Message of love
Kid-friendly exhibit explores emotions
TheYoungat ArtMuseumfor children inDavie is celebrating its “Summer of Love” with two exhibitions about compassion and balance.
The first installation is a traveling exhibition created by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh titled “XOXO: An Exhibit About Love and Forgiveness.”
XOXO takes a more direct, handsonapproach in getting the childrento express their feelings and emotions with various activities and prompts.
The kids can create trinkets and boxes with messages of love for their friends and families at the artmaking stations. They can also learn about feelings and facial expressions, as well as how universal emotions can be. Another station has the children work on messages to release any negative feelings. The messages are then shredded and used to create an artistic design. Two telephone booths across the room also allow visitors to interact with one another, the lesson being that you can still express your feelings when far apart.
Several of the activities encourage teamwork, such as a puzzle station and a seesawwhere two kids need to communicate in order to balance a ball in the center. Other stations have the children express their emotions through written word with prompts such as“Howhas someone been kind to you?” and “What do you do when you feel mad?”
“We hope to see the families will take the time to come and visit and allow children to explore this space to become a whole person and become a loving and caring future citizen of our world,” said Yumina Myers, manager of School and Public Programs.
On another side of the museum is Palindrome Park, an exhibition created by local artist Francesco Lo Castro that explores concepts of symmetry and harmony.
The Summer of Love exhibitions run until Sept. 10 at the Young at Art Museum in Davie, located at 751 Southwest 121st Ave.
Admission is free for museum members. Paid admission starts at$14 per person, $12 for Broward County residents, seniors and children over age 1, and $11 for military members and their immediate families.
junreyes@sun-sentinel.com