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Page 1: Games Children Play: In Museums

Games Children Play: In MuseumsAuthor(s): Susan SollinsSource: Art Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Spring, 1972), pp. 271-275Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775514 .

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Page 2: Games Children Play: In Museums

Games Children Play: in Museums

Susan Sollins

A class of approximately thirty children is met by two guides, each one taking half of the group. The tour will last approxi- mately an hour. It begins with a physical warm-up. First there is a vigorous, quick loosening-up session, a shaking out of arms, legs and bodies accompanied by the making of sounds. The guide encourages the children to shake out their arms and legs, to wiggle and jump and does so her- self. She moves and wiggles her face, wrin-

kling her nose and moving and stretching her mouth. As she does so, sounds emerge. The children follow suit.

There are several reasons for these ex- ercises. Children usually arrive after a cramped bus trip. They first see a large, austere, formal, and officially guarded building which appears to be an uninvit-

ing, uncomfortable environment. The shaking out of their bodies and making of sounds (activities participated in and led by their guide) create a looseness and

spontaneity among the children. They are not told to relax and be at ease, they are actively relaxed. A psychological environ- ment is created through these simple exer- cises. Without discussion, the children know that physical activity, sounds, loud or soft, and talking are accepted by the guide and the museum. The intimidation caused by the austerity and formality of a large institution is dispelled. It is clear that something different, something un- usual is about to happen.

"... I liked when you did your feeling of the color of red."-Ten year old child.

The warm-up continues with several basic exercises designed to explore con- cepts of color and form. The guide gath- ers her group into a circle. She tells the children that she will call out the names of colors, asking them to show her simul-

? Susan Sollins, 1972.

SUSAN SOLLINS was curator of education for several years at the Smithsonian's National Collection of Fine Arts where she devel- oped the "improvisational" tour as a means to introduce children to the aft in the museum's collection. She also designed their successful children's museum and other projects which continue to be a part of the NCFA's programs. She is currently writing for Arts Magazine, is active as a consultant in museum education, and is working on a book. U

taneously how each color makes them feel. She tells the group that they do not need to explain anything verbally, but that they should concentrate on their idea of each color mentioned and show, by moving their bodies and making a sound, how that color makes them feel. The guide then rapidly calls out the names of colors. At the end of the exercise the

guide admires the children's responses. No child is chastised for not participat- ing; it is assumed that something is hap- pening inside each child.

This exercise is intended to make the children think very consciously about color, and to be aware of their own (and others') reactions to various colors. They realize without formal discussion that each responds differently to the same imagined color. The guide then asks the children what shapes they know. She asks them to make some shapes with their bod- ies. The next suggestion is that two or three of the children make shapes to- gether. Like the color game, this exercise is intended to make the children think consciously of shapes and to explore some of these shapes physically.

"The trip was better than just going to look at pictures because you get more out of it when you act out the colors."- Ten year old.

"I especially liked making colors with our minds."-Ten year old.

Two exercises follow which reinforce the color and shape games, and which also will be used during the tour when looking at a painting or sculpture. Each child is asked to think about all the colors he knows and to choose one color "as his own" while in the museum. The guide tells the children to close their eyes and to concentrate on their colors. She coaches them, talking to the group, suggesting ac- tivities or direction of thought, but avoid- ing the limiting possibilities of alterna- tives such as hard or soft, warm or cold, happy or sad. Her remarks are aimed at pushing the children into a deeper con- centration on their color. The guide says, "Know how your color looks. Put it all around you. Think of a room entirely that color. Know how you feel inside that room." The guide then asks the children to open their eyes, and to call out the names of their colors. The next exercise deals similarly with shapes. Later, without discussion, these remembered shapes and colors will be used to explore formal rela- tionships in a painting or sculpture or to point out the changing nature and impact of color and shape as artists use them.

A mirror game often played in sensitiv- ity or encounter groups, and more sponta-

neously among children, is next. The

guide tells the children to face their

neighbors. She tells them that one child is a mirror, and the other is a person look- ing into the mirror. The mirror is told to watch very closely what its image is do- ing, and to mirror those actions as they are happening. The purpose of this game is to make the children look very care-

fully, to use their eyes, to be observant, and to get into another person's way of thinking and moving. Something similar

happens later in the tour when the group looks at portraits and other figurative paintings.

