oston Children’s Museum supports Creative Kids by offering
joyful, memorable, multi-sensory arts experiences. Research shows that the arts contribute to childhood development by helping to hone children’s creative aptitude, language arts, math, critical thinking, and communication skills. All children and families need arts in their lives, and Boston Children’s Museum ensures access to the arts in many intriguing ways.
In the Art Studio, children and families explore an array of open-ended processes and materials, such as paper collage, printmaking, and sculpting 3D forms with clay, paper, fabric, or felt. FY 2009 programs included the Museum-wide Paperfest that offered demonstrations by professional paper crafters from around the world and many handson activities. In the Art Meets Music programs, visitors interacted with blues and jazz musicians and responded with mixed-media expressions. In Sketcher’s Studio, visitors were challenged to combine a wide variety of new materials in surprising arrangements.
A series of high-profile installations put the Museum’s Gallery on the map of Boston’s art scene. Designed as a fi rst gallery experience, the space welcomed visitors with touchable features and friendly signage to guide careful looking and parent-child conversations. In September, the Gallery hosted “The Dirty Dozen: 12 Artists & a Ton of Trash,” a juried show featuring artwork created from junk mail, traffic signs, soda cans, and other recycled materials. In the spring of 2009, the Gallery presented nationally acclaimed public artist Bren Bataclan. His “SMILE Boston Project” consisted of whimsical paintings posted in public places for people to take, along with a note that reads “This painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often.” Bataclan conducted popular workshops on how to create smile paintings with similar messages as part of the international “Smile” project.
The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation KidStage at Boston Children’s Museum offers many visitors their first experience with live theater, music and dance. Under the artistic direction of the award-winning City Stage Company, Inc. professional actors performed original plays such as “Balancing Act: The Musical” and “Arthur Builds a Treehouse” and invited children to participate in them. Visitors also enjoyed previews of Boston Ballet’s “Nutcracker” and Boston Lyric Opera’s “Patches the Elf” and “The Magic Flute.”
Many musical genres filled the Museum with performances by Janie Allen and the Children’s Freedom Chorus, Inca Son from Peru, bluegrass by Eric Roper, folk by Oen Kennedy, blues by Valerie Stephens, and experimental music by Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Tony Fonseca led an outdoor drum circle. The Longy School of Music offered an instrument petting zoo and played classical music. The arts at Boston Children’s Museum provide encouraging, thoughtful ways for children and families to express and celebrate their creativity
“The first thing we do when we arrive at the Museum is check to see what art activities will be offered that day. Many tie in with special events and exhibits – we loved the Japanese tie-dye workshop and the collage workshop that tied in with the art gallery show. The everyday activities like crayon resist always give us great ideas for things to do at home.
My daughter has so much fun experimenting with the materials – [the exhibit interpreter] reminds us how important that is for her age. I am a middle school art teacher and it’s helpful to hear what is appropriate for young kids and how to support their creativity while working together! We love that she learns real concepts and techniques, too, all while enjoying the art-making process!”
—Suanne Peterson
