During Your Visit
Explore Art
When you visit the Hammer, take time to look at a few works of art rather than walking quickly through the galleries. Try the following activities to engage slowly and meaningfully with individual artworks.
Look Together. Explore artworks in the galleries that engage the whole family. Pick up a Discovery Guide when you arrive at the museum or download educational activities in advance of your visit.
What’s in a frame? Stand a few feet away from a work of art and inspect it as if you had a magnifying glass. Then carefully take a few steps back. How does distance affect what you see? Create a framing device by forming a rectangle with your fingers. What more can you notice through the frame?
Movement Aloud. If an artwork made noise, what sounds would you hear? Turn each sound into a movement you can make and see with your body. Find an outdoor scene in the Armand Hammer Collection. How can you move your body to mimic the sound of trees rustling in the wind? What might Paul Gauguin’s Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin sound or look like?
Frozen: Find an artwork with something interesting happening. Imagine you just hit pause or that you are a film director and yelling “CUT!” The scene before you is now frozen in time. It’s up to you to describe what happened before and what will happen once you press play.
Look Out for Abstract Art. Abstract art uses shapes and colors, rather than familiar images from reality, to express emotions or ideas. Find a work that is abstract. How do you feel when looking at the piece? Where or what is your eye drawn to? Use the work as inspiration for your own abstract artwork. Choose something meaningful to you (your dog, best friend, bed, or a book). Draw what it looks like in real life, and then make it abstract using only shapes and lines.
That’s a wrap. If you could take home one work of art, which would it be and why? Who would you give it to as a surprise present? How would you wrap it?