Day at the Museum event will be Saturday

Art is more than paint on a canvas or clay shaped like an object and can help teach young minds everything from math and literacy skills to motor skills. Saturday at the Holiday Village Mall from 1 to 4 p.m., area families will be able to participate hands-on in several different mediums as part of the Day at the Museum. Art is intertwined in lots of everyday aspects of life, from cooking to how people dress, said Jen Graham, a teacher advocate at Northern Montana Child Development Center's head start program who is organizing the event. "We have some type of art project each day," she said. "And I think this is a new way of experiencing (art) and a way to get families involved," she said. The event, sponsored by the Nor thern Montana Chi l d Development Center Policy Council and to be held in the community room and at the stage at the mall, will feature posters from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The posters feature reproductions of some of the most famous pieces of American art from different mediums, including photography, sculpture, illustrations and paintings. "And they're absolutely beautiful," Graham said. She hangs the posters in her classroom, she said, and her students ask her about new ones when she rotates them. Their questions give her the opportunity to tell them about the artist and piece of art, sharing why it's important. Then the class can do a project and incorporate different lessons while trying their hand at their own reproductions. "So you're throwing everything into a piece of art," she said. Families can do the same thing Saturday by going to 14 stations to do activities that include basket weaving, pottery, self portraits, musical instruments and using mediums like pen and ink and Play-Doh. Several area performers will play music and sing, and an artist from Helena will draw charachatures of attendees. Also, on display will be projects that classes at the head start program have completed based around one of the posters, Graham said. "I just think it would be great fun," she said about the day's activities. For more informat ion, Graham can be reached at 265- 6794.