Education and Community Programs

I love the work of Calef Brown. For years I have been amazed as a room full of kids suffering from some serious cabin fever listen intently to Brown’s poems, or stories as he calls them. But seriously, how could they resist bats pooping on people? The illustrations and words weave together and create stories within stories. It’s magical how Brown inspires kids’ imaginations. The kids would take a poem like Skeleton Flowers, which is about what it sounds like, and turn it into an elaborate world of monster bees that use the pollen from the flowers to turn people into zombies. In response to the poem about Ed who likes red the kids thought that if he married a girl who likes green then he wouldn’t look so sad. I could go on forever… Mother of two, Heather Armstrong of the super blog Dooce, sums it when she proclaims Polkabats and Octopus-Slacks “is pure genius.”

So you can understand my enthusiasm when the opportunity came to bring Calef Brown to the Walker. Local musician Kate Lynch and Chris Beaty, aka Clemetown, created a musical versions of Brown’s Polkabats and Octopus Slacks and Dutch Sneakers and Flea-Keepers. On January 2 Calef, Clemetown, a funky snowman, and some others will take the stage at Free First Saturday for a performance filled with music, live drawing, stories, and lots of dancing.

In the meantime I asked Calef some relevant (and some not so relevant) questions about his childhood and life as a father.

What was your imaginary friend like?
A stock car-driving-cat named Cannonball

How did your family influence your career?
Everyone in my family has a good sense of humor. We’ve always been able to make each other laugh. The nonsensical spirit of my books is very influenced by that.

What was your favorite bedtime story?
I had lots of favorites, but for a while I especially liked A Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter, because it involves ransacking, and the name Hunca Munca cracked me up.

What was your first pet like?
A wonderful German Shepard mix named Dickens. She was hit by a car and lost one of her front legs, but she still got around okay and lived a long life.

When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
I have always loved to draw and paint since age 5 or 6, but in high school I realized that it was the only thing that I was good at, so I should give it a go as a career.

What’s your favorite line of poetry?
Do I search for what is not?
Vainly, vainly have I sought?
Or in searching do I find,
The end that so eludes my mind?

My father wrote that when he was in college.

What surprised you most about fatherhood?
I’m more patient and competent than I thought I would be.

What superpower would you like to have?
Flying.

Who’s your favorite villain?
Gollum and the Grinch, who both turn non-villainous.

What did you want to be growing up?
Aside from an artist, a rock musician and/or a racecar driver.

What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Rocky and Bullwinkle

What Disney character most resembles your personality?
I can’t think of a Disney character that I like, I never got the appeal, so for the part of my psyche that’s self-critical and doubting, that can be Donald Duck.

What was your first job?
I was a counselor at a small co-op day camp called Camp Goochy Gotch. My younger sister Phebe came up with the name of the camp.

What’s your advice for all the artist/parents out there?
Since I’ve only been a parent for about 6 months I need to get advice, rather than give it.

What’s the first work of art you remember seeing?
My very first memory is of being on a beach in Maine and watching my mother paint a watercolor. The first work of art that made a big impression on me was a painting called Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War by Salvador Dali. I saw it at the Philadelphia Museum of Art when I was eight or nine and it blew my mind. Very scary, but fascinating.

What question do you wish we had asked you?
I wish you had asked me about what kind of pie I like and why,
because I like eating veggie pie. Want to know the reason why?
The reason is the cheese inside the peas inside the crust.
Tasty peas are stuffed with cheese until they nearly bust.
For those who haven’t tried it yet, you absolutely must!
Especially with cheese inside the peas inside the crust.

December’s Free First Saturday art-making activity featured local artist Andy Ducett, who’s know for creating 3-D environment of carefully arranged thrift store objects. Below, Andy shares inspiration for the project and steps for how to create your own Cabinet of Curiosities at home.

Getting Started
Artist Joseph Cornell took everyday objects to used them in mysterious ways. Cornell let dreams and the unconscious inspire him, and his work is often associated with the Surrealist movement.
You can check out examples of Joseph Cornell’s artwork online, OR, even better, come and see them at the new collections exhibition Event Horizon.

