Maxxi museum of 21st century art

We finally succeeded in visiting this amazing space/museum as after a week of rain we are no longer worried by it.

The MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts is a national museum dedicated to contemporary creativity, located in the Flaminio neighbourhood of Rome, Italy. It is managed by a foundation created by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. It was designed as a multidisciplinary space by Zaha Hadid and committed to experimentation and innovation in the arts and architecture.

The children enjoyed it immensely, unfortunately I couldn't take many photos in the galleries so I snapped away at the amazing architecture, there is an art and architecture section and our favourite exhibition was William Kentridge's Vertical Thinking. The space was amazing, both inside and out and the cafe did one good chocolate cake!! I can't recommend this museum highly enough and the boys had a wonderful and educational time, Reuben even added some pebble art of his own near the entrance.

Reuben's pebble art

At the front of the building

That was nice cake!

We really liked the cafe too

Shapes

You can see the entrance hall two floors down

See-through staircase

Surfer beach art

Reuben has started work on a major installation! We have mountains with waterfalls, beaches and surfer boys and girls on our doors and walls today. And he's not finished yet!

Mountains on the door, one with waterfall and the ocean below

Adding a beach with surfer girl

Boy and girl surfers

I am a very good artist!

For Christmas Reuben received a mini easel and blackboard (he had indicated he wanted one some time ago!), overwhelmed by his other presents, especially his fairy doll, he didn't give it much attention till yesterday. Then he really went for it! I could hear him working while saying: "I'm a little artist, I'm a very good artist!!!". Hooray for self belief!

Art and play at Snibston

One thing I really like about the boys is how varied their interests and activities are. You might take them to the same place dozens of times and they'll always do something different!

Tired of being cooped up at home, due to rain, flooding and places being mobbed by people on holiday, today we were determined to go out so we drove the car through the nearby farm to get over the flooded brook and headed for Snibston discovery park.
There Reuben watched with much interest how I filled in our season ticket renewal form and as soon as we went in he wanted to write. So we headed for the art tables and there he spent a happy hour writing and drawing, his efforts also reinforce my idea that iPad drawing is just as valid as drawing with a pencil, he seems very capable with both mediums!!
The boys also explored the toy boxes, they had never really been interested before but today they had fun with the train tracks and other construction style toys.

Art with Isaac

The boys have access to a wide range of arts materials, Reuben likes to work on projects where he knows what the outcome will be (generally decided by him but he also likes to look through books and websites for ideas) but Isaac is quite different. Any suggestion is met with cries of horror and hurt pride! He likes to have all the materials spread out on the table or the floor and he will go where inspiration takes him! He also likes to contribute to the large cooperative paintings we do. I put a large canvas or sheet of paper on the floor or wall and we all get stuck in, me and Reuben will have an idea of what we're doing (like an animal or space scene) but Isaac is more free wheeling. On a recent Xmas night scene he insisted we have dinosaurs! I hope he never changes!!

A mummy and Isaac production

I love the upside down canvas

Paper Sculpture by James Cochrane

After seeing a really cute piece of papier mache on a friend's page, this gorgeous book came to mind: Paper Sculpture by James C. Cochrane.

The cute and quirky mentioned on the front cover is very very true! The projects are gorgeous, we did the fish you can see on the cover and the starfish project. The rest was a little too advanced for my boys but I would highly recommend it to adults and older children.

Cochrane is an artist and illustrator, his website is full of wonderful whimsical pictures and photos, well worth a look.

Clay projects for children

When we ordered the potters wheel, as I know very little about clay and making things with it, I thought it would be a good idea to get a book on projects I could do with the children. So I ordered this very nice book by Monika Krumbach, a ceramicist who has been teaching pottery courses and running workshops for many years.

This book is filled with clay projects that can be done with children of all ages. They go from the simple to the more complex and are imaginative and fun to do. The book is aimed at the adult working with children but the projects do not require any previous pottery training on the part of the adult, a good reason for me to buy it! I went to Art school but was always very bad at anything three dimensional.

 

As Reuben was busy with the wheel, I set up a workspace for Isaac on the floor (we used air dry clay from the local craft shop), and here is what we did:

I bought a large plastic tablecloth to put on the floor for
messy activities, we used the book for inspiration but also
made whatever we could think of ourselves

Opening the clay

Our first attempt: palm trees

A joint Isaac/Mummy effort

My favourite: the sea monster

A dry and painted sea monster