"I enjoyed when we were making our selves sculpchurs and one person went in the middle then every one else was put on one by one and then we broke."- Eight year old. The familiar childhood game of statues

is amplified, and played next. The guide explores textures with the group, using anything readily available-the floor, the rug, sweaters, stone columns. She coaches the group to think about each texture, to be aware of its unique quality, to know how it feels. After coaching the children to think about each texture as they are feeling it, the guide asks.that they cease to touch, and to know how that texture feels only by looking at it.

After the exploration of textures, the guide defines the making of a group sculpture. She tells the children that they will make this sculpture with their bodies, that it will have one central part, and that the other parts will be joined to it. The guide defines precisely the kind of a sculpture (and consequently the children's exploration within it) that she feels is necessary for experiences which will follow. She may want the group to choose a theme and a material for their sculpture before the game begins. The sculpture may move or be immobile. Once the possibilities of the sculpture are defined, the guide suggests that the chil- dren look carefully all around the parts of the sculpture before they join onto it, think about what kind of part is needed, and where. She also encourages them to consider their shape, material, and inter- relatedness. The purpose of this game is to explore the interrelationships of forms and the three dimensional character of sculpture.

After this last exercise, the group is led towards a large sculpture (made of tall linear forms which move almost imper- ceptibly in response to air currents) by George Rickey (Fig. 1). Here, the guide again wants to consider concepts of form, material, and movement. She begins with, "Let's play a game." She defines the game,

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Page 3: Games Children Play: In Museums

telling the group not to touch the sculp- ture, but for each child to look at it care- fully, and to think about the material it is made of. She then tells each of them to choose to be one part of the sculpture, and to show with their bodies how that part feels. The children identify with parts of the sculpture. They echo its tense linearity, feeling it in their bodies. A mo- ment of intense discovery occurs. Chil- dren begin to realize through their concen- tration upon the sculpture that it is moving quietly and gently. They echo this move- ment with their bodies. Through their participation in the game, the children have become involved in investigating and discovering formal concepts.

Hanging nearby in immediate compari- son to the Rickey's sculptural linearity is a very large stripe painting by Gene Da- vis. Here the exploration is of linear color. The guide may have in mind a question such as "What happens to the flatness of the canvas because of the rela- tionships of the colors?" The question will be unvoiced but it will guide the na- ture of the game. The guide has each child choose a color he likes or find his "own" color. They then stand in front of their colors. The guide coaches them to look very hard at their colors, to concen- trate upon them. Next, the children are told to lie on their backs on the floor while continuing to look at their stripe- colors. The guide asks questions: "What do you see? Just look, and know what you see. How does your color feel between its neighbors? Is it doing anything? What happens to your color as you watch it? Try to look at three or four stripes at a time. What happens?" The children stand up, look again at the entire painting, and move on.

They go to a grand gallery which was the scene of Lincoln's second inaugural ball. It now contains much of the muse- um's eighteenth and nineteenth century collection. Two useful devices have been found to make the children think of a long ago time-a time-tunnel game and a promenade at Lincoln's ball.

Coaching from the guide encourages the children to imagine themselves in an- other era as they walk or promenade through the gallery to reach the area which holds a selection of eighteenth and early nineteenth century portraits. The guide tells the children to look at the por- traits and choose one they like, to stand in front of it and to look into the eyes. She suggests that the children become the person in the portrait, and consider what the person was doing before his portrait session, what his clothes feel like on their bodies, and what kind of room he is sit- ting in. She reminds them to feel their

1. Rickey, Sculpture: The children are feeling the linearity and movement of this sculp- ture, and are echoing these qualities with their bodies. The guide in all of the il- lustrations is Mrs. Nora Panzer.

bodies as in their portraits. Then, she brings the portraits alive. "Step out of your frames and walk about. Greet your neighbor" (Fig. 2). By "becoming" the person in the painting, the children un- derstand that an artist can be concerned with conveying personality, and that it is possible to express through visual means both personality and a quality of another era.

From the portraits, the guide leads the group to a luxurious still life by the nine- teenth century painter Severin Roesen. Her game is to ask the children to re- member their shapes and colors from the warm-up exercises, to find them in the painting, and to tell the group, one by one, where these shapes and colors are to be found. After all have participated, the guide acts as a hostess. She offers the group the still life objects, telling the chil- dren to name the fruit they pick as they do so. As the fruit is chosen the guide sug- gests, "Know how it feels. Feel its surface. Know how much it weighs. Know how it smells." And finally, "Know how it tastes." The first part of this game causes

2. Feke: The children have identified with people por- trayed in eighteenth century portraits, and are here greet- ing one another as those people.

