New York Trip - Day 5
Another long one. Click the link if you enjoy that sort of thing :)
Saturday, MIL went to her conference meetings at 6 AM, leaving Miguel and me to wake up alone. Today was Father and Son Day in the Big City (tm) Part One. We got up and had breakfast at McDonald's. Miguel was in a silly mood:
bozini had signed us up on the waiting list for a kids' program at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
We got there with five minutes to spare - only to be told it was in a different building. We hotfooted it over to the Education Center just in time to be 5 minutes late. We got in, though, and I am so glad we did. The session was called "Cut and Paste" - it concerned itself with the creation of collage from found/common objects. The museum had an exhibition of the work of Joan Miró, which is where we headed. We sat down and were handed bags containing a mystery object. The kids were asked to reach in and feel it to guess what it was. Then, before giving an answer, they had to describe the object as thoroughly as they could. The point was to get them thinking about the evocative nature of objects and textures. Then we looked at three pieces:
The first two are from Miró's "Spanish Dancer" series. Before she told them the titles, though, the instructor had the kids try to guess what each piece represented. There were some really great answers. Then we looked at the third piece, which was an interpretation of a realist painting (which I can't find, I'm afraid - it's a guy playing a lute at a table). The instructor passed out postcard-sized copies of the inspiration, then asked the kids to look at what was the same and what was different. This got them thinking about how art could be non-realistic but still be representative.
Then we headed back to the room, taking about 5 escalators to get there. As we went, the instructor had the kids think about something they like to do as inspiration for a collage we were going to make. Miguel's thought was "Ride the Escalator". He is nothing if not immediate. (I learned later that more than one kid used this to inspire their piece.) He came up with quite an interesting piece, which I will photograph and add to this blog entry. (I'll also post it separately so you don't have to keep checking back, gentle reader.) In the meantime here's a picture of a Warhol Cow - this was a huge two-story wall done with this image in a repeating pattern:
Anyway. We finished up our art and went out for a hot dog from a cart. Miguel loves the idea of buying food from a guy on the street:
Hunger sated, we went back into the museum to look around. It was Saturday, so it was fairly crowded. It was a really great museum with representative samples from various periods in an artist's development - I got to show Miguel the progressions of styles for Picasso and Mondrian. he was interested and kept up his part of the conversations. We drew a bit of a crowd at a couple of points, people listening in on our convo. I think they were impressed with Miguel's perspicacity, but that could be fatherly pride talking.
We left the Museum and, wanting to take Miguel on a tour around Central Park, we walked uptown (away from our hotel) to the southeast corner of Central Park to pick up one of the tour buses. We waited for about half an hour, watching about 10 Gray Line buses go by, waiting for our City Sights bus. On the plus side, I did get to see the carriage horses and the statue of Custer:
Finally, I went and complained to the bus dispatcher (another block walk in freezing weather with a 5-year-old) who told me that the bus would be another half-hour, and my best bet was to walk back south five blocks and catch the Midtown bus. I was tired, cold, and angry, but Miguel was there so I didn't argue much. I walked back to Midtown, and there was no Central Park tour for us :(. Next time, I'm going Gray Line - they had a bajillion buses and seemed really on the ball.
By this point we were wiped out, so we went to the hotel, warmed up, and watched a little TV. We got back to find food laid out for us - MIL had had some of the extra plates that had been set for her luncheon sent up to our room. So we dined on chicken and sweets until that night. That evening we went and saw 13, a musical where everyone in it (actors and the band) is between 12 and 16 years old. It was fun, if predictable, with upbeat rock-style music. It was cute to see how integrated with technology they portrayed young people today as being - everyone had cell phones and were texting and taking videos and posting them to YouTube throughout the show. They even had a "text us and win a backstage tour!" promotion. I had to teach MIL how to text :) So it was fun, but a bit sanitary and over sweet, you know?
Anyhow, what was not predictable was that we won the backstage tour! Miguel was over the moon - he had been asking to go backstage at every show, having been spoiled by touring companies who are suckers for a cute kid. We couldn't take pictures, but Miguel was fascinated by the set pieces, got to shake hands with the flyman and say "hi" to some of the cast. After that, we picked up a pizza at John's, which was only OK, and went to bed.
