The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College presents a series of seven Family Saturday programs to accompany the work in their summer exhibitions Dona Nelson: Stand Alone Paintings and Give a damn.
Held on Saturdays from July 7 through August 18, the programs include a brief tour of one of the exhibitions followed by a hands-on art-making activity, with all materials provided.
The programs run from 2:00 to 3:30 PM, except on Frances Day on July 14, and are free and open to the public. Suitable for children ages 5 and up along with their adult companions. Reservations are required and may be made one week in advance of the program. For more information and reservations, please call the Tang’s Visitor Service Desk at 518-580-8080.
July 7 – Magical Maps
We will look at the exhibition Dona Nelson: Stand Alone Paintings and how the abstract work can look like a map, with straight and curling lines suggesting roads and built up areas of paint and cheesecloth looking like topographical features. Then we will create our own magical maps with stencils, yarn, plastic paper, and a variety of pencils and watercolors.
July 14 – FIFTH ANNUAL FRANCES DAY!
Enjoy food, music, and tours! No registration required for this event.
Drop-in art activities from 2 to 5 pm will include:
- Community art-making featuring pegboard, yarn, and markers to create a two-sided abstract artwork inspired by two-sided paintings in Dona Nelson: Stand Alone Paintings
- Printmaking led by Kamau Amu Patton, the featured artist in the exhibition Tel_
- Get your photo taken in a specially designed interactive diorama by artists Wendy Red Star, whose Four Seasons photographs are on view in the exhibition Give a damn., and her daughter, Beatrice Red Star Fletcher
- Make your own masterpiece! Button-making and sun visor decorating in the atrium
July 21 – Suncatcher Mobiles
After a brief tour and discussion of Dona Nelson: Stand Alone Paintings, we will create beautiful suncatcher mobiles with wax paper, crayons, strings, hole punchers, and a special finishing touch to hold them together. They will look phenomenal in the sun!
July 28 — Power Up
We will look and talk about the dynamic artwork of Corita Kent in the exhibition Give a damn., and how her work sparked love and connections. Then we will make our own signs with stamps and ink pads of different colors.
August 4 —Outdoor Rubbing Art
We will look at and talk about Dona Nelson’s artwork that uses rubbings. Then we will venture outside with white paper and crayons to create our own artistic rubbings by using the bark on trees, the surfaces of sidewalks, and much more.
August 11 — Ocean Habitat Diorama
Artist Dona Nelson created artwork inspired by whales and octopus. After viewing her work, we will make dioramas of underwater habitats with boxes, bubble wrap, pipe cleaners, scrap paper, and your own creations of swimming creatures!
August 18 — Papel Picado
We will look at Daniel Gonzalez’s Artes es Vida in the exhibition Give a damn. and talk about the artwork, how it is made, and the Mexican folk art tradition of papel picado, or cut paper. Then we will make our own papel picado creations with both construction and tissue paper, markers, and more!
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 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, and is closed on Mondays and holidays. More information at http://tang.skidmore.edu.