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Page 4: Games Children Play: In Museums

the children to search the painting for their shapes and colors. They look very intently at the painting and examine its formal structure as they discover their shapes and colors hidden beneath grape tendrils, a glass, a table top, or a fruit. The rest of the game makes the children aware of the sensual qualities in the painting.

A very large painting, The Grand Can- yon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran, and a wall of Catlin Indian paint- ings are juxtaposed nearby. The game be- gins much as it did with the earlier por- traits. Each child chooses an Indian to be- come, standing in front of the painting. The guide coaches the children much as before. When they have become the per- son in the painting, she continues the coaching in a new vein. "It is early in the morning. You have just awakened. You're putting on your clothes. Know what they are made of, how they feel. Do you wear paint on your face? Put it on. Feel it. Do you have jewelry? Put that on."

After the children have explored who they are in this way, the guide calls them together as a group. Looking at the Moran landscape, she suggests that they are a scouting party needing to move qui- etly through that countryside. The Moran landscape is explored and discussed for possible routes. After the group has de- cided upon a group, the guide leads them through it, and then away from these paintings. These games are played first to explore the personalities portrayed by Catlin, and then to compare these por- traits with those seen earlier simply by having the experience of the Indian por- traits. The scouting party focuses the chil- dren upon the vast Moran landscape. Illu- sions of depth, space, and naturalistic de- tail are noticed and entered into.

As they leave the area containing the Moran, the children must pass Still Hunt, a very large, black mountain lion crouch- ing on a pedestal. The experience of the Moran landscape is sustained by the en- counter with the mountain lion. The guide encourages the group, still Indians, to react to the mountain lion. Then, in an about face, she encourages the chil- dren to become the mountain lion. She reminds the children of the landscape they have just walked through, and coaches them to be the mountain lion in a specific place in that landscape, look- ing for Indians. This game serves several purposes. The children explore a second sculptural form and material. They also push their minds into remembering Mo- ran's Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone as a whole and in detail. In this way, they are fixing their experience of the paint- ing, and consequently will remember it.

3. Ryder, Jonah: In the foreground, one boy is Jonah drowning, while another boy seems to be the whale attacking him. Stretched out on the floor are two waves. Next to them is a boy who seems to have fallen from the boat. In the right background, a girl echoes the posture of the God-like figure which appears in the top-center of the painting.

"The thing I liked was when all the children make a sculpture and the color game. ... The thing I did no like was when Jona fell out of the boat and the wheal was after him."-Ten year old.

Another kind of experience begins with Albert Pynkham Ryder's Jonah. The guide asks questions, "What do you see? What is happening? How does the paint- ing make you feel? What are some of the things that make you feel that way?" The guide continues to ask questions until she has elicited from the group the story of Jonah. The guide tells the group that she would like to re-create the painting. She delineates an area in which this will hap- pen, making sure that all the children can see the painting. She tells the children to choose a part of the painting to become, to look carefully at that part, and to take their places in the new painting. She re- minds them that there are many different parts of the painting to be, to concentrate on knowing who or what they are, and what is happening around them. When

they have taken their places the guide says, "Do you hear any sounds? Make those sounds. Let me hear them. Do you move? If so, show me" (Fig. 3).

The purpose of this game is to get at the emotional quality conveyed by the forms in the painting. The children do so, re- creating the painting and identifying with part of it, by hearing sounds and making them, by feeling a rhythmic qual- ity and moving to it.

"It was fun to look at a color and tryed to shape like it and pretend the color came alive and it could make noises."- Nine year old.

With a quick, "let's look at something else," the guide leads the group into a gal- lery containing contemporary paintings and sculpture. In front of Stuart Davis' International Surface No. 1, the guide asks the children to sit down. She tells them to look at the painting carefully and then asks them if it reminds them of any- thing. (Whatever the answers, she re- sponds with "yes," or "that's great," or

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Page 5: Games Children Play: In Museums

"that's interesting," not a difficult re- sponse for the guide as the remarks are usually fascinating.) After the children have explored the painting in this way, they are asked to look at it again care- fully.

