My Top 10 Favorite Blogs

Kids jumping for Jeff Koons’ Balloon Flower  by Erica Berger

As the end of another semester draws near, I will be taking a blogging break until June.  Should you need a cultural fix before then, I’ve put together my “Top 10 List” of favorite blogs to tide you over.   If you have any comments or ideas for CultureChild, feel free to leave them in the “Comments” section at the end of this post or drop me a note at info@culturechild.org.  Thanks for reading!  GMom

This week’s “Collaborations” pieces: Family Clay Sculptures

During the early winter months, our family joined several other neighborhood families on Saturday mornings for clay workshops at our local community center.   My daughter chose an ocean theme for our family.  We used our imaginations and looked through a book on sea life, sculpted various creations and then glazed them.  A local clay studio fired the pieces and returned them to the community center each week.  

More Ways Cultural Institutions Are Using Tech and Social to Interact with Kids

Part two of a two-part series

The second half of my series on how New York’s cultural institutions are using technology to help kids interact, collaborate and use social media with their families to enhance their experiences with the institutions features Art Babble and The Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Rubin Museum's Annual Himalayan Sleepover for Kids Ages 9 to 12

The sixth annual Rubin Museum kids-only sleepover, Peak Experience VI, will be held June 11 for 9-to12-year-olds. The centerpiece of the event is a simulated climb of Mt. Everest, during which kids try to avoid “snow,” “ice,” “rock” and other avalanche perils on their ascent up the museum’s six-level spiral staircase.  Actual Mount Everest climbers will help teach basic camping, safety, teamwork, and leadership skills.  

The price is $175 per child; $157.50 for members.

Learning Leaders says family engagement equals student success

Learning Leaders, an organization for which I volunteer and support, recently posted this short video on its YouTube channel featuring comments from some of our nation's most influential thought-leaders discussing the correlation between family engagement and student success. 

This week’s “Collaborations” piece: “The Keyhole That Unlocks Pink Sands Beach,” Anonymous

CultureChild: Parent-child Art Projects

I’m on an island vacation this week for my daughter’s spring break, and believe it or not, we are finding lots of creative things to do at the beach—we're taking breaks in the shade to draw, making Origami and creating solar prints with sand dollars, shells, found objects and sun-sensitive paper (using Toysmith's Solar Print Kit).  We've also been building a giant sandcastle.  

Remember how much fun it was to build sandcastles as a kid?  Well, it's still fun.  One gentleman took a shovel to the sand and carved out a giant keyhole.  Almost all the children—locals and tourists—and many of their parents who have visited a certain section of the beach on Harbour Island during the past two days, have contributed to what the kids dubbed “The Keyhole That Unlocks Pink Sands Beach.”  Lots of smaller popup villages made of sand drippings are cropping up around it.  The kids are sure having fun and keeping busy!

Kickstarter helps Brooklyn elementary school students raise funds for a documentary

Parents of burgeoning thespians and playwrights take note of:  Mc.B—a short documentary about Shakespeare and children.

Kickstarter, the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, is trying to help a group Brooklyn public school students (and their drama teacher) raise the funds necessary to complete the final edits of their documentary and enter it into various film festivals.

Kickstarter’s description of the project follows:

So many people are visual learners that connect all subjects through artistry. As communities continue to have financial cutbacks, the arts are often the first thing to be removed from today's educational environment. This documentary is intended to be a refreshing reminder of the critical role art in education has in developing positive youth initiatives.

Interview with Blaine Zuver, founder of ArcticTropic: Delving into world culture through travel

ArcticTropic Founder Blaine Zuver in Chile

Recently, a reader, Linda Mills who is the senior vice provost for undergraduates in the Global Network University, NYU Abu Dhabi, posed a question in response to my post on Putting Learning into the Right Context for Children.  She asked, “How do we prepare the next generation for talking and working across traditional divides?” 

My response is: invest in our future by teaching children to appreciate, learn from and have a positive impact on other cultures from an early age—as early as possible.  We can broaden their knowledge of the world through travel and cultural exchanges like the Thorn Tree project in Kenya as I mentioned in an earlier post.   

While traveling through Miami during my daughter’s spring break, it seemed fitting to speak with other parents on the subject.  Saturday, I sat down with inveterate traveler Blaine Zuver, founder and director of ArcticTropic, his high-end adventure travel website and blog, to further discuss introducing children to different cultures through travel.  Some of his thoughts from our discussion are below. 

This week's "Collaborations" pieces: Mix-ups by Tom, Louis & Jack Shannon

Mix-ups: Parent-child Art Collaboration

Mix-ups by Tom, Louis & Jack Shannon

When his sons Louis and Jack were young, renowned artist Tom Shannon used to draw “mix-ups” with them, the game where participants fold a sheet of paper in thirds, take turns drawing and concealing the head, body or feet of a person (or creature) and passing it on to the next person.  The Surrealists called this art form "Exquisite Corpse."  

One year, the Shannons bound all of their creations into a book and gave it to the boys' mother.  These are two of my favorite drawings from the book.  Mix-ups are a fun way to enjoy art with kids.  And you never know what you’ll create. 

CMA is Expanding to a New, Bigger Location

Photo Courtesy of CMA

The Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) in Soho announced this week that it will be opening a new 10,000-square-foot museum site at 103 Charlton Street (at the corner of Hudson Street) in October 2011.

CMA says the new space will allow the museum to expand its art education programs for young artists, ages 1 to 15, offering more of everything: “more  inspired messiness, more opportunities to make art with CMA’s super-talented Teaching Artists, more programs for tweens and teens, new programming for 10-to 15-year olds, a new media lab, bigger and better exhibits, and more free programs.”