These kits can be picked up in The Museum Store! Each project, recommended for ages 5-12, connects to works in The Rockwell’s collections and exhibitions and is accompanied with all the necessary materials and easy-to-follow instructions. Please note: Some kits have small parts.
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Abraham Anghik Ruben is a North American artist of Inuit descent. He creates work depicting shamans transforming into animals important to his culture. In this project, consider what animals represent you or your family, then use your imagination to create a mythical being drawing and collage.
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Celebrate Pride Month by creating a rainbow-inspired mosaic suncatcher. Learn about the science behind color, basic color theory, and how to paint using the dry brush watercolor method. After completing your suncatcher, observe how the colors change and respond to light. Think about how the colors make you feel as they shine through your window.
Victoria Holton Artist Bio
Victoria Holton is an artist from the Southern Finger Lakes Region. Victoria has a MFA in Fashion Design from Cazenovia College and a BA in Graphic Design from Mansfield University. During her time at Cazenovia College, she was awarded the Student Fashion Designer Award in 2013 and 2015. At Mansfield University, she received both the Graphic Designer Award and the Outstanding Senior Award in 2019. Since graduating college, Victoria works as an artist, is the part-time Programs Assistant at The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and is a chicken farmer. Victoria works primarily in printmaking, photography and watercolor; she is inspired by nature and her beloved chickens. As a member of her local ARTS Council, she participates in many of their member art shows.
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Robin Tichane created AIDS’ Dark Terrain woodcut prints to express his feelings about the AIDS pandemic through environmental art. This art kit encourages you to go outside and take a walk around your house or school to explore your surroundings. What does it look and feel like? Use what you discovered to create YOUR environment through this printmaking project!
Victoria Hamilton Artist Bio
Victoria Hamilton is an artist from Horseheads, New York and has lived in the Finger Lakes area most of her life. She earned a B.S in Elementary Education and Art from Methodist University. She will be moving to Maine in July 2021 to pursue a Master’s degree in Art Education. She hopes to become an Art Educator in a museum or at a school in the future. Currently, Victoria works at The Rockwell Museum in Guest Services and is a Yoga Instructor. She loves to draw and paint. Her preferred media to work in is oil paint, oil pastel, ink, acrylic paint and clay. Some of Victoria’s other favorite things are coffee, podcasts, reading and sunshine!
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Practice the art of subtraction by carving your own eagle head. Follow the carving guide to gain knowledge and experience in cutting and shaping solid soap into a 3D artwork. Using the workable material of Ivory soap, have fun creating a unique piece in a relatively short period of time. Ivory soap is readily available, making it easy to continue to practice carving skills anytime.
Hayden Hayes Artist Bio
Shaping and carving antlers (and bone) is a practice that has been done for centuries upon centuries across the world. Today, the art of antler carving is quite different than the utilitarian objects (tools, awls, hooks etc.) made long ago by the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) people. In my early 20’s, I would frequent the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca, NY. I was fascinated by the carvings on display. I was inspired by works by Stan Hill Sr., Norman Jimerson and Wayne Skye to name a few. That is when my interest in carving began. At first, I was carving simple eagle heads and other things that I based off the carvings I saw at the museum. This gave me a guide on how to shape different pieces.
My work then (and continues to) evolves as I continue to make more creative works than what has already been done by Native carvers both past and present. I am constantly honing my relief carving skills, my portrait carving skills and generating new ideas and pieces never before seen in antler carving. Additionally, I am incorporating more and bright colors into antler work. This is a somewhat foreign idea to antler carving, but in order to advance the art and make what I do unique, it is something I feel good about doing. Today much of my work is aimed at pointing out contemporary issues we as Native people face.
Nya weh (Thank you)
Hayden Haynes, Seneca-Deer Clan
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Make your own mini rug inspired by the Diné (Navajo) textiles in The Rockwell Museum’s collection. Take a walk outside and look around your environment. What living and non-living things do you see in the natural world? Learn basic embroidery skills and sewing vocabulary to create a simple one-of-a-kind weaving with designs from nature. All necessary materials are included!