The guide tells them that she wants to play a game with them. The game is to find a shape in the painting which they like that makes a sound at them. The children are asked to show the shape they have found to the others, to make that shape with their bodies and to make its sound. After each child has done this, the coaching begins again to the group as a whole. "Concentrate on your shape. Look at it closely. Make that shape with your body. Know how it feels. What kind of surface do you have? Know how that feels. Know your color. Know what shape and color are next to you in the painting. Know your sound. Now, I am an orches- tra leader and I am going to conduct. Let me hear your sounds." The guide points at individuals or at the entire group. She motions for louder or softer sounds with her hands. This happens quickly, and the experience ends. The children realize through this game that abstract forms carry meaning, and even in some cases suggest sound. And, once again, there has been a serious exploration of shape, color, texture, and abstract form.

The use of sound as an integral part of looking at a painting may seem an extra- neous event to many, something which al- lows the children to have fun, but is far removed from the realm of a visually per- ceived object. However, I do think that the use of sound in an explanation of some works of art is valid and that sound can be an aid to vision. Stuart Davis was fascinated by American jazz and with the visual and audible stridency, the jazzy vi- tality and tempo of New York. Through the freedom of the game, without being told by a teacher that a quality of bold jazziness exists in this painting or that Stuart Davis was fascinated by the city, children recognized these things, re- sponded, and discovered for themselves.

Throughout the experience with Inter- national Surface No. 1, the children are focused upon it because of the game. They are helped and encouraged to look concentratedly at it. They focus upon its colors and shapes and their relationships to one another. Thus they see and discover for themselves something central and im- portant to Stuart Davis' work.

The exploration of paintings and sculp- ture may end with International Surface No. 1 or continue, depending upon how long the children have been involved with each work of art. The guide must be alert to the duration of interest within

her group and move from object to object according to that interest span. Some groups only investigate three things, other as many as ten. Both are considered valid experiences. Many groups, despite having been in the museum for at least an hour, ask the guide for "one more" and then "just one more," not wanting to leave.

Before the group departs, the guide takes them to an area in which have been placed post-card sized reproductions of paintings belonging to the museum. The cards are a gift to the school children from the museum. Each child is asked to choose one to take as a present. Several concepts integral to the entire tour expe- rience are re-emphasized as the children choose their cards: each child can and does make a personal aesthetic decision; each child's response is valid and valued: the museum is not an austere place; and finally, that children are welcomed and appreciated by the museum. As one child said in a letter of thanks, "I like the art museum and it likes me too."

Perhaps the fact that the National Col- lection of Fine Arts, newly installed in 1968 in a large inner city building, had relatively few visitors, was crucial to the development of this new tour. There was both space and quiet in which to experi- ment. Adult visitors rarely came to the museum in the early morning hours dur- ing which the children's tours were sched- uled, and consequently were not annoyed or distracted by noise or activity.

But the development of the tour was provoked by the need to find a solution for problems common to many American museums. Appointed to the Staff of the Smithsonian's National Collection of Fine Arts in 1968 to create its educational pro- grams, I was concerned with these prob- lems and urgently wanted to provide an exciting, joyful experience for children visiting the museum.

Our museums are often places of impos- ing marbled architecture and an atmo- sphere of reverent silence. They also share the all too frequent demand of guides or other adults for an unquestioned accep- tance of judgments of quality and omni- present guards uniformed like police. (Sometimes they wear holsters and guns.) These things can provoke inhibiting and frightening experiences for children. In too many museums, a child's initial reac- tion against an overwhelming architecture and an austere, guarded interior is con- firmed by exposure to a too firmly didac- tic guide.

Clearly it is necessary for the guide to dispel feelings of unease. Equally clear is the fact that a museum tour is not success- ful if fun and games predominate over learning. Improvisational theatre tech-

niques (based on Viola Spolin's theatre games) provided the vehicle for museum guides, previously historically and factu- ally trained, to introduce children to vis- ual concepts of space, form and color without being overwhelmingly didactic. Through the use of games, children in a museum can be encouraged to look care- fully at things around them, to use their eyes. Without discussion, it can become clear to each child that his perception, his point of view, and his reaction are im- portant and valid. A child (or anyone) can, without words, experience a work of art so intensely that he can carry it in his mind's eye. Factual, historical informa- tion, although it should be available does not seem pertinent or valid before a child has learned to look and to see, to appreci- ate his own perceptions and experience, and to take joy in the experience of art.

