BYU NewsNet - MOA Art Day draws in families for constructive fun

An annual event hosted by BYU’s Museum of Art draws crowds of people where families can participate in activities such as cookie decorating, castle building, story time, a sing-along, face painting and a film festival.

Lynda Palma is in charge of the Family Art Day each year. She said this year’s turnout was typical.

“We usually have a phenomenal turnout,” Palma said. “I have even talked to mothers who mark this on their calendar at the beginning of each year.”

Walking through the museum, children fill the space as they run from one interactive activity to the next so they don’t miss a thing.

“It’s a marvelous day for the MOA to bring the community, especially [grades] K-12, into the museum,” Palma said.

She said the theme of Family Art Day changes each year and this year it surrounds the Walter Wick exhibit and his books, such as the “I Spy” series.

“What child hasn’t seen a Walter Wick book?” Palma said. “So we’re highlighting his children-friendly exhibit.”

In the K-Room of the museum, the Make Your Own Seymour Art Activity features decorating Seymour-shaped sugar cookies with frosting, sprinkles and jelly beans.

Allison Ward, a BYU student who works in the MOA store, said Seymour is a character used in a series of Wick books titled “Can You See What I See?”

Andrew Martin, 8, from Eagle Mountain, said he enjoys all the activities.

“It’s been fun,” Martin said. “I think I like making cookies the most.”

At the Lied Gallery in the museum, children and adults of all ages were seen constructing castles out of wooden blocks by stacking them tall.

Davin Coulson, 3, and Coen Coulson, 5, brothers from Pleasant Grove, were using the blocks to make different buildings.

“I’m making a tower, a castle,” Davin Coulson said.

While on tour, Davin Coulson said he saw the Styrofoam art sculpture downstairs in the Steinhilber exhibit.

“We saw the fan and the rocks blowing higher,” Davin Coulson said, referring to the Styrofoam pieces floating in the air.

Palma said it’s important to bring the children into the other galleries.

“Even some of the adult exhibits can be mediated in such a way children can enjoy and learn from them,” she said.

Palma said it’s significant that the children see the other galleries so that they will come to love the museum and return again.