The First Cut

A few weeks back, S and I indulged our artistic sides when we took in the Family Art Club at Manchester Art Gallery. The Family Art Club generally runs one Saturday a month and is for ages 6-11, however during holiday periods it is often opened up to ages 0-11 and so we decided to make our first visit. From previous visits to the Mini Art Club (aimed at 0-5 year olds) I knew that S can be a little wary of messy play, so I was pleased to find that this session was paper-themed, to fit in with their exhibition The First Cut. The exhibition itself is amazing, showing works by artists who cut, sculpt and manipulate paper, such as Rob Ryan and Claire Brewster. The first part of the session involved a visit to the exhibition and identifying as many geometrical shapes as you could. I was a little worried about allowing S into a space with such delicate artworks but he was fairly well behaved, shouting "Circle!" and "Square!" whenever he saw one. He has recently developed a love for shapes so this session was perfectly timed! 

Andreas Kocks, In the Beginning (2007)

After looking at the artworks, we then moved back to the education space where there were tables laid out with glue, safety scissors and different shapes of paper and stickers, to allow you create your own artwork. There were also tubes attached to the wall and children were encouraged to lie their paper flat underneath then throw the shapes down the tubes and glue them where they lay.

S thoroughly enjoyed this session and it was a relief to not have to clean paint off his tiny hands at the end! His art work ended up looking a little like a Miró and I might even get it framed...

Treasure Baskets

On Friday 2nd March S and I tried out the Treasure Baskets session at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.

I think he was probably a little old for the session as the aim of Treasure Baskets is to allow babies who can sit unsupported (but not yet crawl or walk) to explore baskets of found and natural objects, such as loofahs, brushes, torches, feathers and shiny material. S did not want to sit and touch these objects, which surprised me as he loves textures, but instead he wanted to walk around the wide open spaces of the gallery and explore all the dark corners.

   

Once he'd exhausted the exploration opportunities, he did become captivated by the torches for a few minutes, and Carol, who was running the session, also fetched him a basket of musical instruments as I explained how much he loves to make a noise!

 

There were not that many other babies there which was a shame but hopefully over time the session will become more popular as it was a lovely session for both babies and parents.

After the session, we went through to the cafe for lunch, I only had the soup and bread (from Barbakan in Chorlton so of course it was delicious!) due to money saving necessities but it was very filling - although I did need to order another portion of bread as S decided that bread dipped in soup was a much preferable meal to his jar of Organix food!

All in all I would say it's definitely worth a visit if your baby is sitting unsupported or even crawling, but if your child is as active as mine then it's still a lovely session - just expect them to want to run around!