Arsenal family
February - April 2022
What do we see this world look like? What do artists see it look like? Can one learn to see how they do? Why is this art, a black square on white canvas? Why paintings 500 years old look so different from modern paintings? And what is more important: what we see on the outside or what lies hidden inside?
All these and other important questions about art interest our children no less than they do us adults. We know it from firsthand experience. That was why ten years ago we came up with the programme Arsenal + Family. Every year we invite to the Arsenal children of 3 to 12 years of age together with their parents to learn how to enjoy a piece of art, contemplate what you see, share your thoughts with others, and accept different opinions and value them. For this experience to become deeper and the ideas of the artists more conceivable, at the end of each class we create our own masterpieces to ground theory by practice.
If this is what you were looking for, we’ll be glad to welcome you at our place.
3–5 years old
Colour. Shape. Material
On Saturdays, 12 classes, starts on February 12, 12:00–12:40, Multimedia Library
Colour. Shape. Material is a series of creativity classes for the youngest participants of the programme. By making up extraordinary stories, the children play with colours, shapes, and materials to find new and unexpected in familiar. What for? To make their own pieces of art, a few small ones or one big, and then play again with what has come out.
What are the parents doing all that time? They are always near and also inventing, playing, and experimenting. But most importantly they are watching their kids and learning something significant about them and about themselves as well as opening new ways of exploring the world.
- Ideal Shape!
- Transformations of a Circle
- Figure Story
- Colours That Make You Warm
- A Colour as Cool as Water
- All Mixed-up: Mixing Colours
- Colourful Performance
- In the Beginning There Was Clay
- Tales of Wood
- Unknown Cotton
- Such Different Paper
- Modern Plastics
Trainer: Alevtina Nikonova
6 children + parents
The parents are required to be present in the class.
5–7 years old
New Course
Images of the World, or The History of Transformations
On Sundays, 12 classes, starts on February 13, 12:00–1:00, Multimedia Library
What do children normally draw? Things they see before them: the sun, trees, the moon, stars, dogs… Artists do the same. But why does a depiction of one and the same thing come out so different with different artists? The dog from a cave painting looks nothing like the little dog from the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck. What about the Jeff Koons gigantic Puppy? It’s absolutely different! What can this transformation tell us about? Is it just the appearances, or is everything about it more profound and exciting than mere appearances?
In order to deal with it, let’s do the following. We’ll take 12 subjects. May they all be connected with the world of nature. And to those we’ll match several most captivating pieces of art from different periods and countries. We’ll scan them carefully while thinking that behind any external change there’s an internal change lying hidden, the one of the meaning. The result of our scrutiny will be the newest pieces of art created here and now. We ourselves will be creators.
- Whither Are the Bison Running?
- Look, a Dog!
- I Am a Bird!
- Fish On the Menu
- Dragons and Co.
- A Tree. Does the Landscape Genre Grow From It?
- It’s Not That Simple!
- Is the Sun the Boss?
- The Moon and Stars are Always There
- How Do You Stop Something That’s Constantly On the Move?
- Snow and Ice. Will They melt, or Won’t They?
- Catch and Hold
Trainer: Irina Aganina
10 children + parents
The parents are required to be present in the class.
6–8 years old
Art: How is it made?
On Sundays, 12 classes, starts on February 13, 2:30–4:00, Multimedia Library and exhibition halls
What is a stretcher frame, and why does the canvas need one? What is this gigantic sculpture made of – is it plastic bags? What are those lines? Why did the artist make them so curvy? What are those – real tree boughs from the woods? Why did the artist want this old rusty bucket when it can’t hold water? Unhurried and careful scrutiny of a piece of art helps see a lot. It’s especially exciting when it happens in an exhibition. It’s where we’re going now, and taking an imaginary magnifying glass with us.
Each time we will choose 3 or 4 pieces, place ourselves comfortably near it sitting or lying down or standing up, and look with the great attention. To make our active, inquiring eye even more focused, we’ll ask ourselves questions: what is this made of? how was it made? why did the artist do this but not that? We’ll be looking for the answers to these together. And then we’ll create our own art using the same materials and techniques.
Trainer: Irina Aganina
10 children + parents
8–12 years old
The Central Characters of Contemporary Art. Beginning
On Saturdays, 12 classes, starts on February 12, 2:00–3:30, Multimedia Library
Would you like to know how to conquer Paris with fairy tales, or hear the paintings’ voices? Are you ready to solve the mysteries of the Black Square, or see why a normal piece bought from a normal shop can become a piece of art? Then this course is simply a necessity for you!
In this course we will be looking at and discussing the art created on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries. Their authors are the artists who made a real revolution in art. How does one make an artistic discovery? Is it easy to do something that no-one did before? And what do the contemporaries think of the new art?
The result of each of our conversation about a ground-breaker artist will be a creative experiment in the manner of our today’s hero and a masterpiece you will have made yourself.
- From the Cave Wall To the Easel
- 19th Century. Town, Train, Artist
- Claude Monet. The Catcher Of Light and Air
- Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Point, Eye, Painting
- Vincent van Gogh. Story of Passion and Despair
- Paul Cézanne. To go Down to the Very Core of Things
- Antonio Gaudí. Lonesome Sorcerer
- Henri Matisse. Even Brighter?!
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Franz Marc. The Art of Scream
- Pablo Picasso. Art or Constructor?
- Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla. Roll On, Time!
- Paint, Easel, Chisel, Clay. Now the Artist’s Out to Play. Reflecting through a game on what we learned
Trainer: Rimma Gaze
10 children + parents
8–12 years old
The Central Characters of Contemporary Art. Continuation
On Saturdays, 12 classes, starts on February 12, 5:00–6:30, Multimedia Library
“Courageous, and strange, and unfathomable”, this is what’s often said about contemporary art. How do we make anything of it? “Let’s look, and think, and understand, and create”, this will be our reply, and we’ll offer you to continue our getting to know the most important artists of the previous century. Besides the key names, pieces, and movements in art of the mid 20th – early 21st centuries we will speak of how contemporary art is connected with what is going on here and now in the world, and society, and culture, and individual. And, of course, we are going to practice a lot creating our own artistic statements following our heroes, the authors of unusual paintings, objects, performances, and installations.
- Crossroads of history
- Alberto Giacometti. The Man Who Walks
- Geliy Korzhev. Singed by War Fire
- Alberto Burri. A Footprint of Feelings
- Jackson Pollock. Terribly loud and limitlessly close
- Mark Rothko. Artist. Artist? Artist!
- Alexander Calder. One, two, three, freeze, or Harmony of Balance
- Jasper Johns. Now, where’s the painting?
- Robert Rauschenberg. …out of what lies around…
- Oscar Rabin. We are.
- Francisco Infante-Arana. Roads to Infinity
- Paint, Easel, Chisel, Clay. Now the Artist’s Out to Play. Reflecting through a game on what we learned
Trainer: Rimma Gaze
10 children + parents
Price: 500 roubles per class (one child and one parent).
To learn the details and make a reservation please call +7 930 803 27 75 (Yelena Blinova).