I think Anouk and I found a new favorite place today. It just happens to be the Hands on for Kids Gallery at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, a veritable Aladdin's Cave of creativity featuring (among other things) a chalkboard wall, light table, bins of blocks and Legos, and an art station stocked with everything from yarn to colored pencils to crayons, scissors, silk flowers, and googly eyes.
All of this by itself is pretty rad, but it gets EVEN better because Tuesdays and Thursdays are Paint Days at PFAC! If you stop by between 10 AM and 4 PM, you can don a smock and take your place at one of the easels to create your masterpiece (with very washable tempera paint) (thank goodness).
At home, Baby A. is usually kind of ambivalent about her crayons and paints but today she turned into a whirlwind as soon as we stepped through the door into the kids gallery, determined to touch and experiment with every. single. thing. in the room, from the tiniest Lego block to the googliest eye. I don't know if the unfamiliar surroundings made everything seem new and fresh and exciting, or if the space is just conducive to creative action in a way that our kitchen table is not (probably the latter). Either way, we (both) had a blast.
A few other things to remember if you're visiting PFAC:
- Admission is $7.50 and $4.00 for children older than 6, but discounted admission is available if you are a student, teacher, Triple A member, and a few others (I forget!) Be sure to ask & bring pertinent cards/IDs/etc when you visit to take advantage of this.
- Save your admission ticket: it will get you back into the museum for a whole week after you visit!
- Don't forget to stop by the Biennial 2012 exhibit, especially to check out 'The Story of Numm," a show by husband-and-wife team Rebecca Davis-Kelly and Kevin L. Kelly that's very steampunky and thought-provoking and cool.
- And don't forget to exercise your own creativity muscle while you're there:
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