Albany Museum of Art

Family

Guide

Albany Museum of Art

Mission Statement

The mission of the Albany Museum of Art is to collect, preserve and exhibit works

of art and to conduct educational programming designed for a variety of audiences

within our community and region. Believing that art is vital to the human

experience, the museum will strive to cultivate and stimulate curiosity and passion

for art in its many forms.

Approved by the Board of Trustees on March 10, 2009

About the Albany Museum of Art

Formed in the early 1960s, the Southwest Georgia Art Association obtained its not-for-profit status in March 1964. With a volunteer staff and donated space in a defunct hosiery mill, the group established a program of exhibitions, lectures, and art instruction. In 1969, through the generosity of W. Banks Haley, Jr., the association constructed a gallery in a small city park. Its first paid staff members were hired in 1975. Exhibitions were drawn from collections and/or faculty of area universities: SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service); corporate collections, including those of IBM, annual exhibitions and Georgia Designer Craftsmen shows. Art instruction for children and adults was provided by instructors with professional standing. In addition, the programs included film and lecture series, chamber music, and dinner theatre. In 1980, at the beginning of a capital campaign for a new building, the association’s name was officially changed to the Albany Museum of Art. In 1983, the citizens of Albany and Southwest Georgia opened a new 1.2 million dollar museum facility with an exhibition of American Impressionism from the Phillips Collection and a permanent installation of its own collection of traditional African art. Today the Albany Museum of Art offers over twenty exhibitions annually, including its permanent collection exhibits. The Museum facility contains a 200-seat auditorium and a classroom for studio arts. The growing collection of the Albany Museum of Art includes 19th and 20th century American and European paintings, drawings, sculptures, watercolors, prints, and photographs. The Museum also houses one of the largest collections of traditional African art in the Southeast.

General Museum Information

Museum Hours:

Tuesday – Saturday 10AM – 5PM

Sunday & Monday

CLOSED

Admission: FREE

Telephone: 229.439.8400

Fax: 229.439.1332

http://www.albanymuseum.com

Why visit the Albany Museum of Art?

Museums have exhibitions with genuine artifacts that you can see in person, in real perspective, rather than merely viewing them on a television or computer screen or in a photograph. This valuable experience can lend to an appreciation of history. A trip to the museum can be an engaging and hands-on way to interact with interesting new things and learn amazing facts that you might not otherwise encounter. The Albany Museum of Art, like other museums, has visiting exhibits several times a year. The Albany Museum of Art also has permanent exhibits that are there for you to enjoy throughout the year. Each visit to the museum may be a new experience for you as well as a learning experience and a memorable time.

Pre-visit Information and Activities

This guide is a resource for families to help them with their visit to the Albany Museum of Art. We hope it has plenty of fun activities and useful information. We hope to see you soon at the Albany Museum of Art!

Museum Rules

To ensure that your visit is the best it can be please go over the following rules with your family: 1. Do not touch the artwork. There are oils in our skin that can damage the artwork. 2. No loud noises. Speak softly; others may be trying to learn. 3. No running or rambunctious behavior. You might get hurt or damage the artwork. 4. No food or drinks in the galleries, including gum and candy. Food attracts bugs that can damage the artworks. 5. No photography in the galleries unless you have permission from the Museum Staff. Bright lights, like flash bulbs, can damage artworks. You may also need permission from the artist to take a picture of an artwork. 6. Be careful when writing or taking notes. Do not write on the walls, labels, or artwork. Use pencils to write with; no pens allowed ion the galleries. 7. Take turns looking at objects. Give everyone a chance to enjoy the objects in the Museum; that’s why they’re there!

Pre-visit Discussion

Here are a few things to talk about before your visit.

