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.”

Where's Waldo in Art History?

Matisse's The Dance (Image from vintagewaldo.tumblr.com)

 

I LOL’ed when I read about this tumblelog on my favorite art blogazine, Hyperallergic.

Fans of the Where’s Waldo books can test their art history prowess by searching for the beloved red- and white-striped character camouflaged among various masterpieces at Vintage Waldo.    

Waldo’s peripatetic time travels span Italy’s Renaissance, where he makes a cameo in Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment; 1909 France, where he appears in Matisse’s The Dance; and in 1960s New York, where he turns up in Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Prints.

Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and Edvard Munch’s The Scream are also very funny.

Check the site’s archives: Can you find Waldo in each and name them all? 

How Cultural Institutions Are Using Tech and Social to Interact with Kids

CultureChild 2.0

Part one of a two-part series.

New York’s cultural institutions are employing an array of new technologies that help kids interact, collaborate and use social media with their families to enhance their experiences with the institutions.  Part one of this two-part series explores activities for children through The New York Public Libraries’ Summer Reading Program, The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

This week’s “Collaborations” piece: The Fishman Ultimatum iMovie

After watching my friend’s hilarious parents-children-babysitter-and-dog iMovie collaboration (which pays homage to The Bourne Ultimatum and with which she surprised her husband with last Father’s Day and after further reading about iMovies on The Mac Switch, I am considering switching to a Mac laptop.  I could take our home videos to a whole new level.  Watch, and you may be inspired, too.

Girl Scouts of Japan Relief Efforts

There are many charitable organizations providing relief aid to Japan.  I am pleased to learn Girl Scouts USA is now among them.  The policy that prohibits Girl Scouts from raising money for other organizations has been temporarily suspended, and Girl Scouts USA is raising relief funds for its sister troops in Japan.  To contribute to earthquake and tsunami relief efforts, you can make an online donation to the newly established Girl Scouts of Japan Relief Efforts.   

According to Girl Scouts USA, girls are also encouraged to send expressions of friendship to their sister Girl Scouts in Japan by making origami cranes (Sadako). For instructions, see YouTube videos. The Girl Scouts of Japan made and mailed thousands of these cranes to the United States as an expression of peace and friendship after the September 11th tragedy.

For more details, see the following announcement from the Girl Scouts of the USA:

Putting Learning into the Right Context for Children

One of my readers offered a comment about a visit with her stepdaughter to the Rubin Museum of Art, which is dedicated to art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions.  It turned out to be a great experience for them both, because her stepdaughter had recently studied India in school and took pride in sharing what she had learned with her parents during the museum visit. 

Another parent and photographer Darryl Nitke recently told me that he considers himself very educated, especially in the realm of art.  He said, however, that the one place where his middle and high school education had fallen short was teaching art, literature, science, music and philosophy independently and not putting context between them.  He does things differently with his son, who has been accompanying him to museums and galleries since he could walk.  He always tries to tie in visits with his child’s interests, current school topics or by putting the art they view into a historical context.  For example, due to the current tragedy in Japan, he is taking his son to the Met to see The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.

Darryl explained how this process of exploring art with his son came together during their trip to Rome last summer: "We took a bunch of photos at the major sites and of specific works in the museums. When my son started fifth grade this year, his history book had at least 10 photos of the same sites and museum pieces that we had seen—taken from exactly the same place! That really thrilled my son!"

This week’s “Collaborations” piece is by Chris Brogan

I learned that Chris Brogan, social marketing expert and co-author of the book Trust Agents, also writes a parenting blog called Dad-O-Matic.  This blog shares parenting news, views, experiences and advice from the dad’s perspective.  Given his background, he also writes a lot about media literacy. 

While in this Family Media Projects YouTube piece, Chris offers collaborative ideas for commemorating the holidays, these are great ideas to document any family celebration.  

Does art sharpen adults’ critical thinking skills?

Chris Brogan and Julien Smith would likely respond “yes.” 

In their New York Times-bestselling social marketing book, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan writes that fine-art training changes the way that you see.  He references theories from another book, Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which says looking at things from a right-brain perspective—much in the way that artists look at paintings—can help you see life’s situations more deeply and in different light. 

In other words, focusing on the fine details of a situation (down to the brushstrokes) and seeing it from different angles leads to creative problem-solving solutions rather than tunnel vision.  

CMA is offering onsite family workshops and tours at the Armory Show on March 6

We'll be checking this out tomorrow. 

From the press release...

As part of The Armory Show, The Children's Museum of the Arts (CMA) will host two days of artist-led workshops for families and children ages 2-14 on Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6 in the Family Lounge at Pier 92. CMA’s special hands-on programs include drawing, sculpture and stop-action animation workshops, all based upon the various themes presented at this year’s Armory Show. The workshops are open to all families with paid admission to The Armory Show.

This week's "Collaborations" pieces were created by Mark Cole and his sons

CultureChild: Parent-child Art Collaborations

In these collaborations, each of Mark's sons painted a picture then he worked on top of their paintings with ink.

Here is what he said about his process: 

"When I work on collaborative drawings with the children, I first let them make a watercolor painting on paper and I later react to it by drawing on top of it with ink. Sometimes this means finding a way to enhance their part of the work and sometimes it just means staying out of the way of the wonderful thing they have already created.  It always means doing something that fits with the spirit of what they have started with.  It is very tempting to tell them what I want when they are working but it is always better to let them do whatever they feel like which in turn opens new doors for the finished drawing by making it fresh and unexpected. "

Does teaching children about art help them become better students overall?

