Thursday, July 30, 2009

What I Did Yesterday

Yesterday I went with Sally, Ben, Nik, Helen and Emma to the Burchfield-Penney Art Museum. It's an incredibly kid-friendly place, not like most art galleries where you get the impression that you need to be totally quiet to fully appreciate the artwork. Here they actually have mulitple rooms where the youngsters can play and be creative on their own terms.

There was also a "tool kit" (held by Ben above) to help them look for certain elements in the regular exhibits, which at least gave them the opportunity to engage on some level with the more serious work on display (the current shows focus on Charles Burchfield's urban landscapes, Duane Hatchett's geometrical creations in paintings and sculptures, and some nice Western New York regionalism from the thirties, forties & fifties including a healthy selection of paintings by local legend Anthony Sisti).

I think I've written before that the Burchfield-Penney Center is a great space, with large open spaces (including a nce outdoor balcony) between the various galleries (which is part of what makes it so kid-friendly, as they have space to wander around without disturbing the more serious patrons).

The schedule of upcoming events looks pretty exciting too-- which means that there should be lots of new stuff to see the next time I get a chance to visit (hopefully in December).

After leaving the Burchfield-Penney Center, we made a stop at the Anderson Gallery to look at some wonderful Salvador Dali prints on display there. This gallery is in an old public school building, so there was space for the kids to run around a bit here too (they played tag while Sally and I perused the artwork). They also had up a bunch of stuff related to the work of James Joyce, so bonus points there as well. A great day to enjoy some art and maybe spark some long-term interest in the stuff among the young'uns.

1 comment:

cate said...

Great pictures! I still cannot believe Sally still wears that dress!!! it was one of my favorites.