NEWSLETTER
Online artmaking events meet every other Saturday from February 27 to May 8
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (February 15, 2021) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces its spring online, family-centered art-making events series, Tang at Home Studio, which meets every other Saturday from February 27 to May 8.
Tang at Home Studio gives kids and their families the chance to explore their creativity, make new things, and share their artwork with peers. Each online session starts at 11 a.m. and includes a guided exploration of an artwork, information about the artist, and a hands-on art project led by Sunny Ra, The Laurie M. Tisch Educator for K-12 and Community Programs, with assistance from Skidmore College student interns.
How does it work?
You can register now on the Tang website for the first session on February 27. After that, you can register on the Monday before the Saturday session. Then you can explore, learn, and prepare materials. On the session Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., we will gather on Zoom to discuss our ideas about the artwork, engage in an art-making activity, and share our creations.
To ensure a fun sharing environment, registration is required. The live Saturday sessions are best suited for kids ages 5-12 and their adult companions, but everyone is welcome! For the best experience, we recommend logging in via computer instead of a mobile device, if possible. This will enhance each participant’s ability to view artwork and videos, and to engage in community conversations with one other.
How do I register?
Register for the first session now on the Tang website. For following sessions, a link to register will be posted on the Tang website on Monday for that week’s session at http://tang.skidmore.edu. Registration is free. To register, you will be asked for your name, email address, the number of participants, the name or names of your child or children, their ages, and your ZIP code. Once you register, you will receive project instructions, a list of materials, and a link to Saturday’s Zoom meeting. Register early, as space is limited.
Questions?
Contact Tang Museum Educator Sunny Ra via email at sra@skidmore.edu.
Tang at Home Studio Schedule
February 27: What a View!
Photographer Danielle St. Laurent created a series of family portraits during the pandemic in which families are separated by windows. This week, we look at Laurent’s photographs in the exhibition Pandemic and Protest, and think about how we can find creative ways to connect with others. Then, we will make our own paper-based windows from which we can look out at the world, and others can look at us. What will you reveal from your window?
March 13: Cut it Out!
We’ll explore Nina Chanel Abney’s eye-catching work Whet, on view in the exhibition Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond. Using spray paint and vinyl stencils, Abney explores race and identity through colors, figures, text, abstract imagery, and symbols taken from the internet, social media, and popular culture. We will create our own colorful collaged artworks that reflect our view of a world full of powerful, positive, and inclusive messages.
March 27: Living Landforms
This week, we explore Syd Carpenter’s sculpture Ellis and Anna Mae Thomas, on view in the exhibition Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond. Carpenter, who is also a gardener, explores the histories of African American farmers and her own family’s history of farming in her sculptures as a way to honor their untold legacies. We will look at how Carpenter “breathes life” into her sculpture as a metaphor for the living earth, and then create our own 3-D topographical maps with recycled materials found around the house.
April 10: Creative Flow Illustrations
Did you know comic books can inspire art? We will take a close look at posters from the Tang collection created by the Chicago Imagists, a group of Chicago artists known for their colorful artworks, which were inspired by comics, flea market finds, and popular culture. After looking at and learning about their art and process, we will create our own illustrations inspired by objects around the house, from today’s popular culture and from our own imaginations.
April 24: Wild One!
We will explore and learn about a work by Rina Banerjee with a title that tells a story: Mother gathered Three and no more dirty stones, tossed them to sky that could break what had hardened her ground and without frown or flirt of flower father like grease or butter slipped aside to free from forty and some more grown men who held her as housewife like plant life with Three or no more daughters. The work is on view in the exhibition Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond. Banerjee incorporates objects, folklore, and imagery that reflect her own multinational and immigrant background. Inspired by Banerjee, we will imagine and create our own multimedia artwork that tells our own stories using drawing and collage materials.
May 8: Everyday Superheroes
After looking at the painting Superheroes by artist Katherine Bradford, on view in the exhibition Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, we will share our own ideas about superheroes, their outfits, and their powers. Who are the superheroes in your life? We will create our own squad of paper-based superheroes! Don’t forget to come dressed as your favorite superhero, or wear an outfit that makes you feel larger than life!
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Tang building is closed to the public, due to the pandemic, but is open online. For updates, please visit http://tang.skidmore.edu.
Media contact
Michael Janairo
Head of Communications
Tang Teaching Museum