Friday, February 23, 2018

Exploring Art with Our Bodies

Art museums can be tough for little kids. Looking at art and responding verbally really is limiting. Even as an adult I sometimes feel this way. We always bring paper and colored pencils with us to an art museum, and this helps my kids, but I've noticed that often their drawing activity is completely unrelated to the art, and it just isn't practical to take the art supplies out in every gallery. So last summer, we started posing like the people in the art we were looking at. I’ll just say that we love it. 



We spend longer looking at each work of art as we adjust our poses, and we feel more of the art in our bodies. 




In meditation, we practice what is called a body scan. Time is spent slowing feeling each part of our bodies, really becoming aware of what our bodies outside of our heads has to tell us. It is part of the process of learning to see the world from other perspectives. 




Posing with the art is akin to this. My kids felt the seriousness of the dancer and the playfulness of the dragon  in their bodies at the museum last week. Their experience of the art was much deeper, than if we had just talked about it. Plus, it was a lot of fun.