The Art Museum

The other day the Second Grader shocked the heck out of me.  We were talking about art, for the life of me, I cannot remember why, and he mentioned Georgia O'Keeffe.  Specifically he referenced flower paintings.  Hold the bus there buddy, how did you know about that??  Apparently, he's been listening during art class.  He then went on to tell me about some crazy dude named Pablo Picasso and some other painting called The Scream.

That is how our Cincinnati Art Museum visit came to fruition.  How can I not take advantage of such an opportunity? 

Call me crazy, but I packed up the whole nutty bunch and took them to the art museum.  In case you didn't catch that, I said the ART museum.  Not the hands on history and science museum.  Not the children's museum.  The art museum.  Just wanted to make sure you understood.

Let's go already!!

I was a little nervous.  They are not the quietest group.  Once during church Baby Girl patted my chest and said "Are dows your boobies Mommy?" in a super loud voice...during the sermon.  Sometimes the boys get into wrestling matches....in public.  So, you can understand my hesitation.

We talked about appropriate art museum behavior the night before our visit.  We talked again the next morning.  And again in the car on the way....and once more in the car in the museum parking lot.....and maybe a couple more times walking through the parking lot.....and finally again as we walked in the door of the museum.  Whew.  That's a lot of talkin'. 

We had arrived.  The volunteer at the information desk offered each of the boys a clipboard with scavenger hunt questions.  They were super motivated by the promise of a prize. 

We started off down the long entry hall, which was lined with artwork.  Each piece of art was partitioned off by a gazillion long black strings that hung from the ceiling creating a curtain.  Let me tell you how tempting it was to throw out my arms a la The Sound of Music, twirl and run my fingers through the silky black cords.  I was nervous....but, my kids resisted!  It was nothing short of a miracle.  I saw one lady who did not resist......she couldn't keep her paws off nearly every single "stall" created by the long, silky fringe.  It reminded me of a kid in a department store smacking every rack of clothes she passed.  Kind of like I used to do when I was seven.

On to the next gallery!

We saw works by Picasso, Monet, and Matisse....the famous Campbell soup can by Andy Warhol....lots of sculptures, pottery and displays from around the world.  But the most interesting was the exhibit by Nick Cave.  You can see some pictures and a video in this post by my friend Karen at Family Friendly Cincinnati.  The kids were pretty intrigued.  Who wouldn't want to stare at a life sized mannequin wearing a ginormous costume made out of children's toys?  And then there was the one that looked like Alice in Wonderland except "Alice" had a shark head.  Baby Girl may have nightmares about that one this week.

We toured the entire museum, both floors, and completed the scavenger hunt.  Nothing was broken.  No one got into any arguments.  There was no running or tears.  There was a little whining toward the end and maybe someone somewhere got a little too close to a glass case.  And Baby Girl did announce to the lobby that the first sculpture we saw was naked, but overall, it was good!  Look how happy they were after the scavenger hunt.

Check out their little art prizes!

And look what they did when we got home.

The Second Grader tried his hand at a little Monet

It was a success.  Never under estimate your kids.  Don't overestimate them either.... now that's gotten me into trouble before.  But, for now, I am still on the art museum high!