"Art Adventures": How KidsPlay in Torrington Acts as a Cultural Gateway
What place does a children's museum have in a cultural district?
Most people would agree that one of the major purposes of a child’s education is to prepare them for the “real world” - that curious blend of adult privileges and adult responsibilities that lies far in their future. Here lies one of the great difficulties of education: the real world is full of realities, ranging from death and sickness to war and genocide, that are extremely difficult to teach young children, who may not yet be exposed to them, about. Even more challenging, these difficult realities are not separate from daily life, but are rather intertwined with almost everything that we say and do.
The
Native Voices
exhibition at Five Points Art Gallery in Torrington is a perfect example of the inseparable nature of these hardships and life. The group show features art by four indigenous artists from across North America: Nate Begay, Patrick Collins, Rebekah Jarvey, and Jason Montgomery. Many of the pieces in the show celebrate indigenous art and indigenous identity in a variety of mediums, including painting, digital media, and contemporary fashion.
Opening on the same day as
Native Voices was Nayana LaFond’s
Portraits in RED: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls/People (MMIW).
This show of twenty-five monochromatic portraits strives to bring attention to the violence faced by indigenous people in North America and to the lack of response that these tragedies often generate.
Both exhibitions dealt with the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Although they drew high praise from members of the community for both the skill of the artists and the power of the message behind much of the work, presenting the work to children, who may or may not themselves be of indigenous descent, and who may or may not be familiar with the social and historical contexts of the work, is a more difficult proposition.
In planning their “Art Adventures” programs, the educational staff of KidsPlay Children’s Museum are careful to consider questions such as this.
“When we first heard about the Native Voices exhibit planned at Five Points Gallery, we were eager to align some of our programming since our 2022 focus is Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility,” says KidsPlay Museum Director, Eileen Mariott. “Our plans included an ‘Art Adventure’ field trip to bring families to the show.” The planned visit to Five Points follows on the heels of the museum’s “Hands-on History” and “Native Storytelling” programs, both of which worked in conjunction with the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, CT to introduce museum visitors to the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of the northeastern United States.
“Nayana Lafond’sPortraits in RED
are stunning both in their beauty and in their subject matter,” Marriott says. “I was blown away by the work.”
“Admittedly, when the exhibit opened I had second thoughts,” Marriott continues. “The show was so powerful and the focus on MMIW seemed too obvious to overcome, I didn't know how it could be shared with KidsPlay's young audience.
”Patty Cassella, KidsPlay’s Learning Experience Specialist, worked together with Karl Goulet and Judy McElhone of Five Points to develop a program themed around identity for the children and to use this lens to help them to understand the art. Throughout the program, children were invited to reflect on the importance of their own sense of who they are, and how challenging it would be if that identity were taken away.
“Five Points believes exposing children to art early on benefits them later in life,” say Goulet.
“Our cooperative learning experiences with Five Points always encourage children to use their eyes and imaginations,” says Cassella. “We learn about the choices artists have with materials, lines, colors and shapes. We develop relevant vocabulary such as self portrait and identity and important language skills such as storytelling.”
“The families who shared their loved ones’ portraits as part of Native Voices wanted to preserve the identities (and stories) that otherwise would have been lost,” Cassella continues. “Our emphasis of this Art Adventure was not on what was lost, but on the power of art to tell the stories of identities. Then, the children had the Art Adventure of being artists, in this case, creating their own self portraits to tell their own stories of identity. It is always a privilege to facilitate these experiences with Five Points and Karl Goulet’s expertise.”
After touring both the Native Voices show and Portraits in RED, the children participating in the program were invited to share their own interpretations and “stories” about several paintings from that show with the group, encouraging them to think critically and imaginatively about the pieces.
“The children were very insightful, very creative,” says Christina Prinssen, Communications Coordinator at KidsPlay, who attended the event.
Afterwards, the children were shown several portraits from Native Voices and then given mirrors and art supplies so that they could create their own self-portraits. Cassella then engaged the children in discussion about their own art, asking them why they made certain choices in how they represented themselves. One child, who had drawn herself with two different colored eyes, explained that she had done so because her eyes look different to her in different lights.
The children were also introduced to the different styles and techniques behind the clothing art on display and were given the opportunity after the program to return to KidsPlay Children’s Museum to make their own versions of “Ribbon Drip” art, deepening their understanding of the pieces they had seen earlier that day.
Part of the mission of KidsPlay is to serve as a cultural gateway, deepening children’s appreciation of the arts and the world around them. Art, however, is not separate from its historical and cultural context, which often includes painful and difficult realities. By hosting the “Art Adventures” program to present
Native Voices to the children in a developmentally appropriate way, KidsPlay’s staff have worked to give them the tools to understand and enjoy art more fully as they grow up, preparing them for all the joys of that far-off “real world.”
