Art Appreciation Expands for Children at the MAM

Art History Breaks Through Animated Films at Kohls Education Center

Feb. 27, 2012

4:15 a.m.

Children benefit from exposure to the arts, as do receptive adults. Even more so than in past years with the recent economic climate where all and any art education will be welcomed because budget cuts have made the arts almost non-existent in public schools. With this in mind, the redesigned and relocated Kohl's Education Center at the Milwaukee Art Museum opened on February 25 in grand style and with high expectations. Funded by mega grants from the Kohl's Corporation as part of the Kohl'sCares program, three new spaces present a variety of art experiences primarily for children. Yet, each exhibit offers teens or adults with an open, inquisitive mind or spirit to enrich their own lives by learning something new.  In the Kohl's Art Generation Gallery, an engaging exhibition titled “Animation: Art Goes to the Movies” explains through interactive media how important works in art history influence the films children love and adults admire. Animation experts from prominent movie studios (Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar) expertly discuss producer John Lassester's quote: “I believe in research. You cannot do enough research. Believability comes out of what's real.” As a viewer strolls through these fantasy worlds that animators create in films to ultimately make believable, this fascinating exhibition simultaneously becomes a practical, subtle lesson in art history. Animator Kendall Cronkite reveals how Rousseau's famous painting The Dream inspired the backgrounds and lush landscapes for the film Madagascar. Disney's acclaimed Beauty and the Beast drew from historical decorative arts for its charming life-like characters that inhabited the Beast's castle. Scenery from the beloved film repeats elements of 19th century French art, including elements from the painter Jean-Honare Fragonard. Disney animators also make a specific nod to Fragonard's 1776 painting The Swing in Disney\'s last film release Tangled, an updated version of the fairy tale Rapunzel. Inspiration for the filmmakers may involve an artist's use of atmospheric light, an architectural structure, a specific color palette or a definitive gesture or reference to a famous painting. The exhibition overlays art history with animation using an educational format that entertains and invites participation with easels to draw on and storyboards to work with. Another feature depicts how the enchanting film Sleeping Beauty and Disney classic derives its rich textural underpinnings from the Cloisters Museum (A branch of New York\'s Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art) and their collection of medieval tapestries. Who could have guessed from watching the movie this was true unless deeply involved in researching animation or the filmmaking process? Strolling through the fascinating gallery persuades viewers of any age how art influences culture and everyday life, even historical art from centuries past, including the first drawings from the caverns in France. Which incidentally were also used as a model for a scene in one movie. Art masters and their works, past and present, are further elevated in the public eye by demonstrating they enrich all culture and can affect contemporary entertainment beyond one's imagination. Would these films be as memorable without drawing from this collective genius in art? The question might be one too frightening to answer and illustrates the importance, how crucial, arts education can and should be to this generation of children. Knowing and researching the past pays huge dividends for the future. The Kohl\'s Art Generation gallery will rotate exhibitions annually and “Animation: Art Goes to the Movies” continues through January 13, 2013. On the museum's lower level underneath the Kohl's Art Generation Gallery is a permanent exhibition titled “Museum Inside Out” that highlights the inner workings of an art museum. This instructs the viewer on the process of curating and preserving artworks, designing and constructing an exhibition and documenting and storing a valuable art collection. Completed with easy access to interactive media for children (and again interested adults), “Museum Inside Out” helps kids learn about the business of art. There's even a question board that the museum staff will participate in when visitors ask the curators for their help with specific questions. Chosen questions will be answered by the respective curator through an adjacent video screen and updated regularly. Or one can vote for a favorite artwork to celebrate the museum's 100th anniversary in 2013. The last piece to the kid's education center features a greatly expanded Kohl's Art Generation Lab open every Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and other school vacation days for special events. Completely family friendly, the lab provides hands on experiences to create art under the supervision of museum staff. This past weekend bird sculptures crafted from colored papers, feathers and wooden sticks engaged Milwaukee Public School children. Complementing the art and subjects from current rotating exhibitions and their permanent collections, the lab merges art history with art skills. The exciting Kohl's Art Generation Education Center expansion reinforces that art...all types of art from every period in history...becomes integral to fostering imagination and growth that applies to all disciplines of society. Childhood experiences unable to be duplicated unless visiting the museum firsthand to actively appreciate and study the actual art not available through a download or on a computer screen, art in all its diverse and sundry forms, the old with the new. The museum, especially the Milwaukee Art Museum, becomes a vital place where art and culture collaborate, actively collide, to prove the necessity of the creative process in the 21st century. The Milwaukee Art Museum opens the three Kohl\'s Art Generation centers from February 25. While the exhibitions "Aninmation: Art Goes to the Movies" and "Museum Inside Out" are open with the regular museum hours, The Kohl\'s Art Generation Lab is only open on Sundays, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., or for special events. Check the website <a href=\"http://www.mam.org\">www.mam.org</a>  for further details.  <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p /> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p>

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