Program Overview
For two hours on the first Sunday of the month, the Danforth Museum of Art opens its doors to children ages 5-10 and their families, providing free admission, family tours and gallery games led by teen docents, and creative studio activities in the Museum School. Families are welcomed at the front entrance and encouraged to visit the galleries before starting the art activities. Teen docents engage families in scavenger hunts, puzzles, I Spy, and other gallery games designed to encourage close observation and discussion of the art on view. Art activities are developed with the current exhibits in mind, focusing on techniques and concepts like contrast, color and abstraction. Families experiment with 2D and 3D projects, learning to create art together.
After two years of success, the Museum transitioned this program to be a member benefit, with a small ($5) charge per non-member participant. The attendance dropped by two-thirds, leading staff to determine that the program is more useful as a tool for marketing and outreach, making the Museum accessible to the entire community. The program is now open to all, but the Museum worked closely with the Framingham Public Schools in its first years to provide special outreach to all of the elementary schools within the district. For the first two years of the program, a different school was the featured guest each month. Flyers in English, Spanish and Portuguese were sent to students two weeks prior to the Drop into Art date. Now that the program is established, the Museum is considering other methods of spreading the word, such as announcements on the Brazilian radio station. Since 2007, over 3,000 children and parents have participated in the program.
Program at a Glance
- Date of Program: First Sunday of the month, October – May
- Target age group: Families with elementary-age children
- Number of attendees: 100-250
- Cost to attendees: Free
- One time program, repeated, or hope to repeat: Repeated on a monthly basis
- Material costs: Art supplies
- Non-material costs: Staff, teen docent, and volunteer time
- Number of Facilitators required: 4 staff members, 5 Teen Docents, and 1-2 volunteers
- Staff resources needed (hours) to develop: Educators for content, organization, activities, and volunteer management
Tangible Takeaways
Engage underserved audiences. As a free program, Drop into Art makes the Museum more accessible to low-income families.
Use popular (and free) programs to multi-task. Being free, the program attracts a large audience to the museum. It offers an opportunity to promote and increase class registration, and provides a testing ground for the museum to experiment with new family offerings.
Encourage interaction between programs. The Drop into Art family program is symbiotic with the Teen Docent Program. Drop into Art would not be possible without the facilitation of the Teen Docents, but at the same time, offers the teen docents a valuable space to practice the open-ended questioning techniques and communication skills they learned in training.
