From art-making classes to puppetry workshops, Fairfield University’s campus provides a safe and fun setting in which children can learn and grow, families can enrich their time together via hands-on activities and experiences, and educators can bring their classes to enjoy experiential learning.
At the Fairfield University Art Museum, a monthly Family Day series invites children and their grownups to a fun afternoon of art, each session with a different theme. In September, young artists participated in “Make Your Monument!”—a program connected to the current exhibition in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy, organized by the New York Historical. October featured pumpkin painting at “P-P-Pumpkins!”—inspired by the styles of pointillism, pop, and post-impressionism.
“We want to get kids involved with the arts from a young age,” said Carey Mack Weber, the museum’s Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director. “By coming to the museum for these fun hands-on projects, and walking through the galleries with their family members or our museum educator, we hope they’ll come to view museums and other art-focused spaces as places where their ideas and creativity are welcomed and encouraged—and more than that, to grow up seeing engagement with the arts as a normal part of a full and joyful life.”
Weber noted that the museum also has an active K-12 field trip program that primarily serves students in Bridgeport, where arts electives have all but disappeared, “making it even more critical that we provide high-quality, hands-on arts experiences in a welcoming environment.”
At the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in October, the Emmy Award-winning company Manual Cinema performed Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster—a family-friendly show featuring puppets, projections, and more, inspired by two books from acclaimed children’s author Mo Willems. In tandem with the performance, the Quick Center and the Art Studio of Fairfield hosted a kid’s puppet-making activity in the lobby.
In addition to welcoming families, the Quick Center is also a hub for field trips, inviting local school groups to campus to experience a show. The Arts for All initiative, especially, provides high-caliber arts learning experiences for students, with a particular focus on under-resourced communities.
For some students, it’s their first experience at a live performance in a theatre. The Quick also provides interactive opportunities for kids to engage with artists both at the Quick and back in their classrooms.
“The role of a university performing arts center is to be a space that is welcoming to all and encourages audiences to learn and engage with the many aspects of live performances,” said Lori N. Jones, Quick Center director of programming and operations. “The Quick Center for the Arts serves more than 3,000 kindergarten-to-grade-12 students annually to ensure they experience the joy of the arts and learn about the broader world around them.”
This past week, the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble was in residence at the Quick. The world-class musicians conducted a workshop with students from the Regional Center for the Arts in Trumbull and performed a school matinee for more than 300 local students. Next week, students from Central High in Bridgeport will participate in a dance workshop with Indigenous artist Supaman.
“It is important that students in our local schools learn not only about the world around them, but also feel represented on the stage,” said Jones. “When we work with artists like the world-renowned Silkroad Ensemble or indigenous hip hop and dance artist Supaman, students see artists of the highest caliber who reflect their own community, while experiencing art forms unlike anything they’ve witnessed before. It can be very inspiring.”
Learn more about upcoming performances and educational offerings at fairfield.edu/arts-and-minds.
