Josie, Jack and Wesley went to the museum with Mark and Julie this Wednesday. Adjustments were made to the protocol of this visit based on our reflections on documentation from previous visits – I’ll get into that in a moment.
We begin by heading up to the Lincoln sculpture. Long lengths of rope are handed out, and we weave through the tunnels and race up and down the hill, enjoying a hands-on experience with a material similar to Sheila Pepe’s fabric-based artwork in the museum.
After all this activity, we return the rope to the backpack and find a clipboard with a question:
How do we get to the museum?
Previous visits revealed the children’s interest in their location, for example:
Jamie: Look, we’re way at the top!
Johann: Look, there, water!
Jamie: Where do you see?
Johann: There! Way down there!
Jamie: Is this the door? This door?
These comments dovetail with the children’s emerging interest in mapping. Having a sense of place empowers children to identify with their surroundings, engendering security and belonging. Simply put, mapping brings comfort – it’s all connected! The question How do we get to the museum? was posed to give voice to what might be on these children’s minds.
Wesley suggests going further up and heading over the wall (which would lead to the back door); Jack proposes walking down toward the front door. We opt for Jack’s route simply because it will be less windy and cold!
Once inside, Wesley wonders about the people in these paintings. Julie later on explains that the museum is where these people used to live.
As we hang up our coats, the children also wonder about various doors there – a possible reference to sense of place, where we are, where we might be going.
We sit and read the other two questions in the backpack:
What is in the museum?
Again, we’re not seeking an answer, but want to give voice to this question that the children may have; at least one child has never been in this museum.
The last question is:
What are the museum rules?
Wesley thinks Julie knows the answer to this, and indeed she does! Her three rules are, in summary:
We listen to each other
We don’t touch the art
No running.
And we’re on our way…
The children opt to ride up in the elevator, and they attend to the rules while walking through the Linde gallery (and we hold their hands). Jack gazes out the glass doors at the top of the stairs and comments on the “ice” sculpture outside. Then they are drawn into the Dewey gallery and examine photos there. Wesley comments that these people are getting married (top photo, middle), and Jack remembers seeing Britton here at our year-end event last June! Again, a door is discovered…
Before exiting the Dewey, each person is given a piece of red yarn: It’s like the ropes outside (that we had run with)… It’s a rope!, says Wesley. We bring these up the stairs to the Lab – where we can touch things, and the children ask over and over: Can we touch that? Can we touch this?
They delight in the yarn installation created by visitors and immediately engage with it. Josie smiles as she runs back and forth underneath, ducking down. Wesley wraps his “rope” around the hanging yarn. Jack discovers that he can pull a piece of yarn until it is taut and then – Hey! Watch this! – lets go, watching it bounce away like a rubber band. Josie looks out the low windows in the other room and returns, exclaiming, We’re so high! (again, sense of place, echoing comments from earlier visits). Josie continues walking under the structure, reaching up and feeling it above, then says Watch what happens when I jump up. She also discovers that standing on the bench allows her to reach the yarn more easily (I can touch this!). Wesley is interested in trying to drape yarn across by throwing it over the structure like casting a fishing line, similar to what he did with the long rope outside. Jack and Wesley eventually cut yarn and drape them over the piece. Josie and Julie curl up with a book, and after a bit Wesley joins them.
So much movement! A full body sensory experience! Interacting with the rope in the sculpture park and the yarn here helps familiarize the children with the materials in the galleries, where we cannot touch the art. We think that these hands-on experiences will help them identify with – even empathize with – the sculpture there.
In fact, a panel in the Dewey gallery – Art and the Origins of Empathy – explains: “In its early years, empathy was almost exclusively associated with the philosophy of aesthetics, describing the transformation that occurs when viewers experience art.” Precisely what we’re working on!
We move on to the gallery across the hallway, and it’s not surprising that, if given the chance, the children would much rather touch these pieces than simply look at them. Around the corner is the chain maille part of the sculpture, and Wesley immediately notices that it is made up of rings – like his mother’s, he says. He mimes putting on a ring, explaining, She puts them on her fingers.
As we exit into the hallway, Jack notices the door to the Lab:
That’s where we started.
