This weekend the ASU Art Museum hosted First Saturdays for Families, a monthly event in which families participate in hands-on activities and gain interest and knowledge about art.
Andrea Feller, interim curator of education at the museum, specializes in organizing educational programs and created the event, which began in January of this year.
Since then, the number of people turning out to each First Saturday event has grown, with numbers reaching 100 on some Saturday’s, museum publicist Diane Wallace said.
Feller’s inspiration in creating First Saturdays was to create a dialogue with the community about art and appeal to more than just students, she said.
“I wanted to offer a program for families for free that allowed them to learn about art together,” Feller said.
This past Saturday, families employed Model Magic clay to craft pinch pots, and younger children molded their clay into purple and green quadrupeds.
Families were also given an informational sheet that highlighted artists and pieces of art related to the pinch pots they made.
The projects First Saturdays arranges reflect either an entire exhibition or a work of art on display at the museum.
Attendees are encouraged to tour the museum, which keeps its exhibitions open for free on Saturdays.
Dawn Usher, an art education Master’s student and a part-time education assistant at the ASU Art Museum, helped run the event by talking to kids about the influence for the clay project.
“It’s been nice to connect the project to a new exhibition at the museum called “Do You Remember When?” … and relate the pinch pots to Native American artwork,” Usher said.
“Do You Remember When?” is on display at the Ceramic Research Center and was made by an Indigenous artist collective called Postcommodity.
The exhibition is one of many that will be on display at the ASU Art Museum this fall, fitting into this semester’s theme of sustainability.
Allison Burns, a mother of four, said she appreciates the community outreach First Saturdays provides and said she plans on returning. Burns said if it had not been for the event, she would not have known the museum existed.
Feller said one of the goals of First Saturdays is to show the community that the ASU Art Museum is a resource for everyone.
“In some school districts throughout the Valley, due to loss of wages, they don’t have art teachers,” she said. “I’m trying to provide art education for those kids and families who don’t have access to art education.”
Wallace said she attended public school in New York and has noticed a contrast between art programs in Arizona and those in New York, where art was standard in any education. Budget cuts have only augmented the problem.
“Our mission isn’t just to help educate college students — it’s to help educate everybody,” Wallace said.
Reach the reporter at brian.bahe@asu.edu.
