2014 Biennial Family Party
May 2, 2014

Families create miniature museums complete with their own Biennial artworks in the Lower Lobby, April 2014. Photograph by Filip Wolak

On April 5, over 500 parents and kids visited the Museum for a special 2014 Biennial Family Party. The event was designed to introduce families to the art and artists of the Biennial exhibition and engage them in activities based on what they saw in the galleries. On the fourth floor, educators led highlight tours of selected works on view. On the second floor, art-making stations offered families the opportunity to explore artists’ working methods by sculpting, sketching, and experimenting with materials. In the Lower Lobby, families created miniature museums with their own tiny Biennial artworks. 

Ken Okiishi, gesture/data, 2013. Oil on two flatscreens and video transferred to USB flash drive, 35 5/16 × 21 × 3 11/16 in. (89.7 × 53.3 × 9.4 cm) each. Collection Moraes-Barbosa

Inspired by Ken Okiishi’s paintings on flat TV screens that play a combination of old and recent video footage, kids and parents made drawings on sheets of clear acetate and moved them around on top of found images that lined the walls in the Whitney Studio. It was fantastic to see so many families with kids of all ages being creative, working together, and discovering the diverse works of art in the 2014 Biennial exhibition.

See more of the 2014 Biennial Family Party! Photographs by Filip Wolak

  • A father and daughter gather with other families in the museum.

    Families were invited to the 2014 Biennial Family Party an hour before the Museum opened to enjoy the galleries and activities.

  • Kids and adults sit on the floor and listen to a museum staff member in a gallery.

    Families participated in highlights tours of the fourth floor led by Whitney educators.

  • Families sit on the floor in a gallery.

    Families particularly enjoyed visiting Zoe Leonard’s 945 Madison Avenue (2014). It was a sunny, clear day so the projected image of the building across the street was especially detailed and bright.

  • Kids, parents and Whitney staff work on a sketching activity in a gallery.

    Whitney educators led sculpture and sketching activities on the second floor.

  • A girl hold up her art project in a gallery.

    Inspired by Carol Jackson’s sculpture, Slip (2013), a kid transforms her artwork from 2-D to 3-D.

  • A girl sits on the gallery floor and work on an art project.

    In front of Charline von Heyl’s collages, Folk Tales (2013), families drew four sketches on different types of paper, and experimented with mark making using white and black pencils.

  • A kid places his work on the wall of found images with the help of a Whitney educator.

  • A young child creates an artwork using a number of

    A boy creates a mini museum using an array of materials.

  • Two staff members pose amid kids and parents working on an art project.

    Family Programs staff poses in the midst of organized creative chaos in the Lower Lobby.

Find out more about the Whitney’s Family Programs.

By Billie Rae Vinson, Coordinator of Family Programs

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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