ARTS PROFILE Peninsula Arts Council talks to Ruth Waters about “Leonardo’s Studio”, a new summer art and science program for children.
By Mary Alice Bowie
Ruth Waters, founder of The Peninsula Museum of Art, Burlingame, and the Peninsula Art Institute, told PAC about a wonderful new program for children combining art and science at the Peninsula Museum of Art called ‘Leonardo’s Studio’, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
The program focuses on the intersection between arts and sciences and is a collaboration between the Peninsula Museum of Art and Paintbrush Diplomacy Joan Siebor, the Executive Director of Paintbrush Diplomacy, and Professor Emerita of Psychology at Cal State East Bay, had been dreaming of a program integrating art and science. She was referred to Ruth, a sculptor who founded the gorgeous new Peninsula Art Museum, which houses galleries, classroom space, and thirty light-filled artist studios occupied by artists, some of whom will teach in the program. Forty students over the summer will be served, with some receiving scholarships. Collaboration will be encouraged and emphasized, and will be part of the basic structure of the program.
The
first session will have ‘Games’ as its theme, and children will be creating one game together -giving and sharing and creating in unison- epitomizing that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. There will also be traditional drawing and painting classes. The second session theme will be ‘Movement’. Leonardo classes will focus on providing tools to children to think differently and creatively so they say “why not?”
Classes will be held for five weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays with 6 to 8-year-olds in the mornings, 9 to 12 year-olds in early afternoon, and 13+-year-olds in mid-to late afternoon. There will be two five-week classes this summer, and classes will be offered year-round. http://www.peninsulaartinstitute.org/exhibits/integrating-art-and-science#.UbjhntuF_a8
Every museum is about education, Ruth states, and the children’s education is their most important goal. The children will have the opportunity to see over 30 adult artists at work in their on site studios. The artists chosen for the studios represent quality and originality of work, and are a diverse group, including artists from Turkey, Iran, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, China, and the United States. This creates dynamic cross cultural pollination.
The Museum is a fabulous place for the children to be able to have the classes, as it is a stimulating, beautiful environment. Currently showing in the Museum Gallery is ‘The Art of Science Fiction’ and in the Institute Gallery, ‘Integrating Art and Science’.
Adult classes and other children’s classes are also offered.
Register for classes online at http://www.peninsulamuseum.org
Peninsula Museum of Art
1777 California Drive,
Burlingame, CA 94010
650.692.2101
info@peninsulaartinstitute.org
Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Open every third Wednesday to 8pm. Admission to the Museum is free to the public.
