Museum of Art to host first ever holiday celebration
Come for the art and stay for the holiday cheer or come for the holiday cheer and stay for the art. Get both with the Springfield Museum of Art’s first ever seasonal open house.
Holiday at the Museum will allow for the fun of the season to combine with the various galleries and special exhibitions, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at the SMOA. The event is in partnership with Holiday in the City.
For most of 2021, SMOA staff has created events to reach the community and those who’ve never visited and this fits that pattern perfectly.
“This is another testament to the cool things in our community. For us, it’s the right time to do this with Holiday in the City and fits the larger focus of the Museum,” said Shelby Bobst, SMOA development officer. “We are near downtown but not in it and this helps extend our reach.”
Bobst said this is an opportunity for families and younger kids to have a place they can all go together and then enjoy things related to Holiday in the City downtown afterward.
The event will include special activities including ornament making and a letter-writing station in which participants can write letters to Santa Claus, family members or to deployed military members. The SMOA has partnered with the USO based out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to include such letters to go in care packages sent to the troops to brighten their holiday season.
Kids can take a barrel train ride or read multi-cultural holiday books presented by the Clark County Public Library. There will also be an ornament hunt throughout the museum’s galleries.
Santa Claus will appear for photos that families can take themselves. Everyone can get refreshed with a free hot chocolate bar with Starbucks drinks or purchase food from Leerah’s Vegan Treats.
Bobst said Holiday at the Museum is a chance to discover the galleries and the artistic treasures in them including the popular current exhibition, “Black Life as Subject Matter II,” and “On a Snowy Evening,” a new winter-themed exhibition featuring art with wintery scenes from the museum’s permanent collection, featuring many from its past holiday postcards.