What You Need
1) A sturdy shoe box, about 6″ high, 10″ long and 4″ deep (although any size will work)
2) An old magazine, newspaper, map and some felt or fabric
3) One figurative element ( a plastic animal, action figure, a kid’s meal from fast food restaurant… something to be your box’s “main actor”)
4) A 12″–24″ piece of twine, raffia, string, or another item that creates a line
5) A glue stick, a hot glue gun (with adult supervision!), Mod Podge, or Elmer’s white glue
6) 5–8 mysterious items

Choosing Your “Mysterious Items”
For the Free First Saturday event, we picked up lots of old trinkets. Cornell loved “Victorian” or antique looking items, so look for things both old and used. Smaller objects are better because you don’t want to make the box crowded.
Some possibilities: dominoes, building blocks, scraps of wood, dowels, Lincoln Logs, old nuts and bolts, pieces of old machines, rocks, glass stones, corks, bottle caps, thimbles, puzzle pieces, old game parts, and dice.

Things to Think About
As you are selecting your objects and creating your work ponder these questions:
What sort of things do you dream about?
What do your objects remind you of?
What does it mean to be mysterious?
Is there a story that your box is telling?

The Assembly
Think about Cornell’s work and start to arrange the objects in your box in unexpected ways. Glue something to the ceiling of your box, hide objects behind each other, or pair together unexpected objects. Tear your magazine picture into pieces and cut your felt in unusual patterns. Create something mysterious, like out of a strange dream. Put it all together and you’re done.

Good luck and happy creating. Email pictures of your boxes to kids@walkerart.org

How do you offer toddlers an in-depth engaging experience with contemporary art? What are some interesting ways to help them take in the exhibition Robert Irwin:Light/Slant/Volume?

Robert Irwin, untitled, 1971

An Arty Pants program that included movement in the gallery seemed like a good connection, so we invited Shalya to lead some yoga . Watching those little tykes in galleries (or joining the fun yourself) just warms the heart.

Guest instructor Shalya Boger gets the group warmed up.

Kids make yoga look so easy.

However, some yoga poses call for grown-ups help.

Yeah! Yoga is fun.

With or without yoga, no day is complete without a story.

And some art-making!

Want to get in on the action? We have two more yoga programs in December with guest instructor Jessica Rosenberg. Check out the details here.

I adore the book Where the Wild Things Are! I’m also a big fan of the film’s blog We Love You So and their amazing contests including fort building. We were so inspired that we’ve created a contest of our own using the website ArtsConnectEd. We gathered works from the Walker and Minneapolis Institute of Arts to create a special art collector set to get you inspired.

Now go out and make mischievous works of your own using materials of one kind or another. Email an image of your project to kids@walkerart.org by November 10. Include your first name, last initial, and age. All submissions will be posted on ArtsConnectEd and one winner will receive a $50 gift card to the Walker Shop.

Let the creating begin!

It was a chilly winter morning when my coworker, Ashley, and I were dreaming of the warm summer ahead and the fun activities to do in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. We were both excited by the idea of programming a day inspired by the sculpture Prometheus Strangling the Vulture II, 1944/1953 by Jacques Lipchitz and other mythic works in the garden.

Lipchitz liked to explore themes from mythology. According to legend the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the god Zeus and gave it to the humans. Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where a vulture would eat his liver every day, only to have it grow back every night. Eventually Hercules killed the bird. It’s a great bedtime story.

Ashley turned to me and said “Prometheus was kind of like a superhero. He fought for the humans and never dies.” Perfect! We had theme for day: Super Sculptures!

Fast forward to September. Families had a great time making their own action figures using masking tape and newspaper with artist Mary Rivard. Heroes are often known for being incredibly strong and the artist gave Prometheus some serious muscles, so we invited bodybuilders to come and flex their stuff.

But what is a superhero without a cool super suit! We gave kids tape, cardboard, some paper, makers, string, and let them go wild. Photographer Sam Hoolihan made some fantastic backdrops and spent the day snapping shots of people in their cool new costumes. It was awesome.
Just look at the results.

(more…)

The upcoming Free First Saturday, People Pictures, happening April 4th, takes inspiration from the exhibition Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton. Find out more about the artist in this family-oriented edition of the 8-Ball interview.

When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
Very early – as long as I can remember.

How did you express creativity as a child?
I drew a lot and put a lot of pictures of people up on the wall.

How would you describe the art that you made as a child?
Pictures of faces.

How did your family or teachers influence your career as an artist, if at all?
They were very supportive – gave me lots of paper / drawing materials – very encouraging etc.

What kinds of music did your parents play around the house?
They played Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, old Swing. My older siblings were always playing the Beach Boys and the Beatles.

Did you know any working artists growing up who inspired you?
Not really, though my mother painted.

