Virtual Arts4All Festival
Click here for the Welcome! Virtual Arts4All Festival video transcript
With this virtual Arts4All festival, you can enjoy the art stops at your own pace! Each art stop includes a video that will take you on an art exploration. Explorations can involve close observations of artworks, an artmaking activity, and opportunities to use all of your senses.
This virtual festival includes many storytelling elements. We encourage parents, caregivers, teachers, and friends to read them aloud from art stop to art stop to help activate your experience!
Let’s get started!
Put on your imagination caps and envision this… You and your classmates have just arrived to the Cummer Museum. You traveled all the way there by bus! You exit the bus and approach the entrance to the Museum.
The Cummer Museum is a place with art, like paintings and sculptures, as well as historic gardens. The Museum is right next to the St. Johns River. It has a café, a gift shop, and a fun, interactive center for all ages called Art Connections.
Suddenly, you are welcomed by the sounds and vibrations of drums… It’s our friends, Just Add Rhythm! They have an amazing goal to provide opportunities for more people to drum for good, for their personal joy and wellness, and for igniting positive change in their communities.
Music Activity
Before we do some drumming, let’s take a look at one of the Cummer’s outdoor artworks, Sea of the Ear Rings by artist Takashi Soga, and use our creative thinking.
Let’s imagine! What kind of sounds would you hear if you were to tap your fingers on the large, metal sculpture? Are there other metal objects near you that could make similar sounds?
We will discover some "found sounds" that we might notice in nature and around our homes to create rhythms! Join Just Add Rhythm for a Quarantine Songs Jam Session!
Rhythm Seeds
This activity focuses on using songs we are familiar with to create “rhythm seeds.” A rhythm seed is a simple, repeatable pattern that we can grow into new rhythms. In addition to creating different rhythms, we will also play along to some classic and new upbeat songs to keep our spirits up during the social distancing.
New-found Instruments
We encourage you to look outside your home for something you can use as a percussion instrument, such as twigs from tree branches, dried leaves you can rub together, or small stones you can click. You can even get digital and use a mobile phone or other device to record a birdcall and play it back over and over as a rhythm! Use your imagination. You can always search your home for an "instrument" too, such as pots and pans, plastic containers, paper towel tubes, salt and pepper shakers, and more! Put on your favorite music and play along with your new-found “instrument!”
A rhythm pattern is a simple percussion beat that repeats.
Quarantine Jams Session
Click here for the Quarantine Jams Session video transcript
More To Explore
Visit Just Add Rhythm's YouTube Channel
Contact Just Add Rhythm
- Website: www.addrhythm.com
- Email: alisha@addrhythm.com
Let’s go through the doors of the Museum now… and what a wonderful place to visit! Energetic staff members welcome you and lead you out to the historic gardens for your next art stop!
You go past the courtyard with a small pool surrounded by flowers and bushes. Then you enter another room with a high ceiling and tall windows before heading outside into the historic gardens!
One of the first things you notice is the Cummer Oak, a big live oak tree with many branches. It is almost 200 years old! The Cummer Oak and historic gardens lived through the flooding of the St. Johns River during Hurricane Irma a few years ago.
Let’s get ready for an artmaking activity in the gardens! Before you begin, check out the materials list and gather everything you’ll need. Today we’re using materials commonly found around the home.
Art Activity
Foil Rubbing
Materials you’ll need:
- Aluminum foil sheet
- Piece of cardboard, thick/sturdy paper, or other material to use as backing
- Found objects (see Instructions)
- Markers, paint, and paintbrushes (optional)
Instructions:
- Go on a nature walk or a take a look through your home for leaves, small twigs, and other small objects inspired by or from nature. String, yarn, scraps of paper, and other small objects like buttons can be used to create fun and new designs!
- After gathering the objects, arrange them on your piece of cardboard.
- Take a piece of foil that is larger than your cardboard and place it over your design so that it covers the entire piece of cardboard.
- Gently press all over so that the foil molds into the form of the objects.
- Once all the details are “printed” into the foil, remove the objects from underneath and gently lay the foil back down onto your backing.
- Gently fold the excess edges of the foil around the back of your cardboard to secure it in place.