1. What is a museum? A museum is a not-for-profit institution that collects objects, exhibits them and takes care of them so that many generations of people will be able to enjoy them and learn from them. 2. Where does a museum get the objects it exhibits? Objects the museum owns are usually purchased from someone who collects them, or a collector gave the objects to the museum as a gift. Many of the artworks in the Museum’s African art collection were given to the Museum by Stella Davis. Stella Davis collected African art while she worked in Africa for the U.S. Government. 3. What can we learn from the objects museums collect? The objects that museums collect are often from the past or from cultures found around the world. We can learn how people lived, what they believed, and who they were by looking at the objects that they made and used. 4. Do you collect things? Do you know someone who collects things? If so what do you or the person you know collect? Why?

How to Read a Label

Each artwork on display in the Museum has a label with important information about the work. The guide below shows you how to read the labels and get information about the artwork you see. Information on the labels include the name of the artist, the title of the artwork, the date it was made, what its made of, and who gave the artwork to the Museum. The number at the bottom of the label is a special code that helps Museum staff-members identify the artwork.

Artist -------------------

Title & date -----------

Medium ---------------

Donor ------------------ Accession # -----------

The accession number is a means of cataloging a piece of art in the permanent collection. The number above translates to:

84 year of donation or purchase 001 donor number 002 second piece donated that year by donor #001

African art labels: These will look slightly different since no artist's name will appear on the label.

Type of work ----------- People & Country ------ Medium ----------------- Donor -------------------- Accession # -------------

Edward Henry Potthast

The Bathing Hour, 1915

Oil on Canvas

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Henry Goodyear

84.001.002

Mask

Baule, Ivory Coast

Wood

Gift of Michael Davis

82.002.087

Family Activity Bags

The Albany Museum of Art offers Family Activity Bags that can be checked out at the Museum’s front desk. Each bag contains an activity you can do with your family in the Museum’s galleries. Each activity is designed to be fun and educational and will help you enjoy and learn about the artwork you see during your visit. You can do all the activities or just one or two. Be sure to remember, Activity Bags can be checked out one at a time. Instruction sheets for each activity are included in a special guide provided when you check out the bags. Activity Bags are offered free to our visitors. Activities include:

Magna Doodles This is a great activity to do with your child or to do as a family. Help your child draw the shapes that they see in the artworks or to come up with their own drawing. This is also a great activity for your child to do quietly while you enjoy the artwork.

Texture Exploration These activities include touchable works of art and texture games. Texture is an important element of art and a great way to help your child build motor skills and his or her sense of touch while teaching descriptive words and building his or her vocabulary.

You be the Judge You can be an art critic! Use this activity to have a family discussion about the artwork you see in the Museum. Have your child, or your family, pick their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorite artworks in the whole Museum.

African Art Grab-Bag This bag contains activities for the Museum’s African Art gallery including touchable art and an African folk-tale story book. You can use these items to learn about the art in this gallery.

Bird Watching Southwest Georgia is home to many species of birds. Some of these birds can be found in the Museum’s galleries. In this activity you can find and learn about the birds of Southwest Georgia.

Build a Story! In this activity you can learn about art while learning to read using special story puzzles that match the paintings in the Museum’s galleries.

Edward Henry Potthast painted this artwork in 1915. He became famous for his paintings of families having fun at the beach. Have you ever been to the beach? What types of things can you see at the beach? What kind of things can you do at the beach? Just for fun, make up a story about a trip to the beach. Can you make up a story about the family in this painting? Write down the people and things you see in the painting, and then make up a story including all of the things you see. Use the coloring sheet on the next page to create your own painting of the beach.

Edward Henry Potthast

The Bathing Hour, 1915

Oil on Canvas

Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Henry M. Goodyear at the

request of their son, Henry M. Goodyear, Jr.

84.001.002

Use this “Mad Libs” sheet to make up stories about the painting by Edward Potthast!

Once upon a time there were __________________ ___________________________.

