Going through Art/Design school I have been to quite a few art museums and while I love art it sometimes can feel a bit mundane and cold which is just no fun! When Cindy, Beth and I were down in Columbus for a “Girls Overnight Getaway” we went to The Columbus Museum of Art for our first adventure and it was so cool that I feel the need to share with you the activities that the Columbus Museum of Art has to offer your family! The Columbus Museum of Art is a must do if you are going to be in the area. I think I can safely say that all three of us were very impressed with the museums offering of art and activities in the Center for Creativity for families.
The Columbus Museum of Art
The Museum is beautiful 2 story building located in the heart of downtown Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Museum of Art was incorporated in 1878, making it the first art museum founded in Ohio! This museum is home to one of the country’s most important collections of American and European modern art, along with the largest collections of nineteenth-century American coverlets in the world. Definitely worth a trip to see all of their amazing works of art!
Center for Creativity Review
The Center for Creativity at the Columbus Museum of Art is amazing! The 18,000 square foot Center for Creativity is a hub of the museum that fosters imagination, critical thinking and innovation. The Center will provide engaging experiences with art and others while highlighting the creative process and experiencing creativity in action. This Creativity is so fun that you can have your children’s birthday party there! Such a neat and unique way to celebrate don’t you think!?
The Creativity Center has 7 Galleries (rooms) to wander through/explore and include The Wonder Room, The Family Gallery, The Innovation Lab, The Cardinal Health Auditorium, The American Electric Power Foundation Ready Room, The Studio and last but not least The Community Gallery. While all the Galleries were amazing I am going to share a few favorites from our visit.
The Family Gallery
This gallery is in the outer hallways and highlights art from the Museum’s permanent collection through yearly exhibits with fun and engaging themes. Don’t Eat the Art focuses on food in art and has some really cool interactive activities set up for playing and fun thinking.
There were also little fun activities along the way to keep our minds fresh and open to what we would see in The Innovation Lab and The Wonder Room.
The Wonder Room
This was my favorite room and if my kids were with us I think they would have had a blast! This unique room incorporates art into a playful environment that is total hands-on fun for children ages 3 to 14. They had really innovative stations set up for kids to create their own artwork. There was a clay modeling station, mobile making station, a large metal magnetic head with varied household objects to use to make a fun face (my favorite) and an area where kids could make a fort to play in. I was in awe of how much fun the children were having at each station and also amazed at how much fun I was having too!
FREE Museum Admission
The Columbus Museum of Art is proud to announce that thanks to a grant from The PNC Foundation, admission to the Museum and the special exhibitions are FREE in July and August! Yep, FREE! This is a great opportunity to take a road trip to explore and inspire your family to be creative thinkers in our ever changing world. The schedule of FREE activities include Family Adventures, Surprise Supplies, Drawing in the Gallery and many musical performances. Visit the calendar and the Summer Fun page at their website for dates, times and more information on the Museum.
The Columbus Museum of Art creates a great experience for all who enter! The Museum and Store are open Tuesday-Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm and on Thursday’s they are open from 10:00 am to 8:30 pm. For more information call 614.221.4848 or visit their website. The address is 480 East Broad Street/Columbus, Ohio/43215.
