It’s officially summer in the Classic City. With many UGA students gone until the fall semester, the usual hustle and bustle on campus has slowed and finding a parking spot or a seat at your favorite restaurant is a much easier feat. It’s also a wonderful time to visit the museum. Life may have a slower pace for the next couple of months, but there’s no shortage of summer fun ahead this season. Here are a few creative endeavors for the weeks ahead.
- Art at Home: Make Sun Prints
At our last Family Day event in May, we looked closely at the exhibition “Kei Ito: Staring at the Face of the Sun.” (On view until July 14.) Japanese American artist Kei Ito experiments with camera-less photography to explore collective memory and healing since the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.
Ito’s “Sungazing Scroll” and “Burning Away” are both photograms, photo/images made by placing objects on the surface of a light-sensitive material and then exposing it to light. In May, we made sun prints, also known as cyanotype, and another example of a photogram.
Cyanotypes are one of the oldest photographic processes and produce dark blue prints. Artists make cyanotypes by positioning objects on photosensitive paper, then exposing the paper to sunlight. The sun exposure will turn the paper blue and create a printed outline where you’ve arranged your objects. Kei Ito uses similar forms of camera-less photography techniques to create the works on view in “Staring at the Face of the Sun.”
Want to make your own? Here’s our tutorial from Family Day. You’ll need cyanotype paper, found at your local craft store, small found objects such as flowers or leaves and a few other items easily found at home.
- Join us for improv or a movie.
Our summer calendar is full of fun events that everyone can enjoy this summer. Up next: Join us for an improv comedy show followed by a museum movie night on June 13.
6 p.m. Improv Comedy with Flying Squid Comedy
Hosted by Athens-based Flying Squid Comedy, this is a fun, student-driven primer on the ins and outs of improv, and learning how to trust your gut instinct, listen to the moment, and find the funny. Open to total beginners or all-star improvisers. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Richard Prince: Tell Me Everything,” based on the joke archives of Milton Berle. Program is free, but space is limited; email gmoa-tours@uga.edu to reserve a spot. 6 p.m.
7 p.m. It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
This 1963 American epic comedy film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all-star cast of comedians, is about the madcap pursuit of a suitcase full of stolen cash by a colorful group of strangers. Starring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney and Jonathan Winters. 1963, G, 160 min.
- Join us for our next Family Day on June 15:
Family Day: Summer Scapes: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Join us as we look at the traditions of landscape and plein-air painting to celebrate the arrival of summer. Have fun in the galleries with Art Cart activities and create your own work of art inspired by the outdoors.
Authored by:
Jessica Luton
