FAMILY & YOUTH ARTS PROGRAMS

The Museum is a vibrant place filled with opportunities for family and youth activities. We offer several youth programs for children, including Art Makes you Smart, a program that provides preschool-aged children and their parents an opportunity to engage in the art discovery process together. Youth Arts Classes are offered in the spring as part of a series that explores art-making and the current exhibitions. We are currently developing a new program for adolescents and teens, to begin in late Spring that, will engage youths in behind the scenes work at the museum.

FAMILY GUIDES

Printed family guidesare available when you come into the museum, to enhance your visit, and we are also developing online resources that can expand your visit beyond the walls of the museum. Our first family guides will be online mid-summer 2009. Select Family guides are available now with admission from the front desk.

ART MAKES YOU SMART

Art Makes You Smart opens the doors of the art world to a young audience of three-to-five year olds and their parents. Through inspiration from current exhibitions and the Museum’s collection, the program offer a variety of experiences to the young artists, including hands-on activities and art projects. Art principles go hand-in-hand with early childhood education, as basic knowledge of colors, shapes, and designs are taught. Through activities, children have the opportunity to practice fine motor skills and spatial relations. It is never too early to foster a child’s creativity and to create unique avenues for expression. Classes are non-sequential and offered on the second Saturdays of most months. Be sure to check the calendar for current offerings.

YOUTH ART SERIES

Works of art from special exhibitions provide focus for a curriculum developed and taught by artists and art educators. Through thoughtful, sequential activities, students use a wide range of media to discover their creative capacities. The Museum's resources provide an enriched environment that helps students place their own efforts in a larger cultural context. No experience is necessary and all materials are included. Youth arts are offered for ages six to nine, it is a series of three sequential classes taught in late spring. Be sure to check the calendar for current offerings.

YOUNG CURATOR

Always eager to share professional experience, the Muscarelle is beginning a program for Young Curators. This will give adolescents and teens the chance to explore the Museum from behind the scenes. The Young Curators will learn about art, while investigating art in the area, and in the museum collection. The Young Curators will meet and work with the professional staff of the Museum, exploring many options for exhibitions. The whole program will culminate in an exhibition in the Museum produced by the students. This program will begin late Spring, and run through the summer. It is a multi-week commitment to be a Young Curator. Since this is a new program, more information will be available late February.

These programs are funded in part by the Williamsburg Area Arts Commission.

For more information on family programming, please contact our Curator of Education & New Media, Amy Gorman, Ph.D. at akgorman@wm.edu or 757.221.2703.

Muscarelle Museum of Art
Lamberson Hall
The College of William & Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795