ParentsPost
MFAH Sunday Family Zone helps kids explore fine art in a fun way
The MFAH Sunday Family Zone aims to get kids more comfortable in the museum.
Sasha creates a work of art. The museum provides supplies for sketching andcoloring in the galleries.
Because artist Jules Olitski spackled, sprayed, poured and dripped to create hisbrilliant paintings, the museum devised a way for the families to do the same.
An MFAH volunteer does "pretend play" with the children, where they use theirfive senses to relate to the art.
Children sit enthralled in one of the MFAH galleries.
Editors Note: CultureMap readers with children have asked for more stories about families. So we're thrilled to introduce columnist Bernadette Verzosa, who has just launched a web site, parentspost.com, which covers new and exciting things for families to do in Houston. This is her first column.
It’s noon on Sunday. Zully Wisniewski is fluffing floor pillows and scattering stools in front of a painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She’s expecting some VIPs shortly. This afternoon’s VIPs are children.
The MFAH staff is preparing for the Sunday Family Zone and Studio. “It’s a great atmosphere for exploring art. You don’t have to be perfectly still and perfectly quiet. You can be moving around. You can be making noise. The kids are so much more comfortable in the museum,” says teaching artist Debbie Simon.
“Looking at art as a family is an important human experience, because art can mean different things to different people,” Berquist says. “Life is not a right or wrong answer; there are different answers.”
Wisniewski, the family guide, moves her gallery cart filled with puzzles, games and books near the designated focus work of art: Jules Olitski’s abstract canvas titled "With Love and Disregard: Splendor."
“We do pretend play with the kids. We ask them to imagine that we are all jumping into the painting together, and we ask them which color would they like to jump into,” she explains. “We ask the children, and their parents, to use their five senses, we ask them what they see, how they feel,” she says.
Wisniewski soon has her eager audience, including Elizabeth Cosgrove, who visits regularly with her husband and four children.
“My kids love the incredible group of people who run the program. There’s a sense of passion that they transfer to the children, a love of this world and excitement being part of it,“ says Cosgrove. “My daughter liked Olitski’s spray painted works, my boys were enamored with the dynamic. They all sensed motion in geology terms – they felt like volcanoes were erupting, stars were clashing, oceans were swirling.”
Another group enjoying the exhibit is the Johnson family.
“I love the colors,” says 5-year-old Marvin Johnson, Jr. “It makes me think of outer space and the different planets.” He comes weekly with his older brother and his parents.
His dad, Marvin Johnson, says, “We really have fun with the teaching artists. They challenge our whole family mentally. I’m very impressed with the things the boys come up with. They can really think with such depth, they can feel the art, it’s amazing how they see it.”
The museum also provides supplies for sketching and coloring in the galleries. MFAH family programs manager Kris Bergquist makes sure everything runs smoothly. She and her team conceptualize and develop the ideas for projects, programs, and resources, all geared towards enhancing enjoyment.
“Looking at art as a family is an important human experience, because art can mean different things to different people,” she says. “Life is not a right or wrong answer, there are different answers. It’s an open experience, parents can learn from kids, kids can learn from parents, the museum can learn from the families.”
To further cultivate imagination, the Family Programs group also organizes art projects related to the focus work of art. Because Olitski spackled, sprayed, poured and dripped to create his brilliant paintings, they devised a way for the families to do the same. At the MFAH Creation Station, they provided palette knives, and paints in pumps and drip bottles. But they also gave the children and parents transparencies, to separate the vibrant colors in layers.
“It was phenomenal. They gave us the materials that allowed the children fantastic results no matter what their personality – whether they like to create quickly or meticulously,” said Cosgrove. ”I thought it was a miracle that the end product from all the kids captured the intense movement of the Olitski painting.”
“It was pretty fun,” said 7-year-old Imogen Parenti. “I really liked painting over the transparencies because you can make different swirls of colors.” She worked alongside her two brothers and parents.
Bergquist takes pride in her team’s ability to envision the challenges connected to creating certain works. “As an art museum, we need to have materials that are special. Our artists all work as artists in the community, and they’ve worked with children,” she says. “Because we do not have as much tourist traffic at the MFAH, we’re able to have more art-making and gallery programs because our numbers are not overwhelming. That also allows us to purchase higher quality art materials.”
The MFAH hosts family programs every Sunday. In April, the Sunday Family Zone & Studio will spotlight the still life paintings of Dutch artist Willem van Aelst. The focus work of art is his “Large Still Life with Armor.”
Anyone interested in Olitski’s abstract paintings can continue to view his works through May 6. More than 30 of his canvases are part of the exhibit ”Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski.”
MFAH Sunday Family Zone is from 1 - 4 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, click here.
