Milwaukeeans finally have an excuse to be a kid again. Saturday’s grand opening of the Kohl’s Education Center at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), 700 N. Art Museum Dr., attracted child-like spirits across Milwaukee to explore the three-part exhibition. Inside, visitors can play with fruit, sketch their favorite Pixar characters and yes — throw paint at tables.
Kohl’s Department Stores gifted $3.7 million to MAM to create the education center. It includes a generation gallery, studio and lab, each of which encourages hands-on interaction with art history, animation tools and good old-fashioned pencils and paper.
MAM collaborated with Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios to populate the generation gallery’s current exhibit, “Animation: Art Goes to the Movies,” which will be on display until January 2013. The goal was to create the most interactive environment possible, and it truly is.
The gallery connects real pieces of art in history with their inspiration in contemporary movies. Did you know that “Sleeping Beauty” animators looked at medieval tapestries for inspiration? Or that the lead animator for “Beauty and the Beast” studied Michelangelo’s “Dying Slave” sculpture (along with the paw of his family’s basset hound) when drawing the Beast’s transformation into the Prince?
Neither did most people. But thanks to its strategic design, the exhibit encourages viewers to make connections between historic art works and still photos from “The Incredibles,” “The Tale of Despereaux,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar” and “Up.” It’s like art in itself to see an original Picasso pastel ornately framed next to the scene from “Fantasia” when the broomsticks are pitching pails of water.
“The whole goal is that you can draw that comparison. Kids can learn from artwork as much as adults in the other white-wall galleries,” Shannon Molter, MAM’s education department assistant, said.
Pixar donated the original clay sculptures of Russell, the inquisitive and somewhat nosy boy scout from “Up,” for kids to practice sketching with the provided supplies.
“Everywhere you look there is something you did not notice before,” Laura Fanning, 34, said. She and her two sons, ages 9 and 11, spent the majority of their visit in the generation lab. Her boys waited all month for it to open, she said.
The lab’s theme, “Museum from the Inside Out,” literally taught children about the inner-workings of being a museum curator, preparatory and restorer.
One activity looked like a desk-sized iTouch. It allowed kids to x-ray a historic painting and pick their favorite. It was hard not to laugh watching parents chase their children around the lab. They fervently pulled out hidden drawers, pressed buttons on screens and touched just about everything.
“That was really the goal with these new shows; they can exist without any real help from an educator,” Molter said.
Even so, it was a good thing that educational assistants still patrolled the exhibitions. Who else would help parents understand the complexity of the 100-frame stop motion movie-maker? With the press of a green button and arrangement of provided tinker toys, kids could create their very own short film. Once they were finished, they could email it to themselves. Education or innovation?
“It’s been amazing to watch kids walk in and just get it,” said Jen Arpin, MAM’s youth and family programs educator. “It’s instinctual.”
But it isn’t all gadgets and touch-screens. That’s where the generation studio comes into play. Paint, paper, pencils, sharpies, sticks and feathers are plentiful in the colorful — and chaotic — art-making room.
“Adults come here to make art work with their kids,” Molter said. “Not only is it just for children but really for families to interact to make something together.”
One project option was to create Kevin, the silly bird from “Up.” But maybe you’d rather paint colorful circles, or get glue stuck in your hair. Not to worry. Anything goes in the education center. Now try and say you don’t “get” art.