What artist turned your world upside-down as a teenager?
Warhol – I loved Warhol as a teenager.

What was your favorite book?
A photo book of Elton John and Undoubted Queen – about Queen Elizabeth II, a large photo book my grandmother had.

What was your first job?
I worked for my parents in their candle shop.

Did you have an imaginary friend and if so, what was he/she like?
I did. She was like a genie.

What did you collect as a child?
Pictures (photos) of people – ice skaters, tennis players, musicians.

Who was your favorite pop-star growing up?
David Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy, Elton John, David Bowie – in that order.

Is it quiet when you work? If not, what do you listen to / watch?
I listen to a lot of different kinds of music.

Whose portrait are you still waiting to paint?
Jay Z

Arty Pants is all about the exhibition Text/Messages: Books by Artists in January and February, so we’re making books with guest artist Ellen Ferrari. Here’s the fantastic conversation I had last Tuesday with Jack, age 5, about his book.

Christina: Good morning Jack! That is a nice book you’re making.
Jack: It’s a book about shapes.
Christina: Well that’s very cool. I like your triangle (by the way, he has labeled his shapes with proper names, most of them spelled without help).
Jack: Now I’m going to make a hugg-e shape (pronounced “huggie”).
Christina: What’s a hugg-e shape look like?
Jack: It’s two arms like this… (at which point he hugs himself).
Christina: That’s fantastic. I like your book of shapes.
Jack: Yup. I’ts my little book of very large shapes.

The hugg-e shape is picture on the far right, next to the silly shape.

It was a great Free First Saturday at the Walker, inspired by the exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. Here is a snapshot of what went down.

In an activity prompted by Saarinen’s grasshopper chair, families got to make their own chairs loosely influenced by an animal, plant, or insect.

Using only cardboard scraps, tape, and markers people set to work and produced wildly imaginative results.

Building Challenge

Some families went on a guided tour of the Saarinen exhibition

Father and son duo Larry and Jessup Yazzie of the Meskwaki/Dine and Lakota nations performed the fast and colorful Fancy Dance.

If you’re confused about the connection between the Fancy Dance and a 20th-century architect, check-out this earlier blog.

Special thanks to: artists Kelly Seacrest and Ilene Krug Mojsilov for developing fabulous activities for the families, our rocking team of volunteers for keeping the place going, and the great families who turned out for the event. And, to the girl who turned to her dad and said “I like coming to Walker Art Center, it’s a lot fun”, you made my day!

Cupcakes are a beautiful thing. And a cupcake is even better when it comes as a complete surprise. When Julie* first brought Joe and Mary to a Arty Pants Daniel was just around the corner. When Daniel was ready to leave the house he started coming to Arty Pants as well.

Today was Daniel’s 1st birthday, as well as Julie’s, and I can hardly believe how fast he’s grown. I remember the tiny baby nestled in blankets, hidden from the cold. Now he’s crawling around during the story times and pulling himself up on couches. It has been wonderful to watch him grow. For the birthday celebration they came to Arty Pants followed by a picnic in the Sculpture Garden, that included some cupcakes baked by the family. I got a little misty-eyed when Joe told me they had baked an extra cupcake for me. I even got my choice of color frosting. So Happy Birthday Julie and Daniel! Thanks to Julie, Joe, Mary, Daniel, and Fluffy Cat for making my job an utter joy!

*The names of the individuals and stuffed animal dicussed in this post have been changed.

R.E.M. was my first concert. I remember gushing tears when I first hear heard Everybody Hurts and a number of times afterwards. In high school a boy once wrote out all the lyrics to Crush with Eyeliner in a Valentine’s

Day card for me. I have most of their albums in my car. Since it’s the summer season and we are in the land of 10,000 lakes Nightswimming will finds its way to play list regularly. And yesterday when I was trying to focus on my work I played E-bow the letter almost nonstop for an hour.

So it should not be a surprise that when someone told me Michael Stipe was eating in Gallery 8 Cafe, I dashed out of the office with a few coworkers in tow. I was horribly frightened of being obnoxious, so I stood there wondering, should I or shouldn’t I? Then I thought “Michael Stipe is at the Walker so he must think its cool, and I work at the Walker, therefore I can approach greatness because I am cool by association.” Behold the results.

R.E.M. will be at the XCEL Energy Center tonight with Modest Mouse. And if we’re lucky enough they’ll play Let Me In!