Wednesday, May 5, 2010

A Day At the Museum


When Matteo was just an infant, I used to take him to San Francisco for the free days at the various museums. Wearing him in a carrier, it was sweet to walk around looking at the exhibits and art. I'd chat with him about what we were looking at and oftentimes find myself lost in paintings while swaying him back and forth in the dance that baby wearing mamas know all too well. After Nico was born, I found it harder to navigate public transportation and 2 small children so my museum visits came to an end. It was a really sweet and wonderful homecoming of sorts to take the boys to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this past weekend for Family Day.

There was a special workshop entitled "The Joy of Junk" where the kids were able to make musical instruments out of everyday household items.

The boys chose to make guitars out of boxes, cardboard tubes and rubber bands

The museum staff recorded the kids playing their instruments to compile them all into an audio exhibit for the future

Before our trip, I had made art journals for the boys out of plain paper and colored construction paper. We brought colored pencils so they could draw what they saw. Matteo had the best time looking at paintings and drawing his version of them. He giggled at Magritte's "Personal Values"... he called it "the comb was sleeping on the bed picture".


I was happily surprised that Matteo wanted to walk through all 5 floors of exhibits looking at all the pictures! Nico got a little restless (as a 3 year old is well entitled to be) so Ivan took him across the street to the Yerba Buena Gardens where he had a blast playing at the Martin Luther King Memorial Waterfall and dear Luca was the baby I wore napping on my chest this time.

It was exciting to see Matteo have such a great time at SFMOMA. It was like a return to full circle to have the little baby I used to carry through there, now interested in the art on his own. I think we're going to do an "art date" on our own sometime soon. I have to say that I absolutely can't wait :)

10 comments:

Unknown said...

oh i love it! xi takes her "journal" everywhere with her and draws what she sees. i can't wait to take her to the art museum...you inspire me to plan a date..:)

love you lady...miss you!

how about lost last night, huh?! LOL

xoxoxo

Jessica said...

We love taking Benjamin to museums! We're going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday--not only for the art, but singer-songwriter David Berkely is going to be there playing "Art After 5" and we adore him!

Love the final photo of your sweet son sketching...I love Ben does that, too! :)

Joy said...

How fabulous! I wish we lived closer to a modern art museum. Clyfford Still is one of our favorites so it was nice to see him as soon as I clicked on your blog. There's a whole room of just his paintings at The Met in NYC, which we visit nearly every time we go to NY. What a great idea for a workshop. We might have to scavenge our garage to try something similar. :)

Lisa said...

what a great day! we love MOMA. I made a moma treasure hunt last year with some photos of the artwork(which I got from their website) and the kids loved it. it's a great way to get them really looking at each piece. we spent the morning at the de Young last Thursday. loved it!
have a great week, Marina!
Lisa

The Knitty Gritty Homestead said...

We live about 1.5 hours (driving) from the National Art Gallery of Canada...we look forward to monthly outings to the big city once our kids get a bit bigger. Love the idea of having your child make "forgeries" of famous art!

The Professor said...

Looks like a perfect time. I really love the art journal idea. And think it is so special that you and Matteo are having an art date. Enjoy!

Stephanie said...

Hmmm... we went to our fine arts museum today.
I suspect that SanFransico's is a bit more fantastic than ours.

FrontierDreams said...

Oh my goodness, look at Matteo studying the art <3 <3 I think an art date with just the two of you sounds like the perfect day. Miss you!!

Nicola said...

Sweet sweet sweet, Marina. Lala has loved joining me for museum visits and it is something we have done together from time to time with my mom or both my parents.
Hugs and Happy Mamma Day,
Nicola

Heather said...

Oh how I love that museum. I lived in SF for about 14 years, and that was one of my favorite spots.
My kids love their journals, and encouraging them to draw what moves them has been neat for all of us to see what inspires them. Looks like you all had a wonderful day