At my dad's suggestion, we took the children to the Portland Art Museum today to take in The Dancer exhibit. My girls have both taken dance classes, and they love all things girly, so it seemed a good way to expose them to art. My father -- who is retired -- spent 10 years as a volunteer docent at the Art Institute of Chicago prior to moving to Portland over a year ago. I wasn't sure that we'd do so well: an art museum at naptime? I figured my 6 year old would soak it up like a sponge, but the 3 year old... not so much. It turned out to be a great little outing. After lunching at home, we came downtown, and arrived just in time for Docent Dean's Family Day hour-long tour of The Dancer at 12:30pm. He was wonderful: soft-spoken but very informative, engaging with the children, and not afraid to ask them to get a bit silly. As we viewed paintings and sculptures by Degas, Forain and Toulouse-Lautrec, he asked the kids to imitate some of the dance positions we saw. He had them sit on the floor when they really studied certain pieces. I truly enjoyed watching the children take an interest, ask great questions and offer up their interpretations of the pieces Dean showed us. I studied a fair amount of art history in college, but I learned a couple of new and interesting things today, and it really was inspiring to see a group of smart, inquisitive kids being respectful and awed by art. Oh, and the 3-year old, while she didn't exactly follow along with the tour, she did enjoy using one of the audio devices, punching in the buttons and listening to the recorded tour. She's a real button pusher, and I think it made her feel very grown up to get to use it.
Family Day also includes art making and stories, but we skipped those. Our thinking was it was better to leave wanting more, rather than to wear ourselves out at the museum and then be reluctant to return. PAM Family Days take place every Sunday beginning in February and feature themed activities highlighting the Museum’s permanent collections and special exhibitions.
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