CHILD’S PLAY AT THE GUGGENHEIM

Any aspiring artists out there want to show work at the Guggenheim Museum? Better start young. One hundred New York City elementary students are getting a chance to have their classroom art projects hang in the museum’s exhibition “A Year With Children 2012,” May 11-June 13, 2012, on the walls and windows of the third floor’s annex gallery.

The students, from 11 public schools, were chosen from a pool of about 1,465 total participants in the venerable 42-year-old Learning Through Art program, a Guggenheim initiative that teams teachers with professional artists to promote artistic skills, critical thinking and museumgoing.

For instance, guest teacher Jeff Hopkins taught sixth graders in the Bronx about mark-making. Students constructed autobiographical portfolios in the form of flip-books, each page illustrating their lives through images, portraits, maps or text-based collages. The resulting books are then given to the library as a permanent “mark” of that student’s place in the school.

One school held pop-up exhibitions around the community and documented the results, and another had students build an outdoor sculpture park on the school’s grounds.

And if you’re not one of the chosen 100, the museum is still planning a few kid-friendly events, including a benefit for Learning Through Art on May 9, 2012, a series of hands-on Sunday activities and free museum tours for families with young children.

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