The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces its Fall 2019 Family Saturdays, a series of multigenerational creative collaborations on each Saturday from October 5 through November 23.
Each program includes looking at artwork in the museum’s fall exhibitions, discussing and sharing ideas, and engaging in a hands-on art activity inspired by those conversations. The spring exhibitions includeElevator Music 39: Bug; Beauty and Bite; Serious Sparkle; and Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison.
Most of the free programs run from 2:00 to 3:30 PM, unless otherwise specified, and are suitable for children ages 5 and older, accompanied by their adult companions.
This fall the Tang will be offering an extra session for tweens on two Saturdays: Oct. 26 and Nov. 9. On those days, the session from 1:00 to 2:30 PM will be for children age 5 to 9 and their adult companions; and the session from 3:00 to 4:30 PM will be for tweens age 10 to 13 and their adult companions.
Fall also brings the 17th Annual Make-a-Turkey-Out-of-a-Potato Festival, which will take place Saturday Nov. 23, the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Registration is required for all Family Saturday events. You can register beginning one week before each program. To register, call the Tang’s Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080.
The Tang welcome visitors of all abilities. Be prepared to get messy and have fun! Share your Family Saturday photos on social media by including #tangfamsat.
FALL 2019 FAMILY SATURDAYS
October 5: Mapping: Images and Symbols
After investigating Ree Morton’s Souvenir Piece, 1973, we will create a map describing our life by using images and symbols to “map” and illustrate the places and locations that we encounter. Join us to explore what a map of our life would look like!
October 12: What Empowers You?
In the exhibition Serious Sparkle, we will explore how artists discuss the idea of beauty and power. What empowers each of us? After thinking about this question, we will create our own masks that reflect the ways that we feel empowered!
October 19: Celebration Weekend – Drop in Art Activity
Noon to 1:30 pm
In the spirit of the artist Ree Morton, join us at the Tang to create your own work of art!
October 26: Moving Images
1:00 to 2:30 PM — For ages 5 to 9
After watching William Kentridge’s animation in the exhibition Beauty and Bite, we will create our own moving drawings in the form of either a flip book or layers of clear acetate! Let’s make a movie!
3:00 to 4:30 PM — For ages 10 to 13
After watching William Kentridge’s animation in the exhibition Beauty and Bite, we will discuss the idea of time and how Kentridge uses text, imagery and motion in his piece. We will then create our own moving drawings in the form of either a flip book or layers of clear acetate as the building block of making a hand-made animation!
November 2: Flags for Friends
In Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison, the artist made flags by hand for loved ones by using personalized symbols to represent each person. Inspired by this gesture, we will create our own flags for someone important in our lives.
November 9: Bugged Out!
1:00 to 2:30 PM — For ages 5 to 9
After we spend some time playing with the installation Elevator Music 39: Bug and listening to the sounds of all the colors in the elevator, we will create our own soundtrack of colorful music. Come and get Bugged Out with us!
3:00 to 4:30 PM — For ages 10 to 13
After investigating the elevator installation Elevator Music 39: Bug, we will discuss the idea of how the different colors and patterns create a diverse range of sounds and tones. Then we will create our own musical score by thinking about what colors and patterns we would “order” to create a melody.
November 16: Futuristic Environments
Looking at the Beehive Project, a collaborative work by Frank Moore and Jim Self in the exhibition Beauty and Bite, we will create our own 3-D “stage” where we imagine a futuristic world where people and all creatures of our home planet Earth coexist in harmony!
November 23: 17th Annual Make-a-Turkey-Out-of-a-Potato Festival
Join us for our 17th Annual Make-a-Turkey-Out-of-a-Potato Festival at the Tang and create your own turkey-potato art just in time for the holiday season — and make new friends while you’re at it! This special day is free and open to all! Please register with VSD at 518.580.8080 to reserve your spot!
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the institution’s approach has become a model for university art museums across the country with exhibition programs and series that bring together the visual and performing arts with fields of study as disparate as history, astronomy, and physics. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, the Mellon Seminar, and robust publication and touring exhibition initiatives that extend the institution’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of ideas and exchange the institution catalyzes. The museum is open from noon to 5 pm on Tuesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 9 pm on Thursday, and is closed on Mondays and holidays. http://tang.skidmore.edu
