Category Archives: trace

Banana Split!


We’ve been doing a lot of exploring of the museum – and it’s time for a snack! Did you know that almost all of the bananas that we eat are clones of each other?! There are over 1,000 different kinds of bananas, but only a few that taste good enough to eat – even covered with ice cream, sauce, and whipped cream! I’m glad Sophie and Sadie are such good friends they can share so nicely! Click on the image […]

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Story quilt


Sophie and Sadie are looking at a story quilt that is a bit like Faith Ringgold’s story quilt (and book) called Tar Beach. Faith Ringgold is an artist who paints pictures onto the fabric – and sometimes she also writes the story on the quilt to make sure everyone understands what she wants to say! What do you think this quilt is trying to say? Quilts have a long history of telling stories. Sometimes the story is in the pattern that the fabric […]

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Museum – Tiffany Stained Glass Window


Artists connected to an art movement called Art Nouveau believed that even things that we use every day like windows and lamps and houses should be beautiful works of art. Louis Comfort Tiffany (his father owned the famous jewelry store) was famous for using pieces of different colored glass all glued together to make windows and lamps look like paintings. He used glass that was colored so you couldn’t see through it but the sun light (or the light bulb) […]

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Collage – Matisse, Icarus, and Sadie


People have been making collages for hundreds of years – but it was artists including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso that brought it to modern art. A famous collage by Matisse is called Icarus, who in Greek Mythology was the one who wanted to fly. I want to to – and I think Sadie does also! How about you? The word collage comes from the French word for glue. You don’t have to actually use glue to make a collage […]

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Sculpture – prehistoric Lowenmensch


The oldest sculpture that has been found looks like a lion’s head on a person’s body. For some reason, Sophie and Sadie think that is pretty funny. It was found in Germany where they call it Lowenmensch – which basically means lion human and is 40,000 years old! It was carved out of the tusk of a woolly mammoth. I don’t know about you, but I think it was smart of the museum to put it in a glass cabinet! […]

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Sculpture – post-minimalism cacti


Sadie’s found a bunch of little Sadies! If you think that’s a little bit funny, then you’ll understand the difference between minimalism and post-minimalism. Very basic shapes using basic materials (minimalism) done in a way that is a little bit funny.  And sometimes making a lot of them – sometimes identical and sometimes not quite. In this case, there are 19 cacti, but none of them is exactly the same. It’s similar to the piece Repetition 19 by the artist […]

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Sculpture – Egypt Ushabti


Looks like Max made it to the museum as well! Who doesn’t like learning about Ancient Egypt?! These sculptures by the Ancient Egyptians are called Ushabti. They were buried (sometimes hundreds of them – and sometimes they were small and sometimes they were big) with the dead and expected to servants to them in whatever came next. The hieroglyphics on their legs was their contract saying they were willing to work! Click on the image below, or click here, to open the […]

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Sculpture – Yam Masks


One of the great things about museums is we can learn about other countries and cultures. We usually think of masks as something that people wear when we are pretending to be someone or something else.  In Papua New Guinea, Yam masks (also called Babamini) are made every year to decorate yams to look like people at the Yam Harvest Festival! Some of the yams are 12 feet long – that’s bigger than 2 people! Click on the image below, or […]

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Museum – sculpture Mobile


Mobiles are sculptures that hang by one wire at the top so they can move around without touching each other – either in the wind or because they get moved by people or a motor. The different pieces are attached to a wire in such a way that they balance and the wire stays mostly horizontal. They can be little (like the ones that hang over baby cribs) or they can be huge! The artist Alexander Calder was the first […]

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Museum – sculpture, minimalism boxes


Different artists at different times make different kinds of sculpture. Some are made by hand and some are made by machine. Sometimes they look just like things we use every day! Donald Judd was an artist who made sculptures that often look like furniture. He made a lot of sculptures of boxes like these. He thought it was just as important to look at the spaces on the wall between the boxes (and the shadows the boxes made) as it […]

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