Have You Seen It?!: ArtVille Mural

Here at the Zimmer, not only are we playing our way to a better world, but we’re also drawing our way to a better world!

Last month, we participated in The Big Draw LA, a “city-wide celebration of the act of drawing.” As part of The Big Draw LA, we invited visitors of the Zimmer Children’s Museum to create a permanent mural, ArtVille, for the museum! From Tuesday, October 18 through the end of the month, we invited all families to draw, color, and cut their own buildings, cars, roads, and more! Our resident art teachers Julie Jacobs and Sasha Karlova were the leads on the project.

According to The Big Draw LA website:

Drawing is a universal language, connecting generations, cultures, and communities. Children draw to make sense of the world before they learn to write. Yet most adults, given a pencil, claim: “I can’t draw!”  The Big Draw aims to remove this barrier and create opportunities for people of all ages to discover that drawing can make us SEE, THINK, and INVENT.

Check out the BEFORE:

And… voila! Check out the AFTER:

So next time you’re at the museum, don’t forget to peek your head into the Art Studio and see our new ArtVille mural!

Zimmer Children’s Museum CEO Esther Netter Says “Welcome!”

“We learn by doing” is the premise for our museum, our educational outreach, and our play. Welcome to the Zimmer Children’s Museum, where kids can learn how to rescue by imagining themselves as a coast guard boat captain, as a fire fighter, or as an ambulance driver. At the Zimmer, we teach about building community by giving our visitors the chance to build theirs. Through art, creative role play, imagination, innovation, and sheer play, children of all ages can learn about what it takes to be an active part of a community by participating in our exhibits and programming. And when you are too old for the museum, you can learn by doing community service, taking action, and being a peer leader in the Zimmer’s youTHink initiative. We all learn by doing, so come visit us and “do.” 

 

“Not many years ago I began to play the cello. Most people would say that what I am doing is ‘learning to play’ the cello. But these words carry into our minds the strange idea that there exists two very different processes: (1) learning to play the cello; and (2) playing the cello. They imply that I will do the first until I have completed it, at which point I will stop the first process and begin the second. In short, I will go on ‘learning to play’ until I have ‘learned to play’ and then I will begin to play. Of course, this is nonsense. There are not two processes, but one. We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.”

- John Holt, from Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit