Children's Museum of the Arts
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This week in After School, we studied self-portraits, facial proportion templates, and Albrecht Dürer. Our project was to create self-portraits that were half-realistic and half-abstract first in pencil, and then in either acrylic or watercolor. One student invented a new kind of watercolor wash technique that looked like tye-dye!

International Day of the Girl supports opportunities for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality. This Friday at 1 PM, we invite you to celebrate this important day by creating Frida Kahlo-inspired self-portraits during Club CMA with Raquel. All genders are welcome to create with us!

Taking place this Saturday at 11 AM, Club CMA Para Familias focuses on the theme of Nuyorican Printmakers and draws inspiration from Taller Boricua: A Political Print Shop in New York, currently on view at El Museo del Barrio. Taller Boricua was an East Harlem-based Nuyorican collective workshop and alternative space known for cultural empowerment and political activism. In the 1970s, the studio produced hundreds of prints that centered on issues of Puerto Rican independence, workers’ rights, and anti-imperialism. Saturday’s online workshop will be presented predominantly in Spanish while providing translation to English as needed. Click here to sign up: https://cmany.org//activities/view/cma-live-club-cma-para/

"The Baseball Game" by David Liu, Age 10. Part of CMA’s Permanent Collection, on view at Queens Museum as part of Ulrike Müller and Amy Zion: The Conference of the Animals.

In honor of heroes like the late Rep. John Lewis and young activists such as Greta Thunberg, participants will explore the power of speaking out through movement games and pantomime during Movement with Mackie this Friday at 1 PM. For Kids: Journal or draw a picture to answer this question What is something about being a kid that grownups just don’t understand? Share this with a grownup in your life.... For Adults: If you’re able, it’s time to get out the vote! Election Day is November 3.

Selections from CMA’s Permanent Collection of children’s artwork are on view at Queens Museum as part of Ulrike Müller and Amy Zion: The Conference of the Animals. This two-part exhibition features a mural by German artist Ulrike Müller, known for her emotionally and politically charged abstract painting, coupled with an exhibition of children’s drawings by independent curator Amy Zion. We are delighted to see these works in such a fitting context, and encourage families to explore this timely exhibition! https://queensmuseum.org/2019/12/conference-of-animals

Moments of joy from this week's After School Classes + One student said that Animation and Character Design got rid of her "Wednesday boredom" and was so thrilled that we have the rest of the semester to go. + Another student in Tools and Techniques drew a scene with a lion and a son that she described as a "moment stopped in time." ... + A student in Graphic Novel Club designed a character with plant powers it was fantastic.

"Untitled" by E. Lane, Age 11. Part of CMA’s Permanent Collection, on view at Queens Museum as part of Ulrike Muller and Amy Zion: The Conference of the Animals

What is your favorite CMA memory? In 2016, The New York Times reviewed our "Mission to Space" exhibition, which featured Masayoshi Sukita’s iconic photographs of musician (and CMA patron!) David Bowie. [David Bowie] used to bring his daughter, Lexi, to the museum when it was on Lafayette Street, Barbara Hunt McLanahan, the museum’s executive director, said, referring to [CMA’s] original SoHo location. (Lexi, more formally known as Alexandria Zahra Jones, is now 16.)

Check out this masterpiece created during last Saturday's Inclusive program for children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The project was homemade stamps, and folks soared to the occasion using wine corks, sponges, apples, lego bricks, and so much more!

What would you do if you had the attention of an entire crowd? During Friday's Sculpt with David online art class, we will sculpt a clay set featuring a stage and a crowd. The rest is up to you! What will you put on stage? A dramatic play? A pop song? A magic show? Fill your set with props and people to capture your audience. Sign up for free @ https://cmany.org//ac/view/cma-live-sculpt-david-platform/

Artist Mona Chalabi created 100 New Yorkers to help us see what New York City looks like across different ages, races, genders, abilities, and neighborhoods. Can you see yourself in the image? Lower Manhattan Cultural Council invites you to show us what your slice of New York looks like. Using a sheet of paper, create a drawing of yourselves, each other, your family, or the people that represent New York City to you. For this competition, Mona will select 10 winning images. ...These images will be displayed in the Oculus of Westfield World Trade Center from November 12-15, alongside Mona’s work. All submissions will be displayed on the LMCC website. Submit your work by Monday, October 26, 2020 to LMCC.net/competition. View 100 New Yorkers by Mona Chalabi across 22 screens in the Oculus, presented by LMCC and Westfield World Trade Center, with support from The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey as part of River To River 2020: Four Voices.