(number) (plural noun – people or animals)

They were best friends. They loved to go to _________________________

(noun – place)

together. One day they went to ___________________ and when they

(noun – place)

got there they saw a _____________________. ____________________ was a very

(noun – person or thing) (pronoun – He, she, or it)

_________________________ ____________________. One of the

(adjective – describes a noun) (noun – thing)

___________________________ said to the others, “That ______________________

(plural noun – people or animals) (noun – person or thing)

Is very ________________________!” They all agreed that it was a very

(adjective – describes a noun)

_________________________ ____________________. The ________________

(adjective – describes a noun) (noun – person or thing) (noun – person or thing)

was _____________________________ very ______________________________.

(verb – action word ending in “ing”) (adverb – describes a verb and ends in “ly”)

They watched the ________________________ as it ________________________________

(noun – person or thing) (adverb – describes a verb and ends in “ly”)

___________________________. They saw many things during their trip to _______________

(verb – action word) (noun – place)

and they had lots of fun!

The End

Museum Mad Libs

Sinte African Dance Did you know that African art was often used during festivals and celebrations? The art you might see in the Albany Museum’s African art gallery was often accompanied by music and dance! You can learn an African dance by following the steps below. This dance is performed by the Boke tribe of Guinea to celebrate the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood. Put on your favorite music and dance!

Step 1: Bend forward with your hands together and roll your shoulders back while marching in place.

Step 2: Do one jumping-jack then touch the ground, then repeat

Step 3: Hop on one leg while clapping, do left, left, right left then right, right, left, right

Step 4: Step your left foot back and circle your left arm back, then step your right foot back and circle your right arm back, then repeat

Step 5: Jump twice to the right, and then jump twice to the left while waving your hands in the direction you are jumping

Step 6: Take three steps forward and kick front, then take three steps backward then kick back.

At-Home Activity

Do this activity on a rainy day, for hours of fun!

Make Kool-Aid Playdough Ingredients you’ll need:

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of salt

3 tbsp. oil

1 small pkg. Kool Aid (any color)

How to make your playdough:

Combine flour, salt, oil and Kool-Aid. Add 1 cup boiling water. Stir together. Knead mixture

until it forms a soft dough. This play dough will keep indefinitely if kept sealed when not in use

and is non-toxic.

Home-made Puffy Paint

Ingredients you’ll need:

1 tbsp. of self-rising flout

1 tbsp. of salt

Food coloring

Enough water to form a paste

How to make your puffy paint:

Mix the ingredients together to make a paste. Use a variety of food colorings to create your

palette. Then paint on cardboard or heavy cardstock. Put your finished work in the microwave

for 5 – 10 seconds. Make sure you don’t microwave too long or your puffy paint might burn.

Albany Museum of Art

Family Programming

Holiday and Summer Art Camps The Albany Museum of Art hosts several week-long art camps during the months of December, June and July for elementary age school children. They offer a great opportunity for your child to continue learning while having fun during school breaks. All camps sessions are taught by professional artists and educators and activities complement GPS. For more information contact Crystal Morrison at (229) 439-8400 or cmorrison@albanymuseum.com.

Family Days The Albany Museum of Art and the City of Albany’s Recreation and Parks Department host Family Days twice a year. These fun events include art activities, museum tours, and other fun programs. Admission to these events is always free. For more information contact Crystal Morrison at (229) 439-8400 or cmorrison@albanymuseum.com.

Birthday Parties Have your child’s birthday at the Albany Museum of Art. Packages range from fun and affordable to more elaborate celebrations. For more information contact Yvonne Jones at (229) 439-8400 or yjones@albanymuseum.com.

Family Membership The Albany Museum of Art offers Family level memberships for an annual $50 fee. Membership entitles you and your family to discounts on Holiday and Summer Camps and Birthday Parties. Membership also includes participation in the Southeastern Reciprocal Membership program or SERM, which grants membership privileges including free admission and discounts at over 70 art, history, and science museums across the Southeast.

AMAzing Space AMAzing Space is an interactive children’s gallery focused on art and education. It contains 14 fun and educational activities based on the AMA’s art collection. It’s perfect for a day out as a family or for a play-date with friends. AMAzing Space is open during regular Museum hours (Tuesday – Saturday 10 AM – 4 PM) and admission is always free.