Saturday, November 4 promises to be a great day for families at the Walker. November’s Free First Saturday, Light’s Out! will feature an artmaking project designed around creating glow-in-the-dark wearable art, a kids’ disco party, cool films, and a performance by Circus Minimus. Families should also make sure to take a trip into the galleries where tour guides will be stationed by artworks that incorporate “mysterious shapes and spaces.”

One such work is Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale-Attesa (Spatial Concept- Expectation) from 1964-65. The work is a painted canvas with a dramatic slash down the center. As the artist said, “Space is behind and around the painting.” He changed the flat smooth surface of the canvas, helping us to look through the painting and wonder about the space behind and around it.
As you look at this artwork, think about how this work is like both a painting and a sculpture. How do you think making this artwork was like making a performance? Do you think Fontana made his slash slowly or quickly?
Have your child make an artwork and then have him or her cut or tear a slash into an area of the artwork. How does this change the space of the artwork? How did they decide where to make the slash, how long and what shape it should be? What would they want to put behind their opening?
Don’t foget to come to the Walker on Saturday, November 4 to learn more about how artists use shape and space in unusual ways, or to see more works by Lucio Fontana.
Even if you can’t actually get to a museum with your kids (yes, sometimes life gets in the way of those wonderful enrichment opportunities!), there are some ways you can get them excited about art and build their enthusiasm for their next trip to the local art galleries. One great way to do this is by exploring the online kids’ sections of art museum websites. Many art museums have an online section devoted to kids and families, but I thought I’d share 3 really exceptional ones that I’ve come across lately.




Birders, bring your binoculars when visiting the Sculpture Garden. I was in the 9th floor conference room when a peregrine falcon flew really close along the length of the bank of windows. It was awesome. They are the fastest flyers in the bird world. I was thinking that the windows in the new addition would be a lovely nesting place if they would remove the screen. We could have Walker falcon cam. I wonder if anyone else has sighted some birds perched in the linden trees or nestled in the sculpture? Several years ago a Mother robin nested in the jaw of
On the way to Rochester we stopped at the Wells Fargo (formerly
First we visited the (relatively) newly remodeled
We then toured the
We had all seen this building many times, entering and exciting the Walker during the run of the Huang Yong Ping show. However, the version we’d become so accustomed to was much smaller and made of…sand.
As we all rushed to have our photos taken in front of this particular building, fraught with memories of guiding Walker visitors through this esoteric, yet beautiful show, I was reminded of what an experience it is to be a tour guide. For many visitors to Shanghai, the building was just more more example of, admittedly beautiful, colonialist architecture. But after the experience of working with Huang’s art we had our own experience of the building, our own memories, our own understanding of what the building might represent. As Cotter wrote about Huang Yong Ping’s art in his 






