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.

Summer Art Workshops at CMA have begun, and the creativity of kids’ brains has certainly been on display. Periodically this week I’ve been popping in to check on the progress of our Mythbusters art class for first and second graders.

Over the course of the week, this enthusiastic and creative bunch of kids created Louise Nevelson like wood sculptures (their lesson on balance); Chihuly ‘glass’ projects where they melted plastic plates in a toaster oven to demonstrate how objects can go from solid to liquid to solid again; art ‘inventions’ (everything from a porcupine to a magnetic picker-upper as one girl described hers). They made and painted kites (and then flew them in the nearby Topiary Park). They acted as scientists drawing and inventing new creatures such as the dragonook, a fire breathing, flying, Tigger like dragon. They learned about force and electricity, magnets and speed, and created a roller coaster for ants made out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

But perhaps my favorite project was their project on volume and matter. Each student was given an empty box and recycled materials, and in true Aminah Robinson fashion they used everything they had (buttons, pearls, ribbons, yarn, wood, feathers…). The result: artful dream homes full of colorful lamps, swings, fireplaces, tunnels and bridges, even a lemon-scented TV.

Like the saying goes, there’s no place like home.

Art Speaks. Join the Conversation.

Jennifer Poleon, Digital Communications Manager