Now you can find information about art museums relevant to children under my "Tips" tab.  Check it out for free admission info and some links to some great online content you can look at with your kids (some they can look at on their own).

I recently took my 5 year-old to the Philadelphia Art Museum.  It was the week before she started kindergarten, and we had been talking about doing something special together.  I casually suggested the art museum, "a big building with lots of paintings my lots of famous artists" and she jumped on the idea.  I think she wanted to see where her artwork might be hanging one day.

We spent most of our time in the Modern Art wing, where she loved seeing the big colorful canvases of Mark Rothko.  She laughed at a work by Robert Rauschenberg that had "eyes" sticking out from the canvas.  She pointed out one painting (it might have been a Franz Kline) that she said her brother could do.  She enjoyed the Impressionists, and we spent some time talking about how Monet's paintings looked different close up versus a few steps back.  She asked why there were so many naked people in the museum (in the paintings, of course).  I told her that some artists like to paint what the body looks like in different positions, and how our muscles and skin look.  I hope that was an okay answer--she seemed satisfied.

We brought a sketch book and colored pencils (I think that's all they will let you bring in) and after looking at many paintings, we found a bench where she could sit and make her "museum drawings" that were very colorful, expressive, abstract drawings, which seemed perfect.

We spent about 3 hours there, including time for lunch and a stop in the museum store where she picked out two postcards showing paintings that she "really super liked" which now hang on her bulletin board in her room.  She had a great time and wants to go back, and I'm very excited that she's starting out thinking that the museum is exciting and not boring.

Museums can be interesting for kids, if you let them be interested.  Check out some of the links, talk about artists' work and how it connects to some of the work the kids are doing themselves.  Some of the interactive online programs let kids learn about artists through games and videos, or make their own computer images in the style of the artist.  Give it a try...