>Art Class @ The Noguchi Museum

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Art Class at the Nogchu Museum 7/25/09 10:30-11:45

Creating a Masterpiece out of Clay - Final sculpture: Jay Jay the Plane

In the museum looking at sculptures and drawing them.

Today when we woke up I asked my 21 month old Samantha if she wanted to go to school. She knows her older cousins go to school, so she said "Yeah!" and was very excited. We were taking her to the Noguchi Museum for an Art for Tots program.

The Noguchi Museum is located in Long Island City, NY. and was created by Isamu Noguchi . "The Noguchi Museum offers a variety of education and public programs that seek to introduce the work and vision of Isamu Noguchi to diverse audiences. These programs encourage the investigation of Noguchi's work from different vantage points, and support participants as they experience the artist's work from their own perspectives." Link

They have a variety of education programs there. We decided to take my Samantha there. When we arrived we sat on a Mat and did stretches. Then the teacher handed out clay. She asked the children to describe the smell, texture & color. After the discussion was complete we headed over to the tables which the children were able to create their own sculpture out of clay. Samantha had an awesome time doing this. Maybe a month ago we introduced her to play-doh, which she absolutely loves! You can see her beautiful scultpture of Jay Jay the plane on the top of this page.

After creating a magnificent piece of art, the teacher gave the children a clipboard with questions about scultures. They were asked to draw the sculptures in the museum. So at first this was all new to Samantha but by the end suprisingly Samantha was laying on the floor trying to draw the scultures on the paper so that she can remember them when we go home.

After that we went back town to the classroom. All the children talked about the sculpture that they made. After each child went everyone applauded. Then it was time to go home.

Samantha had a great time and felt like such a big girl going to "school." I think its gret at her age to introduce her to a classroom type environment and be around other children. Also, introducing her to art is very important to me.

More adventures to come tomorrow. For it is a new day...