The "improvisational" tour is designed to introduce children to the museum in such a way that they can learn without being talked at or lectured to. Without an emphasis on factual information or lectur- ing, the crux of the experience provides much genuine information. The improvi- sational techniques allow the trained mu- seum guide to elicit from the children their thoughts and ideas in response to a painting or sculpture. Through games, the children become extraordinarily in- volved with a work of art. They imitate and identify with the colors, shapes, ob- jects, and spaces which are a part of a work of art. They act out the relation- ships, formal or literary, of a painting or sculpture, thereby analyzing it. They com- prehend, without verbal explanation from an adult, that as John Dewey said, "Esthetic experience is a manifestation, a record, and a celebration of the life of a civilization."

The children both see and feel the dif- ference between an eighteenth century painting and one created in 1970. They are encouraged by the technique of the tour to focus their attention on the work of art, to look at it, to concentrate on it and upon their reaction to it. The theatre techniques permit a child to experience a work of art visually, physically, emotion- ally and intellectually. Through this ex- perience, there is a deep involvement with the work of art. In a sense, such an involvement allows children to "climb in- side" the painting or sculpture. They know it deeply. Such an experience of art, so very personal with no rights or wrongs, can make art a part of a child's total expe- rience, rather than an extraneous event. The improvisational tour uses games to focus attention, but the experience gen- erated by game-playing is not a casual one. It is a profound experience of art.

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Page 6: Games Children Play: In Museums

The role of the guide in the improvisa- tional tour is a difficult one. It is impor- tant to emphasize that each guide must be thoroughly schooled on an adult level concerning the works of art in the mu- seum, as well as being rigorously trained to improvisational techniques to work suc- cessfully with this method. A guide must be alert to the reactions of her group. As she moves with them through the mu- seum, she must respond to their interest in whatever painting or sculpture they en- counter, although she may not have planned to investigate these objects with that particular group. If necessary, she will invent a game on the spot to heighten the involvement and perception of the group. Relaxed spontaneity based on the guides' thorough knowledge of the museum is the keynote.

The guide must cultivate the judge- ment, insight, and timing which will tell her when a group or child is non-partici- patory and when non-verbally participat- ing. If the group does not respond, she must quickly devise a new means of inter- esting them, or immediately go on to something else. If a child does not partici- pate, she may try to involve him as an ob- server, but never does she put a child on the spot.

The guides must re-orient their think- ing and their way of talking so that they do not tell the children, but instead bring forth the children's own imagination and

The role of the guide in the improvisa- tional tour is a difficult one. It is impor- tant to emphasize that each guide must be thoroughly schooled on an adult level concerning the works of art in the mu- seum, as well as being rigorously trained to improvisational techniques to work suc- cessfully with this method. A guide must be alert to the reactions of her group. As she moves with them through the mu- seum, she must respond to their interest in whatever painting or sculpture they en- counter, although she may not have planned to investigate these objects with that particular group. If necessary, she will invent a game on the spot to heighten the involvement and perception of the group. Relaxed spontaneity based on the guides' thorough knowledge of the museum is the keynote.

The guide must cultivate the judge- ment, insight, and timing which will tell her when a group or child is non-partici- patory and when non-verbally participat- ing. If the group does not respond, she must quickly devise a new means of inter- esting them, or immediately go on to something else. If a child does not partici- pate, she may try to involve him as an ob- server, but never does she put a child on the spot.

The guides must re-orient their think- ing and their way of talking so that they do not tell the children, but instead bring forth the children's own imagination and

The role of the guide in the improvisa- tional tour is a difficult one. It is impor- tant to emphasize that each guide must be thoroughly schooled on an adult level concerning the works of art in the mu- seum, as well as being rigorously trained to improvisational techniques to work suc- cessfully with this method. A guide must be alert to the reactions of her group. As she moves with them through the mu- seum, she must respond to their interest in whatever painting or sculpture they en- counter, although she may not have planned to investigate these objects with that particular group. If necessary, she will invent a game on the spot to heighten the involvement and perception of the group. Relaxed spontaneity based on the guides' thorough knowledge of the museum is the keynote.

The guide must cultivate the judge- ment, insight, and timing which will tell her when a group or child is non-partici- patory and when non-verbally participat- ing. If the group does not respond, she must quickly devise a new means of inter- esting them, or immediately go on to something else. If a child does not partici- pate, she may try to involve him as an ob- server, but never does she put a child on the spot.

The guides must re-orient their think- ing and their way of talking so that they do not tell the children, but instead bring forth the children's own imagination and

Howard Thomas

Howard Thomas, art professor emeritus at University of Georgia and former head of art departments at University of Wis- consin in Milwaukee and Agnes Scott Col- lege, died November 1 at Carrboro, North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Anne Wall Thomas.

