art totes and toting babies to the arts

This morning I packed the kids in the van and escaped the oppressive heat (the heat index today is over 100F) at the North Carolina Museum of Art. After clicking around on the website I found that the info desk offers a tote bag program for kids. In our quest we explored the African and Modern art galleries, which I wouldn't have ventured into otherwise and found some lovely pieces, including a magical butterfly sculpture. Hundreds of glittering metal butterflies seemed to dance over delicate flowers above our heads.

The 4 ziplock bags contained activities corresponding to a painting, each child put together a modernistic puzzle to match this piece,

played a color search game

with this impressionist,

stroked fabrics contained in a portrait of the 5 year old King Louis XV, and listened to a story of how the african leopard got his spots. Except for having to listen to Timmy whine about having to stay strapped in the stroller instead of running around toucing valuable art works, the 90 minute visit was just long enough to be educational and just short enough to be fun.