- For finishing touches, you can also paint on the foil
Music Activity
That was fun making a print in the gardens! Next, you tuck your print into your tote bag as you head to the next exciting activity waiting for you… and it is not too far away!
Under the shade of the Cummer Oak is Aisling Grove! They are a musical group that explores traditional and contemporary Irish and Celtic music, performing songs dating back from the Renaissance period through the present.
Instruments are objects or devices that produce music, but they do not make any noise unless the musician takes an action to create the sound.
Aisling Grove plays string instruments! Did you know the piano is a string instrument? Let’s learn what each of the instruments sound like when Aisling Grove plays them!
What’s that Instrument?
More to Explore!
Visit the link to enjoy videos of the members demonstrating different musical instruments, including the violin (fiddle), guitar, accordion, banjo, harp, and mandolin!
Contact Aisling Grove
- Website: www.AislingGrove.com
After your time in the fresh outdoors experiencing some lively music, your class heads back inside to explore the indoor art galleries. What is a gallery? A gallery is a space where you can find artworks!
Let’s take a few moments to browse through the Cummer Museum permanent collection to see what kinds of artworks are in the galleries!
There are more smiling faces of volunteers and Museum staff welcoming your class to the next art stop!
Art Activity
Abstract Art Monoprinting!
Materials you’ll need:
- Use a hard flat surface made of plastic or glass, such as protective covers from old picture frames. Metal can work as well, such as the back of cookie sheet pans covered in saran wrap
- Tempera or acrylic paint in any two colors. Try to use only 1 to 3 colors
- Paintbrushes
- Construction paper, watercolor paper, or copy paper
Instructions:
- You will only get one print per design. “Mono” means “one.” Remember, your print will be a mirrored image of your original design, so be mindful of using letters otherwise they might come out reversed or backwards!
- Using paint, create a cool design directly on your plastic or metal surface – you can use paintbrushes, rollers, spoons, or your hands!
- Once your design is complete, take a piece of paper and lay it on top of your painted design.
- Press down with your hands and gently rub all over the paper to make sure you transfer your image.
- Lift up the paper. You have just created a monoprint!
After all this art-making, it’s time to move around a little! Graceful footsteps approach you, and you turn around to find dancers from the Jacksonville Dance Theatre! They see the power of the human body as a canvas for art, education, storytelling, performance, entertainment, and wellness. Dance is the movement of the body in a rhythmic way to express an idea or emotion, releasing energy, or simply taking delight in the movement itself.
Before we get our groove on, let’s explore an artwork in the Stein Gallery. This painting is Magnetic Fields by artist Mildred Thompson and it seems very energetic, right?
Dance Activity
Brain Dance! Visit Jacksonville Dance Theatre’s video called “Brain Dance” to get the colorful energy out by moving your body! A good place to start is to make lines with parts of your body, similar to the lines in Mildred Thompson’s painting. You can try making a horizontal line with your arms or zigzag lines from your head to your toes!
More to Explore!
Creative Dance in Schools
YouTube Channel
Contact Jacksonville Dance Theatre
- Website: www.jacksonvilledancetheatre.org
Music Activity
Let’s catch our breath before flowing into the Semmes Gallery next door, where we will meet Connecting Thru Music! They are a unique music therapy program for children with special needs in Duval County and beyond.
As you investigate the paintings in the Semmes Gallery, you notice many animals, baskets of fruit, and look! There are other musicians playing instruments!
This painting is The Concert by artist Theodoor Rombouts. Can we participate in our own concert right here from home? Let’s find out what Connecting Thru Music would like to share with us to get us started!
Connecting Thru Music’s virtual music therapy library has videos of their music therapists engaging audiences through demonstrations, interactive lessons, and storytelling. What do musicians do at a concert? Well, first, they introduce themselves! Let’s introduce ourselves through Connecting Thru Music’s “Hello Song” by singing and patting along with them!
More to Explore!
Virtual Music Therapy Library
YouTube Channel
Contact Connecting Thru Music
- Website: https://connectingthrumusic.com/
Our next group waiting for us in the Jacobsen Gallery is the Cathedral Arts Project!