Thomas was past president of the Wis- consin Painters and Scultpors, the Associ- tion of Georgia Artists, and the Southeast- ern College Art Association. He was guest lecturer for the Association of American Colleges and a lecturer under the U.S.

Howard Thomas

Howard Thomas, art professor emeritus at University of Georgia and former head of art departments at University of Wis- consin in Milwaukee and Agnes Scott Col- lege, died November 1 at Carrboro, North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Anne Wall Thomas.

Thomas was past president of the Wis- consin Painters and Scultpors, the Associ- tion of Georgia Artists, and the Southeast- ern College Art Association. He was guest lecturer for the Association of American Colleges and a lecturer under the U.S.

Howard Thomas

Howard Thomas, art professor emeritus at University of Georgia and former head of art departments at University of Wis- consin in Milwaukee and Agnes Scott Col- lege, died November 1 at Carrboro, North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Anne Wall Thomas.

Thomas was past president of the Wis- consin Painters and Scultpors, the Associ- tion of Georgia Artists, and the Southeast- ern College Art Association. He was guest lecturer for the Association of American Colleges and a lecturer under the U.S.

Et in Arcadia ego After Nicholas Poussin

I, Death, even I, have left my mark here. To be sure, It's subtle. I don't go about Putting myself forward without necessity. You, like my shepherd visitors, must stum-

ble Upon me-and be surprised in an instant. See, they trace with their fingers to read The message of the tomb. It's difficult, Of course, to understand: one of their

number, Laurel-crowned, a maker of ditties and

oaten odes

Et in Arcadia ego After Nicholas Poussin

I, Death, even I, have left my mark here. To be sure, It's subtle. I don't go about Putting myself forward without necessity. You, like my shepherd visitors, must stum-

ble Upon me-and be surprised in an instant. See, they trace with their fingers to read The message of the tomb. It's difficult, Of course, to understand: one of their

number, Laurel-crowned, a maker of ditties and

oaten odes

Et in Arcadia ego After Nicholas Poussin

I, Death, even I, have left my mark here. To be sure, It's subtle. I don't go about Putting myself forward without necessity. You, like my shepherd visitors, must stum-

ble Upon me-and be surprised in an instant. See, they trace with their fingers to read The message of the tomb. It's difficult, Of course, to understand: one of their

number, Laurel-crowned, a maker of ditties and

oaten odes

knowledge, intuitive or otherwise. For ex- ample, in playing the game promenade at Lincoln's ball, a guide must be careful to elicit from the children their responses to "what was it like?" If she says, "You girls have on long dresses with full skirts and tiny waists. Show me how you feel in them," she will already have stifled a part of the children's imagined scene. She must allow the children to tell her, and them- selves, by discovering for themselves.

The games used must be open-ended so that the children can respond freely within them and explore many possibili- ties. At the same time, the guide must be in control of the group, and set up a con- trolled framework for its activity. Perhaps most difficult, the guides must have all the factual and philosophical information about a work of art in their minds, yet they must not impart it verbally unless a question posed by a child requires an an- swer from that fund of knowledge.

Once introduced, the success of the im- provisational tour was immediate. By word of mouth only, it was booked each day of the school year during its first year. (The method was developed for use with children in the first through fifth grades, but has been used with success at the re- quest of teachers of both younger and considerably older high school and uni- versity students.) Everyone involved with the new tour, guides, teachers, parents and most of all the children, who wrote

knowledge, intuitive or otherwise. For ex- ample, in playing the game promenade at Lincoln's ball, a guide must be careful to elicit from the children their responses to "what was it like?" If she says, "You girls have on long dresses with full skirts and tiny waists. Show me how you feel in them," she will already have stifled a part of the children's imagined scene. She must allow the children to tell her, and them- selves, by discovering for themselves.

The games used must be open-ended so that the children can respond freely within them and explore many possibili- ties. At the same time, the guide must be in control of the group, and set up a con- trolled framework for its activity. Perhaps most difficult, the guides must have all the factual and philosophical information about a work of art in their minds, yet they must not impart it verbally unless a question posed by a child requires an an- swer from that fund of knowledge.

