For the past few months, Robbi has been working with a group of other creative, hard-working folks in and around Chestertown to imagine and create a children’s arts and craft space (called KidSPOT) adjacent to our community arts space, RiverArts.
Here’s the RiverArts logo.
Robbi and I put our heads together to come up with a compatible logo/work mark for KidsSPOT.
The grand opening of KidSPOT was at the beginning of April, but, unfortunately, it was the same weekend that we were in New York City for MoCCA.
And, improbably, we were also busy the next two Saturdays. So the kids and I didn’t have a chance to even see the space until this past weekend.
It was worth the wait.
Robbi’s exhibit (imagined and produced in collaboration with fellow illustrator Nicole in den Bosch) is a free- standing wall that is actually a kind of booth. The wall is covered with paintings by a variety of famous artists, and each painting is accompanied by spot for a name plate.
The missing name plates are all magnetic. The idea is that kids look at the names of the paintings and try to match them to the corresponding images.
The clues are embedded in the names themselves.
For example, The Music Lesson by Jan Vermeer.
Kato heard the name and contemplated.
And contemplated.
And got it.
Ditto The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.
I love Caspar David Friedrich. He painted my favorite-ever painting, The Monk by the Sea, which I just learned about from two breathless art historians courtesy Khan Academy.
Kato nailed The Last Supper as well.
Georgia O’Keefe’s Blue and Green Music caused him a bit of trouble by asking him to step beyond the concrete, but process of elimination helped him figure it out.
The verdict? He enjoyed it. It was fun. Robbi was gratified by first-hand evidence of her success.
But identifying paintings is only half the fun.
Next to the wall are three trunks, each of which contains a costume that appears in a famous painting.
The large frame in the center of the wall actually surrounds a cut-out space. Kids stand behind the wall in costume and become a famous painting.
Here is Alden as Frieda Kahlo in Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.
Note the leaves on the wall behind her. Note the monkey and cat on her shoulders. Note, particularly, the cat, which is made from one of my dress socks.
Here’s the original painting.
And here’s my girl.
She’s a dead-ringer for Frieda, I say.
Alden’s assessment? More fun. Lots of fun.
How often do you get to dress up and be a famous painting at the same time?
But that was just the first stop on our tour of KidSPOT. In the back of the room, kids have the opportunity to do the unexpected. Indeed, they are invited, nay, encouraged to DRAW ON THE WALL.
This is the final resting place of the dry-erase paint fund raiser that Robbi ran a few weeks ago when she sold her castle and beach ball print for a good cause.
The good cause was the opportunity for kids to do the usually verboten.
And, boy, did they enjoy themselves.
Before we left, Robbi took a moment to pose for a portrait of the artist as her own subject.
Robbi, Nicole, and lots of other folks did a lot of hard work to make KidSPOT happen.
The best way to thank them is to grab your own small people and stop by KidSPOT any Saturday between 10:00am and 2:00pm. RiverArts is located just off High Street in the Middle of Chestertown. Look for the Dunkin Donuts and then walk a bit further down the tunnel. Stop and see the gorgeous work of Chestertown’s own glass artists Dave and Patti Hegland while you’re at it.
In case you didn’t realize it, Chestertown is pretty cool. Great things are happening here.
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