Calendar of Events

While we safely explore our surroundings, we are taking a moment to appreciate the public art found out on the museum’s front lawn. Engage with the outdoor sculpture and become inspired by the variety in scale, shape, and texture with virtual art making activities, storyime, collection connections to explore, and a digital scavenger hunt. 

ART MAKING ACTIVITIES

Artist: William Turnbull, Scottish, 1922-2012
Title: Large Horse
Date: 1990
Media: Bronze

William Turnbull’s sculptures of horses feel both familiar and alien. Here, the mask-like form of the head narrows like a horse’s muzzle, but the eyes appear at the center of the face, rather than the sides. From a side view, the sculpture also resembles an adze—a tool similar to an axe whose blade is perpendicular rather than parallel to the handle. Look for  similarities between the horse’s head and the blade of an adze, and the arcing neck to its handle. In Turnbull’s words, when depicting horses, “what interests me…is how the part can represent the whole. I mean that when you see the horse’s head you feel the whole horsee…And when I make horses’ heads…it’s always been with the idea of having a metaphoric quality.”

For Turnbull, the adze was an everyday object that had similar qualities to a horse’s head. Take a closer look at an object in your daily life. Do you see something new in it? Watch Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez transform ordinary kitchen items into a sea-turtle, boat, and more.

Artist: Alexander Calder, American, 1898–1976
Title: Stegosaurus
Date: 1972
Media: Painted steel

Since its installation in 1973, Alexander Calder’s Stegosaurus has become an iconic symbol of Downtown Hartford. When you walk under and around it on your next visit, notice how the arches intersect and the triangles create overlapping patterns. Together these abstract shapes suggest the form of a stegosaurus with its sloping, spiked back. Calder was commissioned to design the sculpture by the Ella Burr McManus Trust (established in 1923) in memory of Alfred E. Burr, Ella’s father and founder of the Hartford Times.

Create alongside teaching artist Fionnuala Ross and design your own Calder inspired sculpture. 

COLLECTION CONNECTIONS

Artist: Alexander Calder, American, 1898–1976
Title: The Spider and the Fly
Date: c. 1938
Media: Brass, thread, and wood

Throughout his career, Calder designed sculptures that tested scale and physics. The artist’s interest in movement could be seen in his mobile sculptures which embraced kinetic energy.  Listen to Erin Monroe, curator of American Paintings and Sculpture discuss Calder’s The Spider and the Fly.

STORYTIME

What happens when Mouse finds an enormous apple? Listen to Docent Augusta Gonzalez read about Mouse’s quest to find a space that’s big enough to fit both themselves and their apple in the Spanish book Una casa a la medida by Petr Horacek.

DIGITAL SCAVENGER HUNT

A series of carved faces peer at you from each side of the Morgan Memorial. Take a moment to practice some close looking and try to find all the items below. You can click on the images to zoom in on the details. Pick your favorite face, when you visit in person snap a selfie making the same expression. 

• A pair of triumphant seahorses 
• Four mischievous smiles
• One stunned expression
• A pair of ornate earrings
• Five lavish crowns
• Two fanned out bat wings

Second Saturdays for Families is funded by Aetna. Additional support is provided by the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, and the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide

What makes some colors standout and others fade in the background? Explore how artists use color to convey atmosphere and mood with art-making demonstrations, collection connections, and story time in English & Spanish.

ART MAKING ACTIVITIES

Artist: Louis Anquetin, French, 1861-1932
Title: Avenue de Clichy (Street—Five O’clock in the Evening)
Date: 1887
Media: Oil on paper

The scene here is the intersection of the Avenue de Clichy and the Avenue de St. Ouen, near Anquetin’s home in Paris. The artist transformed this ordinary street corner into a magical environment through his use of color. The dominant blue areas edged with gold and black contour lines suggest the gathering dusk and the glow of gas lamps. Allow your eyes to wander over the surface of this painting. Let’s take a look at all the different colors. 

Can you find red, yellow, and blue in this painting? Do you know why these colors are important? Red, yellow, and blue are known as the primary colors. All the other colors— except white and black—can be made by mixing these colors. 

The artist used shades of color to make this street scene look real. A shade of a color is how light or dark it is. If we look closely, we see there are at least three different shades of blue. 

Anquetin used warm and cool colors in this painting. Red, yellow, and orange are warm colors. These colors grab your attention. Blue, green, and purple are cool colors. These colors tend to be quieter and less noticeable. Where do you see warm and cool colors in this painting?