Once introduced, the success of the im- provisational tour was immediate. By word of mouth only, it was booked each day of the school year during its first year. (The method was developed for use with children in the first through fifth grades, but has been used with success at the re- quest of teachers of both younger and considerably older high school and uni- versity students.) Everyone involved with the new tour, guides, teachers, parents and most of all the children, who wrote

knowledge, intuitive or otherwise. For ex- ample, in playing the game promenade at Lincoln's ball, a guide must be careful to elicit from the children their responses to "what was it like?" If she says, "You girls have on long dresses with full skirts and tiny waists. Show me how you feel in them," she will already have stifled a part of the children's imagined scene. She must allow the children to tell her, and them- selves, by discovering for themselves.

The games used must be open-ended so that the children can respond freely within them and explore many possibili- ties. At the same time, the guide must be in control of the group, and set up a con- trolled framework for its activity. Perhaps most difficult, the guides must have all the factual and philosophical information about a work of art in their minds, yet they must not impart it verbally unless a question posed by a child requires an an- swer from that fund of knowledge.

Once introduced, the success of the im- provisational tour was immediate. By word of mouth only, it was booked each day of the school year during its first year. (The method was developed for use with children in the first through fifth grades, but has been used with success at the re- quest of teachers of both younger and considerably older high school and uni- versity students.) Everyone involved with the new tour, guides, teachers, parents and most of all the children, who wrote

State Department cultural ambassador program in Turkey, India, Java, Bali, Ja- pan and Hong Kong.

A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, Thomas was graduated from Chicago Art Institute and attended Ohio State Univer- sity, University of Southern California and University of Chicago. He was director of the division of art education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, from 1931 to 1942; acting head, department of art, Women's College of the University of North Carolina in 1942-43; head of Agnes

State Department cultural ambassador program in Turkey, India, Java, Bali, Ja- pan and Hong Kong.

A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, Thomas was graduated from Chicago Art Institute and attended Ohio State Univer- sity, University of Southern California and University of Chicago. He was director of the division of art education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, from 1931 to 1942; acting head, department of art, Women's College of the University of North Carolina in 1942-43; head of Agnes

State Department cultural ambassador program in Turkey, India, Java, Bali, Ja- pan and Hong Kong.

A native of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, Thomas was graduated from Chicago Art Institute and attended Ohio State Univer- sity, University of Southern California and University of Chicago. He was director of the division of art education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, from 1931 to 1942; acting head, department of art, Women's College of the University of North Carolina in 1942-43; head of Agnes

No doubt, knows already, and turns and sinks

Beneath the knowledge. The lady among them is

Apprehensive (who can blame her?). But, I,

An anthropomorphic deity, am amused at how

The rapture of the moment disarrays her dress,

Baring one breast, and how, in her in- stinct

For sudden flight, she readys thigh and leg

No doubt, knows already, and turns and sinks

Beneath the knowledge. The lady among them is

Apprehensive (who can blame her?). But, I,

An anthropomorphic deity, am amused at how

The rapture of the moment disarrays her dress,

Baring one breast, and how, in her in- stinct

For sudden flight, she readys thigh and leg

No doubt, knows already, and turns and sinks

Beneath the knowledge. The lady among them is

Apprehensive (who can blame her?). But, I,

An anthropomorphic deity, am amused at how

The rapture of the moment disarrays her dress,

Baring one breast, and how, in her in- stinct

For sudden flight, she readys thigh and leg

marvelous letters of thanks to the mu- seum, felt it to be a valid and important innovation. But until 1970, there was no other proof of its validity.

Implicit to the entire concept of the im- provisational tour is the notion that it is important to have confidence in one's own ability to perceive a work of art, to receive it, and to enjoy the process of do- ing so. Equally important is the realiza- tion that paintings and sculpture are made of formal relationships of colors, lines and spaces. (Easy to say but difficult to comprehend at a young age through verbal explanations.) Throughout the tour the physical exploration of these con- cepts make them comprehensible. Chil- dren can learn from and be conditioned by the intensity of this experience and the enjoyment they have in regard to looking. The factual, intellectualized elements of any work of art are something that chil- dren will be far more receptive to after having been introduced through these games to the concept that the object it- self, apart from the facts surrounding it, is a thing to be enjoyed. How much easier it is after all, to teach a child to swim when he has learned to enjoy the water. So, through the process of the tour the work of art becomes an object to enjoy and the museum a place in which one can enjoy oneself.

As the child said, "I like the art mu- seum and it likes me too .. ."

marvelous letters of thanks to the mu- seum, felt it to be a valid and important innovation. But until 1970, there was no other proof of its validity.