Becky McNeill Artist Bio
Becky McNeill is a quilt artist who lives and works in Corning, NY. She learned to quilt when she was just a little girl in Indiana. She started by using traditional patterns to make big quilts that you would normally use on a bed or to cuddle on the couch. She figured out pretty quickly that she didn’t like making big quilts, and she especially didn’t like following other people’s patterns. She started making quilts that were designed specifically to be art that you would hang on your wall. She created those quilts using a process called, “improvisational design,” which means that she made up the pattern as she went along.
Her art quilts usually tell a story that is important to her. Sometimes they make you want to take better care of the environment or be kinder to the people in your community, or sometimes they share something about her family. The quilts she has made have been shown in galleries and exhibitions all around New York and the whole country. They have also been in lots of quilting magazines. You can see them at the Finger Lakes Unique on Market Street in Corning or sometimes you can also see them at The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes on Market Street or other special events in and around Corning.
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Make a fun glow-in-the-dark mobile inspired by The Rockwell Museum’s ANTIGRAVITY installation. On your way in to pick up your kit, stop in the entryway and look up! You’ll see Elaine K. Ng’s 2020 installation, a circle, a line, an arc. Ng used shapes and lines to create a hanging artwork, and you’ll do the same with the materials in this kit. This kit is great for kids ages 5-12, but anyone under 8 will benefit from the help of a caregiver or older sibling.
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The Rockwell Museum and CareFirst educators explore American landscape paintings in the Rockwell Collection and provide ways to use your senses to imagine what you might see, smell, touch and hear. Watch the video and follow along with your kit.
The virtual activity starts with a meditative breathing exercise that acknowledges how stressful the past several months have been. Learn about the S.A.F.E box (Sensing All Feelings and Emotions) and what you can fill it with. Explore a painted landscape scene using your senses. Then, create your own fantasy landscape using your imagination and mixed-media materials. Exploring Art with Your Mind and Senses is a fun way to connect with artwork and think about how it makes you feel.
click for printable activity packet
This project is funded in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes, which is administered by The ARTS Council.
Each project bag includes all the materials and instructions you need to decorate a sugar skull, and make your own paper flowers. Thank you to Dinorah Peters and Gloria Harris for their support on this project.
CLICK FOR INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE YOUR OWN PAPER FLOWER
CLICK FOR INSTRUCTIONS TO DECORATE SUGAR SKULLS
RATTLE INSTRUCTIONS & INFORMATION
Did you know that drums and rattles are the most common instruments used in Native American music? Rattles have been used throughout the world to help keep rhythm during tribal dances and ceremonies. Native American rattles date back to historic times. They were the perfect accompaniment to Native American ceremonies, which often included dancing. The rhythm the rattle helps keep during the dance is unforgettable – something that resonates to the very soul, helping make the ceremony a spiritual experience.
Take your rattle home, sit quietly alone or with friends and shake it! The music will help you clear your mind and open a doorway to a different emotional place.
Pick up this free Art Kit every day starting September 9, or at Urban Arts Crawl: Artists’ Trunk Show + Family Event, 5 – 8 p.m. on Friday, September 18. First come, first served!
The Slime Squish project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Click for printable directions and materials list
The pinwheels project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Directions for Letter Pinwheels
The Coil Pottery project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Click for printable directions and materials list
The Collage Map of My Community project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Click for Project Directions and Materials Supply List
The Beaded Flower Wand project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Click Here for Project Directions and Materials Supply List.
The Woven Tree of Life project can also be completed with simple materials found around your house, or purchased at a local store.
Click Here for Project Directions and Materials Supply List.
Complete this art project with simple materials found around your house!
Click Here for Project Directions.
Complete this art project with simple materials found around your house!
Click Here for Project Directions.
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