One Fish, Two Fish
Watch Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez create an ocean scene using warm and cool colors. Grab your markers and design your own colorful artwork. 

Artist: Anni Albers, American, born Germany 1899-1994
Title: In Orbit 
Date: 1957
Media: Wool

Albers trained at the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop where she became a master weaver. She was instrumental in expanding ideas about textiles beyond their useful quality or designation as “craft.” Albers called her work “pictorial weavings” to emphasize their significance as art. 

Albers used looms to make her textile designs. The loom is a device used to make fabric. It weaves threads over and under other threads to create a textile. Albers embraced new techniques and unusual materials that further defined modern weaving. She manipulated the loom to twist threads, resulting in intricate, textured layers and dense surfaces. She used color, too, to further delineate geometric shapes and patterns such as the two circles and a cross that appear to float across this composition.

Paper Weaving
Watch Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez weave construction paper to create a colorful composition. Design your own woven piece using scrap paper found in your home. Try old magazines, gift-wrap or left over mail.  

COLLECTION CONNECTIONS

Want to see the loom in action? Watch Docent and Tour Programs Manager, Angela Parker as she works on her loom and draws inspiration from textile artist Anni Albers. 

STORYTIME

Learn how a pet fish uses color to illustrate the beautiful and mysterious world beyond her fishbowl. Listen to Docent Christi Moraga read the bilingual children’s book “El Asombroso Pez Acuarela” by Carolyn Dee Flores.

The artist Josef Albers spent his artistic career studying how color could affect the mood of a piece. Listen to Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez read about Albers fascination with color in the children’s book An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers by Natasha Wing. 

STEAM CONNECTION

View a demonstration from The Discovery Museum and Planetarium’s lab. This presentation is all about light and how we see (and don’t see) it! Explore what happens when colors mix, learn about forms of light and much more! 

Explore artwork from the exhibition Savor and travel back to the 1700s to learn how food inventions from the past have changed the ways we eat today. Then create an artwork that looks good enough to eat. Digital activity packs include art-making demonstrations, visual scavenger hunts, close looking prompts, and story time in English and Spanish. Available on the second Saturday of the month and afterwards.

ART MAKING ACTIVITY

Inspired by the spring vegetables in Savor, Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez uses model magic to re-create garden greens. Try your hand at creating a food sculpture that deceives the eye.

EXHIBITION CONNECTIONS

Watch food historian Ivan Day make ice cream using 300-year-old recipes and techniques. 

A melon made of dyed green sausage and oysters? Click here and listen to curator Meredith Chilton discuss how tin and copper molds were used to create whimsical dishes. 

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A CLOSER LOOK

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud, American, born 1920
Title: Half Cakes
Date: 1961
Media: Oil on canvas

Thiebaud’s mouth watering still lifes demonstrate his ability to use paint in unexpected ways. In Half Cakes, he painted each dessert with thick, heavy strokes to produce a textured surface.  The artist transformed the oil paint into a dense buttery frosting. 

• Zoom in on the work. Notice how the white icing consists of reds, blues and oranges. What other colors do you notice?
• What shapes are repeated?
• Try sketching your own dessert drawing. What foods would you choose?
• Do you enjoy these foods during a special occasion? 
• What tastes, sounds and smells are associated with these dishes? 

STORY TIME

Carlos refuses to listen to his mother’s call to bath after spending time on the family farm, that is until a squash starts to grow in his ear! Listen to Docent Augusta Gonzalez read Jan Romero Stevens’ bilingual children’s book Carlos and the Squash Plant / Carlos y la planta de calabaza. Afterwards join Augusta in the kitchen as she prepares Calabacitas a traditional Mexican squash dish.

Find out what happens when a caterpillar with a voracious appetite eats his way through a variety of food. Sit back and listen to Youth and Community Programs Manager Marisely Gonzalez read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

Enjoy Baroque music performed by violinist Sandro Ladu and pianist Ina Jun. 

Second Saturdays for Families is funded by Aetna. Additional support is provided by the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, and the Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide.

Celebrate LatinX heritage and culture with art making, storytelling, and performances. Available on the second Saturday of the month and afterwards.

Second Saturdays for Families is funded by Aetna. Additional support is provided by the Ensworth Charitable Foundation, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, and the Charles Nelson Robinson Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. Program supplies are generously donated by S&S Worldwide.