Implicit to the entire concept of the im- provisational tour is the notion that it is important to have confidence in one's own ability to perceive a work of art, to receive it, and to enjoy the process of do- ing so. Equally important is the realiza- tion that paintings and sculpture are made of formal relationships of colors, lines and spaces. (Easy to say but difficult to comprehend at a young age through verbal explanations.) Throughout the tour the physical exploration of these con- cepts make them comprehensible. Chil- dren can learn from and be conditioned by the intensity of this experience and the enjoyment they have in regard to looking. The factual, intellectualized elements of any work of art are something that chil- dren will be far more receptive to after having been introduced through these games to the concept that the object it- self, apart from the facts surrounding it, is a thing to be enjoyed. How much easier it is after all, to teach a child to swim when he has learned to enjoy the water. So, through the process of the tour the work of art becomes an object to enjoy and the museum a place in which one can enjoy oneself.

As the child said, "I like the art mu- seum and it likes me too .. ."

marvelous letters of thanks to the mu- seum, felt it to be a valid and important innovation. But until 1970, there was no other proof of its validity.

Implicit to the entire concept of the im- provisational tour is the notion that it is important to have confidence in one's own ability to perceive a work of art, to receive it, and to enjoy the process of do- ing so. Equally important is the realiza- tion that paintings and sculpture are made of formal relationships of colors, lines and spaces. (Easy to say but difficult to comprehend at a young age through verbal explanations.) Throughout the tour the physical exploration of these con- cepts make them comprehensible. Chil- dren can learn from and be conditioned by the intensity of this experience and the enjoyment they have in regard to looking. The factual, intellectualized elements of any work of art are something that chil- dren will be far more receptive to after having been introduced through these games to the concept that the object it- self, apart from the facts surrounding it, is a thing to be enjoyed. How much easier it is after all, to teach a child to swim when he has learned to enjoy the water. So, through the process of the tour the work of art becomes an object to enjoy and the museum a place in which one can enjoy oneself.

As the child said, "I like the art mu- seum and it likes me too .. ."

Scott College department of art from 1943-44, and joined the University of Georgia art department in 1945.

Thomas' paintings have hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago Art Institute, Whitney Museum of Ameri- can Art, Duveen-Graham Gallery, Mil- waukee Art Institute and Kansas City Art Institute. [and in the collection of ART JOURNAL'S editor, a friend of the artist for

many years] In January 1967 the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, held a retrospec- tive exhibition of his paintings.

Scott College department of art from 1943-44, and joined the University of Georgia art department in 1945.

Thomas' paintings have hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago Art Institute, Whitney Museum of Ameri- can Art, Duveen-Graham Gallery, Mil- waukee Art Institute and Kansas City Art Institute. [and in the collection of ART JOURNAL'S editor, a friend of the artist for

many years] In January 1967 the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, held a retrospec- tive exhibition of his paintings.

Scott College department of art from 1943-44, and joined the University of Georgia art department in 1945.

Thomas' paintings have hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago Art Institute, Whitney Museum of Ameri- can Art, Duveen-Graham Gallery, Mil- waukee Art Institute and Kansas City Art Institute. [and in the collection of ART JOURNAL'S editor, a friend of the artist for

many years] In January 1967 the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, held a retrospec- tive exhibition of his paintings.

For speed. Even here, in Arcadia, my sight- less

Eye sockets take it all in. Sometimes I think

That in this sublunary frame, flesh, all of it,

Flesh and verdure fall far short Of my scythe-swinging gullet's ambition. Is it not reasonable then for me to leave

traces, For I am everywhere, everywhere, every-

where.

-JAN MICHAEL DYROFF

For speed. Even here, in Arcadia, my sight- less

Eye sockets take it all in. Sometimes I think

That in this sublunary frame, flesh, all of it,

Flesh and verdure fall far short Of my scythe-swinging gullet's ambition. Is it not reasonable then for me to leave

traces, For I am everywhere, everywhere, every-

where.

-JAN MICHAEL DYROFF

For speed. Even here, in Arcadia, my sight- less

Eye sockets take it all in. Sometimes I think

That in this sublunary frame, flesh, all of it,

Flesh and verdure fall far short Of my scythe-swinging gullet's ambition. Is it not reasonable then for me to leave

traces, For I am everywhere, everywhere, every-

where.

-JAN MICHAEL DYROFF

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