They provide quality, comprehensive, and ongoing programming in the visual and performing arts for elementary and middle school students in Duval County.
In the Jacobsen Gallery, there is an untitled painting by artist Jerry Dodge of a boy in front of the ocean. He has his hands on his hips, standing tall, as if ready to face the world with confidence.
Cathedral Arts Project’s mission is to enrich the quality of life for young people through unleashing their creative spirit!
Let’s dive into their activities!
Art As Self Care
The Cathedral Arts Project creates arts activities that encourage self care and explores a variety of fun mediums that you can try from the comfort of your home. Dare to try something new today? Dive into “Making Sensory Bin Rice,” the first video of CAP’s YouTube series “Art as Self Care.”
More To Explore
YouTube Channel
Contact Cathedral Arts Project
- Website: www.capkids.org
We are now heading to the other end of the Museum, where Arvid Smith is waiting for us! He has been a participant in Arts4All Florida residencies and programs for several years, working with elementary school students with special needs as well as juvenile detention centers.
Music Activity
When we visit the Cummer Museum, visitors are encouraged to explore gallery spaces with quiet hands, feet, and bodies. Is there a fun, rhythm-filled dance we could learn to help us remember? Let’s take this Pair of Tea Bowls from the Meissen Porcelain collection as a tool to help us.
Tip Toe Dance
Arvid can help with building your rhythm by counting to four with you! Learn the basics of rhythm and patterns in music by learning the “Tip Toe Dance.” You can tip toe with your feet, pat with your hands, or be creative! As long as you can keep the rhythm!
More To Explore
Contact Arts4All Florida
- Website: www.arts4allflorida.org
- Email: Deeann Miller via deemiller@usf.edu
Contact Arvid Smith
- Email: arvidsmith@att.net
Although we must try to have quiet hands, feet, and bodies in the galleries, sometimes we need a comfortable space to release our creative energy! Let’s get a little taste of the Museum’s nationally-recognized interactive center: Art Connections. Art Connections has many artful activities for visitors of all ages to experience and play!
Play Activity
Please note: If your student is sensitive to touch and texture, feel free to move on to the next activity.
Let’s take a moment to look closely at this painting by artist Janet Fish called After a Wedding. It is a bright, vibrant painting of flowers sitting on a table with white cloth.
- Take one hand and gently stroke the back of your other hand or arm with your fingers. That texture is likely what the petals of these beautiful red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, and blue flowers would feel like!
- Now, guide your hand to your clothes and feel the materials of your clothes with your fingers. That texture is likely what the rumpled white tablecloth would feel like!
- Where are the flowers? Well, they are sitting in glass jars. Is there a glass jar we can feel together? Gently run your fingers along the surface of a glass jar or any object available.
- What do flowers need to survive? Water and sunlight of course! Fill a bowl of any size with water. Then, crack open a window or move outside with your bowl of water. Dip your fingers or hands into the water while you bask in some sunlight for as long as you like. This is what flowers need to grow and bloom!
Puzzle Activity
Cummer Museum art puzzles are a fun way to interact with the works of art found in a gallery. Below is an interactive puzzle that creates a picture of After a Wedding by artist Janet Fish. Use your computer mouse to drag each puzzle piece into place. Press OK to start. If you would like to do the puzzle again use the menu options on the top left.
More To Explore
Cummer Engage Activities
- Website: CummerMuseum.org/Engage
Cummer Art Puzzles in the Cummer Shop
- Website: CummerMuseum.org/Shop
As you prepare to get back onto the bus, you take one last look around the Museum and you see bright, beautiful, and unique artworks made by local students. Let’s take a closer look!
Click here for the Arts4All Student Artwork video transcript
Tell Us About Your Experience!
We hope you enjoyed participating in our first ever Virtual Arts4All Festival! We look forward to welcoming you back into the Museum soon. Until then, visit us online at CummerMuseum.org/Engage for more fun at home activities! Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your feedback will help us continue to improve our educational experiences.
Participants who complete this survey and membership form will receive a free annual Family Membership to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, thanks to the generous support of our Arts4All Festival Sponsors.
