New York Hall of Science

Color Collage Game

COLOR COLLAGE GAME

When I attended the Filmmakers Collaborative for Adults, Class of Fall 201​4 at Maysles Documentary Center my instructor Suha Araj gave our class a fun photo project. She had us choose a color, look for it in our community and take a photo of it. 

I tried to pick one color but it was hard to just pick one. I challenged myself to create photo compositions with three color combinations: green, red, gold/yellow. I later added brown. 

I turned this fun project into a game. I wrote the color names on paper, folded them, placed them in box and had participants shake and pick two. The two colors they chose were the  two colors they were to use. They had choices of different papers all with different hues, tints and shades. I also gave them the option to use white and black as accents.

Participants used different papers and materials in the two hues they randomly chose and we discussed ways of changing paper. We cut, wrinkled, folded, crumpled and ripped papers to create texture and contrast. Below are images of the colleges the participants were creating. I do not have images of the completed projects but I think it was a good way to spend 30 to 40 minutes with people of any age. 

Materials:

- glue

- construction paper and other kinds of paper of different colors

- scissors

Extra Materials:

- Different materials of different colors

- Markers or other coloring tools

Art in Abundance

 Saturday May 14th I taught I puppet making class to families at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn for their Art in Abundance Celebration. What I love about jointed puppets is that you can also create stop motion movies. You can find free stop motion applications that can be downloaded on phones and pads in app stores. Puppets encourage storytelling and can be fun ways to practice reading and writing. 

I love watching families make art together. It's almost magical how art making can make people realize how creative they are when they just let go and create. 

Great Art Exhibits to check out with family!

Spring time is an excellent time to go out and enjoy time together in parks and zoos but their are some great indoor exhibits for families to check out as well.

Before going to any museum it is good to have a plan and agenda. Scavenger hunts, research projects and art inspired projects after visits can make visits more meaningful and entertaining.

THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM has a couple exhibits that can excite young minds.
Palatable: Food and  Contemporary Art is a great exhibit for spotting food in art. You can discuss the reasons the food is a part of the composition, what kind of food was used or represented, and later create your own composition using food as a theme. This can mean using collage, painting or creating actual culinary sculptures that can be eaten after created.

Romare Bearden, Family, 1969

Miguel Luciano, Pure Plantainum, 2006
Inside is a rotting plantain that was plated in platinum

EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO has the Illusive Eye exhibit is an international survey on Kinetic and Op art. The exhibition offers a broad intellectual context for Op art and geometric abstraction, one that goes against the grain of formalist art history. The selection provides a special focus on artwork from the Americas and features major artists from eighteen countries in Latin America and beyond. 

This is a great exhibit to explore line, shape, movement, illusion and sculpture. Fun projects can be to make your own opt art or mobile. 

More images of this exhibit can be found at http://iamstyleoverfashion.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-illusive-eye.html 

 and at the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY  Printing Women: Three Centuries of Female Printmakes, 1570 - 1900. Beside being a magnificent main branch located in the middle of all the action of the city (42nd street) their early collection of pr a great surprise.
 As stated on their website: Physically demanding and technically challenging, printmaking has often been considered man’s labor. As the Library’s unusual collection by forward-thinking Henrietta Louisa Koenen (1830-1881) demonstrates, engravings, etchings, woodcuts and lithographs executed by female printmakers have been around almost as long as artists started creating prints in the late fifteenth century. From 1848 until 1861, she collected an astonishing array of sheets by women artists from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Executed by experts and amateurs alike, these women pursued their craft as part of larger family workshops, as a means of self-realization and for the thrill of making and sharing pictures created in multiples.
This can lead to a fun print making project that needs foam, a stylus or blunt pencil, paint, paint brush (or brayer and ink) and paper. 

These are just three of many, many exhibitions that are going on in New York City. I suggest always checking the institutions website first and then planning your trip. Happy Museum Visiting!!!! 

ps I plan to add more as I check out new exhibits all year long. 

MO Willems and more at the New York Historical Society

I haven't taught Pre-k to 1st grade in a while now and I miss it so. I use to read books to kids in classrooms and I still read to my son even though he is now ten going on eleven very soon. I love children's books and I have written my own and plan to publish them one day so that I can continue teaching and reading to young children. I say that because I was so lucky to watch Mr. Mo Willems present his books and introduce his recent exhibition at the New York Historical Society. 

He was funny, engaging and it was an awesome performance that I definitely learned from. 

Here are some photos from our visit to the New York Historical Society. The exhibition was not open the day we went but I have two photos at the bottom of the space. It was a great visit none the less.

Below are images from the Silicon City Exhibition up until April 17th.