Tennessee Mae Day: Brooks Museum

Ciao, from Liz and me! Here are some pictures of the day our group went to the Brooks Museum. They had an exhibit of the Impressionist Period. This term we decided to study Monet in order to appreciate this exhibit a little more. Unfortunately, I was unable to be with the kids during the walk-through as I had a tired baby and a rambunctious two-year-old. They did not allow photography in the art exhibit, so the photos below are what we took in the room following the exhibit. It had fun things for the kids to do like hats, wood food chopping, mystery smell boxes, coloring, and art books.

Liz may be able to tell you more on what the children actually discovered and experienced when looking at the art.

Hey there! Liz here now, Well I have to say walking through an art exhibit with a group of children is a special experience. One of the first things I realized was that the children formed an opinion of liking or disliking a piece of art almost the moment they approached it. Their opinions were not easily swayed by their peers, and I kept my opinions to myself most of the time. There were, for example, a few different portraits that a couple children might label "creepy" or "ugly" yet other children labeled it "happy" and "good". Also I noticed that the trend of a positive or negative perspective was not evident in any one child. That is, that a child who negatively labeled painting "A" while the majority looked positively on painting "A" may have been the first to like painting "B" when there were several who disliked it.
The children were also quick to notice brush strokes where applicable and seemed especially intrigued by some of the pointillism pieces they saw. Next time I plan to take notes on some of their comments. It was a wonderful chance for me to observe these children with their creativity flowing! What an amazing group of children!