CultureChild: Learning Through Art

A study by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum says it does. 

Still curious about this connection from my conversation with Megan Lucas, I dug up an article that ran in The New York Times  following the release of the 2006 Solomon R. Guggenheim Learning Through Art study.  According to the article, the study found that students who participated in the Learning Through Art program performed better in six categories of literacy and critical thinking skills—including thorough description, hypothesizing and reasoning—than students who were not in the program.

Bravo Lucy Walker and Vik Muniz for Waste Land

Thank you Lucy Walker and Vic Muniz for your beautiful film, Waste Land, illustrating how art can transform peoples’ lives.  You deserve the Oscar tonight for Best Documentary Feature. Awesome soundtrack by Moby, too.

This week's "Collaborations" piece was created by Armand Rusillon and his daughter

CultureChild: Parent-child art collaboration entitled, "Kitchen Door."

Passing time on a white, wintry morning.

Introducing "Collaborations"

CultureChild: "The Red Studio" by Henri Matisse

It dawned on me during my research for this blog that among the benefits of connecting children to painting, sculpture, dance, music, photography, storytelling, design, theater and art at large, the most wonderful benefit of all is the deepening of our connection to our children through art that we experience together.

Every time I see my daughter joyfully creating “masterpieces” on her plastic foldaway picnic table, her “Red Studio,” as we’ve dubbed it, I am pleasantly reminded of the morning we spent with other families at MoMA, sprawled underneath Henri Matisse’s celebrated painting “The Red Studio,” drawing fanciful depictions of our favorite places.

With this fond memory in mind, I am happy to introduce “Collaborations,” an ongoing series in my blog showcasing beautiful collaborations between artists (or art lovers) and their children. 

A Parent's Struggle With a Child's iPad Addiction per David Pogue

Great post today from David Pogue: A Parent’s Struggle With a Child’s iPad Addiction

I‘m with David Pogue regarding “Moderation in all things.”  However, at 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday, I’m with Oscar Wilde, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”   On weekends, I gladly hand over my iPad to my 7-year-old in exchange for an extra hour of sleep.

Interview with Megan Lucas, Freelance Museum Educator

CultureChild: Teaching Children About Art

Sunday, I chatted with Megan Lucas, a freelance educator for the Family Programs at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), during a visit with my daughter to the museum’s Material Lab.  Here are a few excerpts from our conversation.

CultureChild:  Why is it important to teach children about art?

Megan:  Teaching children about art helps them realize things about themselves, their surroundings and others. I find that children develop their own lenses by observing how artists use theirs. By observing the artwork of others, children can reflect on themselves and their surroundings. Through our Family Programs, family members can come to these realizations collectively.

In MoMA’s Family Art Workshop for Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914, we help children understand Picasso’s lens by asking them to think about an everyday object that has personal significance and what the object represents to them.   To Picasso, the guitars in his work symbolize Spain and his love of music.   

CultureChild: Do you know of any research that connects children learning about art to their personal development?

Megan:  The Guggenheim Museum’s Learning Through Art program (LTA) conducted and published research linking art education to the development of literacy and critical thinking skills.  The Guggenheim Museum recently published another study about how observation and art-making enhance problem-solving skills.

CultureChild: In addition to the MoMA’s Family Art Workshops, how can parents help children engage with art?

Internet and Technology in Schools: Why We Shouldn’t Pull the Plug

CultureChild: Technology and School

Most parents of school-aged kids are aware of a current debate taking place on- and off-line, regarding the use of computer technology and the Internet at school.  During the past week, there has been a lot of heated comments on the The Huffington Post as a result of Laurie David and Susan Stiffelman’s recent post, “Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug?”

I believe in teaching children in school and at home the importance of balancing technology in their lives and how to use the Internet responsibly, in tandem with a lot of teacher and parent supervision.  I’ve seen technology offer my daughter educational experiences that wouldn’t have been as dynamic for her otherwise. 

Google Art Project: Touring the Tate between Science and Recess

Thanks to Google’s new website, Google Art Project, students (and anyone with Internet access) can visit some of the world’s greatest art museums without leaving the classroom—a brilliant example of using technology to connect and engage millions with art. The site uses Google Street View to offer virtual tours of 17 museums, including the Tate Britain in London, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA in New York and Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

What stirs your creative soul?

While walking through the MoMA’s painting and sculptural galleries is a visceral experience for me, it’s not so much for my seven-year-old—especially when she has an entirely different idea of how we should be spending a Saturday morning. 

 

A source of inspiration for my effort to nurture my child’s creative development was seeing Julie Taymor speak about her artistic process at the Rubin Museum of Art’s 2008 Brainwave Festival.  For those who aren’t familiar with her, Julie Taymor is a visionary director of film (Frida, Across the Universe) theater (The Lion King, Spiderman) and opera (The Magic Flute), lauded for her kaleidoscopic fusion of music, word and image.  The Brainwave Festival, now in its sixth year, pairs prominent scientists with equally important artists and educators.  I attended a discussion in which Julie Taymor discussed her creative process with neuroscientists Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D., and Sam Wang, Ph.D., authors of the book, Welcome to Your Brain.