“A Walk in Life - OUR STORY” Parent-Child Art Viewing Workshops

Dec 15

Written By Gwyneth

by Julie Yang (Irene Chang Studio Exhibition Director)

Art is a wonderful medium that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It is not only a way of expressing oneself, but also a medium to learn and appreciate different cultures, perspectives, and aesthetics. Parents and children can bond over art viewing activities that could be both enjoyable and beneficial to developmental growth at the same time.

Art viewing activities can take many forms, from simply exploring different art styles and techniques through books or the Internet, to attending local art exhibits and visiting art museums. By engaging in these activities, people can develop their creativity, critical thinking skills, and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, families attending art activities together can enhance tighter and stronger family bonding, where parents and children could have more opportunities to share and exchange thoughts and views and different settings.

During artist Irene Chang’s “A Walk in Life - OUR STORY” solo exhibition, held in November 2022, we offered three groups of Parent-Child Art Viewing Workshops. Through a series of structured fun activities, such as identifying the theme objects, observing the hidden images, and having small-talk with the artist, parents got to discover different sides of their children as they shared their thoughts, and their bondings were strengthened when they worked as a team to accomplished tasks together.

In the artist’s “We Love Apples-Eve” series, the images of apples appeared in all her artworks in different formats. Using a well known element such as the apple is a great way to approach and set the mood for the audiences, especially for the children, because in addition to growing up seeing and touching apples in real life, they learned about them in many children’s story books. With careful observations, these children understood these apples were symbolic elements with hidden meanings and could be expressed in different shapes, colors, and images. During the exhibition, artist Irene Chang talked about her perspectives on how the world had changed over the past decades. Standing before the four big paintings in “Our Story” Series, the audience got a closer look at the artist’s interpretations of what had happened and what were happening to our world. During the workshops, we saw lovely scenes of parents sharing and explaining their knowledge and passion to their children, while their children listened quietly and eagerly with sparks in their eyes. These workshops not only brought families together to open dialogues and focus on certain devastating world issues, but also helped strengthen family relationships and created special lasting memories.

The Parent-Child Art Viewing workshops were a blast! All the families left with big smiles on their faces and tons of new ideas in their heads. We are thankful to all the families who had participated in these workshops and we look forward to many more to come.