Target Free Second Sunday – July 12
Events, Target Free Second SundayTarget Free Second Sunday is coming up at The New Children’s Museum. On July 12th we will open our doors at 10am, with free admission sponsored by Target.
We hope you’re ready for some summer fun! Tap Fever Dance Studio and Eveoke Dance Studio will bring their dancing shoes, ready to wow and entertain your family. We’ll also have a special reading of Cabo and Coral Go Surfing by Udo Wahn. Don’t forget your sunblock so you can catch a wave or two with some adventurous fish!
June’s Target Free Second Sunday was a huge hit with the the San Diego Sea Lions Soccer Team. The kids got to meet the soccer players as well as Sammie the Sea Lion. By the end of the day, we had future soccer stars kicking balls around in the park. Thanks for being a part of the fun-filled day!
Where in the world?
Studios, Summer of New, Teen Council, Teen StudioMap it out in the Teen Studio! If you haven’t had a chance to check out Tim Schwartz latest work, you’re missing out. Through July 20th, join us for an interactive exploration in America’s View of the World. Looking at newsworthy destinations across the globe, you can plot their location on a larger-than-life map—and have some crazy fun in the process.
Thanks to Teen Council member Aleesha Rackley, we’ve got a behind-the-scenes exclusive with Tim! What is it? What led you to art? And, my personal favorite: if you couldn’t do art, what would you do? Get the answers to all of these questions! How would you answer the same questions?
Imagination and Harold & the Purple Crayon
Summer of New, Visitor Experience, childsplay“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
Summer is here and it’s time to play! With more kids out of school the Museum is filled with the easygoing spirit these warm months embody. NCM has always been a place where imagination reigns and anyone who visits can let their creative energy burst wherever it will.
So it’s absolutely fitting that NCM is now playing Harold and the Purple Crayon in the Tech Studio. In this charming book turned film, a little boy named Harold travels the night alone with his purple crayon and creates a dream adventure on his own terms. When Harold decides to take a walk one night he realizes he needs a moon, so he draws one! And because he’s made his own moon, it stays with him and lights his path the entire way. He draws a forest where he thinks a forest ought to be; he creates a ship and a sea to sail on. Whatever Harold wants to experience, he draws and composes all the accessories and delights he thinks a proper adventure should have, navigating his new world of course with his big PURPLE crayon.
In this way, Harold becomes somewhat of an ambassador for the inventiveness all children possess. This story is not only adorable and fun to watch, but more importantly it speaks to the power of imagination found especially in children and their distinct ability to create a world based on their unique outlook. His adventure is limitless and his crayon becomes the compass of his creativity.
As a gallery guide at NCM, I’m privileged to witness this boundless energy and help shape kids imaginations all day long! And that’s not to say they’re not shaping mine in the process.
For example, one of my favorite areas downstairs is the shadow puppet theater. This is where kids get to cut out shapes from paper to make their own shadow puppet stories with a screen of projected light. Sometimes it’s difficult to create a puppet without using any pen to draw a dog or a ship or even a funny face. But that supposed lack of resources opens a whole new world of puppet possibilities.
Just the other day I was sitting with a group of lively school kids and a few were at a loss for what to create. One girl, named Maribel had a genius idea. “Well,” she addressed the group like a director, “Let’s try cutting out shapes and see what we think they are!” Brilliant! So we started with seemingly strange shapes and came up with a theater of new characters. A circle with a door cut out became a mermaid grotto, and a long squiggly line became a new strand of seaweed. With their freshly cut puppets these kids told an underwater story all their own.
Like Harold with his purple crayon, these kids dictated their own direction in their art and bolstered their self-sufficiency to decide what they wanted to see. Pablo Picasso once said, “All children are born artists,” and that couldn’t be any truer. When fostered early on, creativity grows exponentially and affects all who come across its contagious energy. Imagination is a powerful tool and being able to shape perspective through art is an ability that can change the world.
—Angella d’Avignon, Gallery Guide
music + movement
Arts Education Center, Classes
Music and Movement Class is back at NCM. Songs, dance, and play–all rolled in to this energetic 45 minute class. Bring your toddler (2 and under) and get active!
Tuesdays from 11:30am – 12:30pm (note time change)
Sign up for the series, or drop-in and try it out.
Want more details? Click here!
Special Giveaway This Sunday
Membership, News, Target Free Second Sunday, Visitor ExperienceThis coming Sunday, June 14th is our Target Free Second Sunday. So, everyone who comes to the Musuem gets free admission! Be sure to check out our entertainment lineup!
We are also partnering with Sesame Street Live to do a special giveaway. Every family that signs up for a NCM Membership this coming Sunday will be put in a drawing to receive a Family 4-Pack to to see Elmo and the gang at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Hope to see you there!
What’s Your Creative Fix?