CMA Live! brings the Museum’s renowned programming into your own home. These interactive art classes take place over Zoom and invite children of all ages to participate in sing-alongs, create their own artworks, explore creative movement and dance, learn theater arts, and much more. Learn more at cmany.org/cma-live

This week in Animation and Character Design, it was all about creating the foundation, or skeleton, for our characters. In order to be able to move and animate our characters, we need to make sure that they have a strong flexible foundation. The key to a flexible foundation is armature, which we created out of wire and tape. A few students didn't have wire for their armatures, but they got amazingly creative one student taped paint brushes together, while another student used wire from a hanger. We also looked at Aardman Animation Studios and viewed clips from the movie Chicken Run. To let off steam, we played freeze dance, and it was really fun for everyone to let loose and show their dance moves. TGIF!

Who went apple picking, pumpkin patchin' or corn mazing this weekend? Pictured: "My Uncle's Farm" by Brian Fang. Part of CMA's Permanent Collection, comprised of over 2,000 works of children's art from over 40 countries.

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday from 5-6pm by learning about the work and process of Tzotzil photographer Sasaknichim Martinez. The artist will be joined by her former photography students from the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Mayan communities, Julieta Esperanza Gomez-Vazquez and Susana Petrona Perez de la Cruz, who have gone on to form the Stsebetik Bolom art collective. RSVP: https://cmany.org/.../cma-live-indigenous-peoples-day.../

Exhibition We Love Art & Activism: Drawing the Line looked at art as a form of activism and considered different aesthetic strategies that artists have used to address the politically urgent questions of their time. This Friday, young artists are once again encouraged to raise their voices during Sculpt With David at 1pm, where students will sculpt sets (and audience members) that will serve as a platform for their thoughts and opinions. ~ Pictured: Gordon Parks, Untitled, Washington, D.C., 1963. Archival Pigment Print. Courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation and Jack Shainman Gallery. Exhibited as part of Art & Activism: Drawing the Line, curated by CMA Artistic Director Jil Weinstock, on view Children’s Museum of the Arts in 2018.

In After School classes this week, students learned about character development and design, specifically protagonist and antagonist. They sketched and collaged characters out of paper, along with paper "clothes" that they could stick on and change. As a class, they studied characters from the film Moana to get their ideas flowing for our final film characters. Students Stella and Ada were so excited that they created a ton of characters. During our Drawing Game exercise, someone suggested making a unicorn with an ice cream cone as a horn everyone's descriptions were so creative!

In conjunction with the exhibition Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of the Coronavirus, CMA Executive Director and participating artist Seth Cameron joins Educator Cookie Mitchell and curator Christian Viveros-Faune for a discussion of the current state of arts and education. This online conversation takes place on Friday, September 25 at 6pm ET via the following link: https://zoom.us/j/96688115949 Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of the Coronavirus is the first maj...or virtual exhibition at USF Contemporary Art Museum. Over 40 international artists present work that responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a picture of a planet in crisis, but also hope and optimism in the face of a global emergency. View more @ lifeduringwartimeexhibition.org ~ Pictured: Seth Cameron, April 2020, watercolor and gouache on paper. Courtesy of the artist. See more

Congratulations to 2020 Google Doodle winner, fifth-grader Sharon Sara! This year’s contest was all about kindness, with Sharon highlighting friendship and inclusion in her illustration. How do you practice kindness? Let us know in the comments. I show kindness by sticking together with my friends in tough times. I drew people coming together and not thinking about the outside but being together because of their personality. Photo courtesy of Google