Family Saturdays

In keeping with the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery’s mission to foster interdisciplinary thinking and studying, to invite active and collaborative learning and to awaken the community to the richness and diversity of the human experience through the medium of art, we offer a series of family and adult programs.

More than 30 Family Saturday programs are offered each year in the fall, spring, and summer. These programs are designed to foster multi-generational creative cooperation. Each week we spend a little time in the galleries, focusing on a particular aspect of the exhibition. Just as with our school programs, we conduct discussions that allow the participants to find their own meaning in the artwork, rather than lecturing about it. We then spend an hour or more engaged in a hands-on art activity related to the artwork we have just seen. Children, parents, grandparents, and other adult companions all work on the same type of project, collaborating or working side-by-side on their own projects, proving over and over again that people of all ages have all the creativity they need to have a delightful time while making something extraordinary.

Spring 2008
Family Saturdays Calendar

Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery
Saturdays, February, 16 – April 26, 2008
No program on March 22
2-3:30pm

The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College presents a series of ten Family Saturday programs to accompany the work in our exhibitions this spring: Molecules That Matter; Smack!; and Joseph Grigely: St. Cecilia.

Held on Saturdays from February 16 through April 26 (no program on March 22), the programs include a brief tour followed by a hands-on art activity, with all materials provided.

The programs run from 2:00 – 3:30 PM, and are free and open to the public. Suitable for children ages 5 and up along with their adult companions, the Family Saturday programs are fun and educational.

Reservations are highly encouraged as space is limited and the programs are very popular.

Important Note: You may sign up for each program up to one week in advance. We will no longer take reservations for several sessions at the same time in advance.

For additional information and reservations, or to be added to our Family Saturday e-mail list, please call the Tang’s Visitor Service Desk at 580-8080.

If you have a reservation and have not arrived by 1:55 PM, your seats may be given to someone on the waiting list. Please let us know in advance if you have a reservation and find you cannot attend, so that we can give your places to other eager artists.

Programs are subject to change without notice – you may call a few days ahead to find out about changes.

PDF: Family_Saturdays_Spr08.pdf 

Feb. 16

Plastic Mosaic Collages
After looking at and discussing Tony Cragg’s collage, New Figuration, in the Molecules That Matter exhibition, we will make mosaic collages using brightly colored, irregularly shaped plastic pieces.

Feb. 23

Bounding Balls Flip Book Animation
After watching and listening to Bruce Nauman’s two pieces -- Bouncing Two Balls Between the Floor and Ceiling, and Rhythmic Stamping – in the SMACK! exhibition, we will make flip book animations that show bouncing balls, stamping feet, and other moving objects.

Mar. 1

Nylon and Wire Constructions
After looking at and discussing Susie Brandt’s artwork, After Albers, in the Molecules That Matter exhibition, we will make abstract sculptures out of nylon loops and colored wire.

Mar. 8

13,000 Dots
After looking at and discussing Fred Tomaselli’s artwork, 13,000 (made from 13,000 aspirin!) in the Molecules That Matter exhibition, we will make colorful patterns out of sequins, buttons, candy dots, and other round objects glued to a dark background.

Mar. 15

Lip-Reading Post-It Note Art
After looking at and discussing Joseph Grigely’s giant collage made from notes written to him by various people whose lips he could not read, we will try to read each other’s lips, then write what we think the person said on different colored Post-It notes. Each family or other small group will then put their notes together to make and decorate a collage that tells a story.

Mar. 22

NO PROGRAM THIS WEEK

Mar. 29

Morse Code
We will discuss how Joseph Grigely’s unique and surprising artwork creates situations where hearing people experience misunderstandings from a similar point of view as a deaf person. We will then make sculptures using pipe-cleaners and beads to spell out a simple message in Morse Code that others can decipher only if they know what the dots and dashes mean.

Apr. 5

Bubble Wrap Sculpture
After looking at and discussing Roxy Paine’s blobby black polyethylene sculptures in the Molecules That Matter exhibition, we will make similarly-shaped abstract sculptures out of colored bubble-wrap and packaging tape.

Apr. 12

Smack! Sounds as Art
We will make percussion instruments out of recyclable household materials and play our own composition as a group.

Apr. 19

Sign-Language lessons
After discussing some of the ideas about what it is like to be deaf and try to communicate with others in Joseph Grigely’s one-person exhibition, we will have a sign-language interpreter teach us how to communicate using Sign Language.

Apr. 26

Island Diorama
After looking at Joseph Grigely’s piece, Remembering Is a Difficult Job, But Somebody Has To Do It, guest artist Charles Steckler will help us make dioramas of tropical island scenes.