Events, WorkshopsWhat if President Obama asked you for your ideas about how to fix the country’s troubles? Artist Sheryl Oring thinks everyone should have the chance to share their opinion on how to make things better, and so launched her Creative Fix project. Visit NCM this Sunday, June 7 from 1–4pm to share your “Creative Fix” on camera with Oring. Past contributers to the project include artists, musicians, architects and students, and now is your chance to offer up your ideas. To learn more about this project, and to watch the clever solutions offered by other participants, visit Oring’s website at iwishtosay.org.
Don’t miss this chance to be part of an innovative, original, artwork!
Kickin’ It with NCM at Target Free Day
Events, Visitor Experience
I would first like to take a moment to thank everyone who made it out to the Museum to help us celebration our 1-year birthday on May 10th. The weather was perfect to enjoy activities both inside the Museum and outside in the park.
The Paul Green School of Rock Music band came out to perform for museum goers. Man, talk about a talented group of young kids! They were amazing and played some real classic rock songs. We hope to have them back in the near future. Another big thanks goes out to our other performers for the day: Xtreme Fun, Hoop Dance with Valentina Martin, Monarch School Steel Drum Band, San Diego Youth Symphony and skateboarding with Chris Yandall.
Thinking that our Target Free Second Sundays sound like a ton of fun? Don’t worry we have a summer full of entertainment coming up!
June’s Target Free Second Sunday is on the 14th. The San Diego Sea Lions Women’s Soccer Team will be here from 11AM to 12PM. Not only will they will being putting on a demo in the Museum park, but the kids will get to interact with the players learning some sweet soccer skills!
Hope you can come kick it with us at NCM on June 14th!
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Action Painting Theory and Making Stuff Spin
Studios, Workshops
Preface: I suppose the May Gray has put me in a bit of a contemplative mood today, so pardon my escapades into philosophy in this post…
The name “action painting” implies just that: action. This form of painting produces a work of art that references the process one took to create it. While we could trace action painting back through our modern art history, I think the action pretty much speaks for itself. Making a painting sans brushes, using an alternative tool to place the paint on paper, and having to engage your body in producing the finished piece all seem to turn the sometimes-stuffy act of painting into some sort of game or event. Perhaps in some respect, this type of painting takes the pressure off a bit. Rather than worrying about our less than desirable skills of rendering a to-scale-landscape (let alone using paint to do this), we are freed from the constraints of making any sort of recognizable object. Thus we are able to focus on the act itself.
Last summer we featured an action painting workshop in our paint studio, using various size and shape paint-dipped-balls to create a painting. This summer we have taken a new spin on action painting…literally.
Our new Spin Top workshop is action painting meets nostalgia. Families are able to create paintings by spinning tops onto paper, thus conjuring up our childhood memories of yesteryear.
Basically there are materials involved in the tops we have designed. 1. Rollie-ball-Paint-pen-things (basically a tube of paint with a ball at the end that transfers the paint onto paper), and 2. Various sized wooden circles, each with a Rollie-ball-Paint-pen-thing shaped hole cut in it. Some of these holes are centered, while others are drilled purposely off-centered. The way the tops spin is affected by the placement of these holes. Also, the circles have each been hand painted by studio facilitators, and our images of patterns, strawberries, pizzas, and space scenes add character to each wooden piece.
So, children are presented with options. Beautiful options. They are challenged to decide which color paint they would like to use, which wooden circles they would like to create the top out of, how many wooden circles, which size wooden circles, and so on. The possible outcome of tops is many. Because of all of these options, a big part of this workshop is exploration, and discovering how the variables involved make an impact on the way the tops spins and the way the paint is being put on paper. So, after the options are filtered through, and a top has been made, the game begins and families can spin their paintings to life. The floor frames that cradle the paper become a sort of communal table where tops and children interact and collaborate on a finished piece. Arms flail, tops collide, and children make new friends.
This workshop is really great for all ages; while a two year old may not be able to actually spin the tops, they are certainly able to push or move or stamp the top, all of which will create interesting patterns. So come on down families, and spin as long as you can and as wacky as you can, and create an unconventional piece of art using your body and wit.
—Lindsay Preston, Studio Facilitator
Teen Day Update!
Arts Education Center, Events, Teen Council, Teen StudioHey NCM Family!
Just a quick reminder; Teen Day is approaching quickly! Teen Day is a day for teenagers to come and get a taste of the museum, to explore its interesting artwork and gain appreciation for a variety of art forms. NCM has so much to offer teens and Sunday, June 7th from 1-4 pm is the best time to check it all out. On Teen Day all visitors ages 11-18 receive FREE admission!
If you’re a teen artist, it isn’t to late to submit your work to be displayed in the Museum on Teen Day. Please contact Aleesha Rackley @ myo@thinkplaycreate.org for more information. Hope to see you there!
—Aleesha Rackley, NCM High School Intern and Teen Council Member
