I missed the initial museum trip experience due to illness and had the opportunity to make up the trip. I brought my three-year-old daughter Luna with me, which made the experience very interesting, getting to see her perspective on the art we were observing. We focused on only one section of African masks.
I found it very interesting when Ms. Gwathmey said that on trips, it’s a. and M focus completely on one. This is a very opposing idea to how school trips I went on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art went as a child. They were sensory overloads, missions for too much information. I feel that this slow pace and sole focus could make for a significantly richer trip.
When looking at the masks we noted the varying shapes, colors, positions, and tried to visualize how they were actually worn. My daughter pointed these details out quite clearly, and once most of the class left, she positioned herself like two of the masks. One was upside down and the other was a squatting monkey.
We were asked to draw at least one of the masks. I did a very simple sketch of one of them and took a picture of all of them as well. I drew a flat version of a 3-dimensional mask and wondered, while drawing, if the inability to draw 3-dimentionally would bother children of a certain age. Probably the younger children wouldn’t notice as much, but I would imagine the older ones wanting to do a more accurate representation. Luna had no interest in drawing the masks; she drew a ‘volcano house’ instead.
Once the trip was over, I let Luna lead me around where she wanted to go. She was fascinated with many of the European sculptures of people. She commented on their color and the moods they appeared to be in. “He looks sad, where is his mommy? This one fell down…that one is broken.” Going through a few exhibits and seeing her very concrete perspective was fascinating.
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