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Hallie Chametzky, 6, and Adrienne Chevalier, 5, walked slowly through the South Hall of the University Museum Thursday, inspecting every painting, sculpture and photograph they came across.
"That one?" Hallie asked, pointing to an oil painting of a bright orange flower.
Adrienne considered it for a second before she scrunched her nose and shook her head no. It had to be just the right painting, one they could take a picture of to use in their project.
From the South Hall, to the North Hall, to the Sculpture Garden and back to the South Hall, the girls kept searching, long after the other 13 children from Rainbow's End had made their selections.
Finally, Adrienne stopped and Hallie clapped her hands together, "Ooh, it's perfect!" The girls settled on a William H. Thielen painting made of shapes and bright colors of pink, yellow and violet, and they danced around anxiously as their Polaroid developed.
The picture was compiled with several other photocopied pieces of art for the children to use to make mosaics and learn about expressionist printmaking. Museum Director Bob Dehoet said the idea was for the children to recreate their visit to the museum.
After selecting their pictures, the children settled down in the Hall of Flowers, surrounded by markers, scissors and glue sticks, to work in pairs and make three images. They cut up their Polaroids and other pictures provided for them, using squares for one image, free-form shapes for another and finally cutting whatever they chose to glue down for their final creation. At the end, they got to choose their favorite image and color it in.
"They know the layout of the museum pretty well, and they know the things they've enjoyed," Dehoet said. "It's so interesting, because every group approaches this differently."
Nearby, Jack Bales and Robbie Karayiannis, both 9, glued all of their pieces into shapes representing video game characters, using pictures of vases for arms and legs and various paintings for armor.
"Everything we make is about video games," Jack pronounced as Robbie silently concurred. "24/7, it's video games, video games, video games."
The children of Rainbow's End, as well as other local daycare facilities, make regular trips to the museum to view exhibits and learn about art.
"It's a great experience," said Billye Preston, a graduate assistant at the museum. "We always try to do something different with them every time."
This was the first time the children did an activity on printmaking, and Adrienne and Hollie said they enjoyed the freedom of being allowed to create their images.
"It was a nice combination of things that got them excited to begin with," Dehoet said, "and I think their creative instincts took over from there.
"Taking Polaroids is exciting in and of itself, but they've been able to take something they've done and change it and transform it into something all their own."