Saturday, MIL went to her conference meetings at 6 AM, leaving Miguel and me to wake up alone. Today was Father and Son Day in the Big City (tm) Part One. We got up and had breakfast at McDonald's. Miguel was in a silly mood:
bozini had signed us up on the waiting list for a kids' program at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
We got there with five minutes to spare - only to be told it was in a different building. We hotfooted it over to the Education Center just in time to be 5 minutes late. We got in, though, and I am so glad we did. The session was called "Cut and Paste" - it concerned itself with the creation of collage from found/common objects. The museum had an exhibition of the work of Joan Miró, which is where we headed. We sat down and were handed bags containing a mystery object. The kids were asked to reach in and feel it to guess what it was. Then, before giving an answer, they had to describe the object as thoroughly as they could. The point was to get them thinking about the evocative nature of objects and textures. Then we looked at three pieces:
The first two are from Miró's "Spanish Dancer" series. Before she told them the titles, though, the instructor had the kids try to guess what each piece represented. There were some really great answers. Then we looked at the third piece, which was an interpretation of a realist painting (which I can't find, I'm afraid - it's a guy playing a lute at a table). The instructor passed out postcard-sized copies of the inspiration, then asked the kids to look at what was the same and what was different. This got them thinking about how art could be non-realistic but still be representative.
Then we headed back to the room, taking about 5 escalators to get there. As we went, the instructor had the kids think about something they like to do as inspiration for a collage we were going to make. Miguel's thought was "Ride the Escalator". He is nothing if not immediate. (I learned later that more than one kid used this to inspire their piece.) He came up with quite an interesting piece, which I will photograph and add to this blog entry. (I'll also post it separately so you don't have to keep checking back, gentle reader.) In the meantime here's a picture of a Warhol Cow - this was a huge two-story wall done with this image in a repeating pattern:
Anyway. We finished up our art and went out for a hot dog from a cart. Miguel loves the idea of buying food from a guy on the street:
Hunger sated, we went back into the museum to look around. It was Saturday, so it was fairly crowded. It was a really great museum with representative samples from various periods in an artist's development - I got to show Miguel the progressions of styles for Picasso and Mondrian. he was interested and kept up his part of the conversations. We drew a bit of a crowd at a couple of points, people listening in on our convo. I think they were impressed with Miguel's perspicacity, but that could be fatherly pride talking.
We left the Museum and, wanting to take Miguel on a tour around Central Park, we walked uptown (away from our hotel) to the southeast corner of Central Park to pick up one of the tour buses. We waited for about half an hour, watching about 10 Gray Line buses go by, waiting for our City Sights bus. On the plus side, I did get to see the carriage horses and the statue of Custer:
Finally, I went and complained to the bus dispatcher (another block walk in freezing weather with a 5-year-old) who told me that the bus would be another half-hour, and my best bet was to walk back south five blocks and catch the Midtown bus. I was tired, cold, and angry, but Miguel was there so I didn't argue much. I walked back to Midtown, and there was no Central Park tour for us :(. Next time, I'm going Gray Line - they had a bajillion buses and seemed really on the ball.
By this point we were wiped out, so we went to the hotel, warmed up, and watched a little TV. We got back to find food laid out for us - MIL had had some of the extra plates that had been set for her luncheon sent up to our room. So we dined on chicken and sweets until that night. That evening we went and saw 13, a musical where everyone in it (actors and the band) is between 12 and 16 years old. It was fun, if predictable, with upbeat rock-style music. It was cute to see how integrated with technology they portrayed young people today as being - everyone had cell phones and were texting and taking videos and posting them to YouTube throughout the show. They even had a "text us and win a backstage tour!" promotion. I had to teach MIL how to text :) So it was fun, but a bit sanitary and over sweet, you know?
Anyhow, what was not predictable was that we won the backstage tour! Miguel was over the moon - he had been asking to go backstage at every show, having been spoiled by touring companies who are suckers for a cute kid. We couldn't take pictures, but Miguel was fascinated by the set pieces, got to shake hands with the flyman and say "hi" to some of the cast. After that, we picked up a pizza at John's, which was only OK, and went to bed.