Visitors of all ages are going out of their way – taking road-trip getaways and customizing plans – to arrange meeting at the Woodson Art Museum, for fun with friends and family.
During a recent weekend, three separate groups did just that for distinct reasons.
One pair of first-time visitors drove to Wausau, one from Minnesota and the other from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, after a parent suggested an afternoon at the Woodson Art Museum would be just the ticket.
Two families, one from north of the Twin Cities and the other from Rockford, Illinois, loaded babies and toddlers into car seats for their first-time foray to the Woodson. What led them here? A love for art museums and an online search for a good option that would make their daytrips worthwhile. Tickled to discover the exhibition of Christian Robinson’s children’s book illustrations, they spent an afternoon exploring collage-inspired activities in Art Park and picked up Art Kits and Activity Guides to continue sparking creativity at home.
On that same recent weekend, two boys who were pen pals met here for the first time with their families, both from Wisconsin, after the Stevens Point family recommended introducing the Ogema family to the Museum, too.
Another local family doesn’t have far to travel, although they were motivated to go out of their way to devise their own photo scavenger hunts. Lauren Kowal and her two daughters plan to jot down items to seek and find in the Christian Robinson exhibition as they’ve often done during recent Birds in Art exhibitions. The trio was joined last fall by her mother, sister, husband, and sister-in-law who snapped photos as they spotted items such as a vegetable, car, a bird with a “funny name,” or a bird that “reminds you of yourself.” As she’d hoped, the hunt encouraged her family to slow down and look more closely. “It was also a fun way to collaborate at the end of the tour to share our pictures,” she said, “which led to plenty of laughs as well as discussing which pieces were our favorites.”
As you think about many possibilities for fun, creative visits with friends and family to experience the artwork of Christian Robinson, American Woodblock Prints, and the Woodson Art Museum’s collection exhibitions, what might you do?
Christian Robinson, Another, © 2019, acrylic paint and collage on paper © 2019 by Christian Robinson; exhibition organized by NCCIL
