically on a Colorado vacation scrapbook for my parents for about 3 years now). But I love to see what other artists and crafters create, and it’s so much more fun to buy unique, handmade items than it is to walk around a store where everything is made overseas via mass production and it all looks all the same. I also think it’s great that craft items now range from kitschy and fun, such as Nintendo-themed jewelry, all the way to elegant and beautiful, such as gorgeous mohair knit scarves and sweaters. The Columbus art and craft community is chock-full of presents that are personal and cool and full of soul. They are a delight to give, as well as to receive, and it’s so satisfying to actually be able to talk to and meet with (or at least email) the creator of your presents before buying them.

I may still pick up a movie or two, or perhaps a requested book, but my plan for my holiday shopping this year is to go unique and shop handmade. I even got off to a head start at Wholly Craft and the Craftin Outlaws fair last month. Should the holiday spirit really start to kick in, I may even make a thing or two (or finish that scrapbook for mom and dad).  It may just be the best holiday gift season yet!

If you, too, would like to do some of your own craft shopping, or even make some of your own gifts, you may want to check out Holiday Craftacular Spectacular at CMA on December 11. Workshops will take place all day that will allow you to create everything from polymer food charm beads to festive gift tags, plus shop from local vendors for your own handmade holiday gifts. For Craftacular Spectacular tickets click here.

Over the past 18 months, in preparation for opening CMA’s new Center for Creativity (on Jan. 1, 2011), the entire education staff immersed ourselves in research on creativity, particularly what is necessary to cultivate creativity.  Musings from the Center for Creativity is an opportunity for us to share our thoughts on this topic.  Please share your views and resources with us, as well.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Dayna Jalkanen, Educator for Family Programs