Art Cart: Spring Sculpting Studio
What about nature inspires you? Artists will have an opportunity to look closely at Hepworth’s sculptures, learn about how nature inspired her, and sculpt and build with nature inspired materials!
Find the Art Cart on the Hirshhorn Plaza to pick up your sculpting materials! In case of inclement weather, check in the Museum Lobby for our indoor locations.
Do this at home! Make your own abstract sculpture inspired by Barbara Hepworth. Instructions here.
ABOUT THE ART CART
Want to make art inspired by your favorite Hirshhorn works on view? The Art Cart offers young artists a hands-on maker experience during their visit to the Hirshhorn. Each week’s Art Cart offers a fresh and fun theme featuring an artwork on view, an artmaking activity to do at the Museum, and kids projects to extend the fun at home!
The Art Cart is free; no registration required. Drop in any Saturday between 10 am and 1 pm.
Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu. 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required.
Storytime: Express Yourself!
Storytime is currently a drop-in experience. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am. ASL interpretation is provided at the 10:30 reading.
Join us and the Washington Ballet for an exploration of how we express who we are. We will look closely at Your oceanic feeling by Olafur Eliasson; read Julián Is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love; and participate in our own playful art-making.
Meet on the Plaza.
Do this at home! Create a complementary colors suncatcher inspired by our 2019 exhibition, Pat Steir: Color Wheel. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind Storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and tons of movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. ASL is provided at the 10:30am reading. If there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. Groups of ten or more, should contact hmsgeducation@si.edu with their requested program date and group details.
Storytime: Fish Out of Water
Storytime is currently a drop-in experience. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am. ASL interpretation is provided at the 10:30 reading.
What lives in the sea? Join us and educators from the Zoo for an ocean inspired Storytime where we’ll look closely at Fish, by Alexander Calder; read Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister; and create our own fantastical loose-parts sculptures inspired by the ocean.
Meet on the Plaza.
Do this at home! If you could be anything from nature, what would you be? Inspired by artist Thierry de Cordier, create a self-portrait using natural items. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind Storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and tons of movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. ASL is provided at the 10:30am reading. If there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. Groups of ten or more, should contact hmsgeducation@si.edu with their requested program date and group details.
Storytime: Sculpting with Square
Storytime is currently a drop-in experience. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am. ASL interpretation is provided at the 10:30 reading.
How does nature inspire artists? Join us and a horticulturist from Smithsonian Gardens as we explore Spatial Concept: Nature, by Lucio Fontana, the nature on the Hirshhorn’s Plaza, and read Square, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. Following the story, we will create our own nature-inspired artworks.
Meet on the Plaza.
Do this at home! Make your own abstract sculpture inspired by Barbara Hepworth. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
Storytime: Motion of the Ocean
Storytime is currently a drop-in experience. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am. ASL interpretation is provided at the 10:30 reading.
Use your imagination to travel to the ocean with us and educators from the Smithsonian’s Zoo and the National Museum of Natural History at this week’s Storytime. Young artists will look closely at Figure for Landscape, by Barbara Hepworth; read Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef, by Marianne Berkes; and use their imaginations to build a water-inspired world!
Meet on the Plaza.
Do this at home! Imagine a faraway world and paint it with layers of watercolor. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind Storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and tons of movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. ASL is provided at the 10:30am reading. If there are additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. Groups of ten or more, should contact hmsgeducation@si.edu with their requested program date and group details.
Storytime: Becoming Butterflies
We’re switching up Storytime to a drop-in experience while we prepare new exhibitions for spring openings. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am.
Embrace the season of change with us and educators from the Smithsonian’s Zoo and National Museum of Natural History! Explore spring inspired by Butterfly Incantation (Polygonia Comma, Polygonia Interrogationis, Plebejus Melissa Samuelis) by artist Jessica Diamond. Young artists will look closely at Diamond’s work on view, read The Making of Butterflies by Ibram X. Kendi and Zora Neale Hurston, and create their own spring-inspired works of art!
Meet on the Second Level.
Do this at home! If you could be anything from nature, what would you be? Inspired by artist Thierry de Cordier, create a self-portrait using natural items. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
Storytime: Call Me Tree
We’re switching up Storytime to a drop-in experience while we prepare new exhibitions for spring openings. Join Hirshhorn educators any time between 10 am–noon; we will host read-alouds at 10:30 am and 11:30 am.
In celebration of spring, join the Hirshhorn for a read-aloud of the bilingual book Call Me Tree, by Maya Christina Gonzalez (we’ll be reading it in English). Take a close look at the Museum Lobby’s tables, created by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto using a 700-year-old nutmeg tree, then create your own tree- and blossom-inspired works.
Meet on the Lower Level.
Do this at home! Celebrate spring by transforming a plain coffee filter into your own sculptural work of art bursting with color. Instructions here.
ABOUT STORYTIME
Join Hirshhorn Kids on Wednesdays for a one-of-a-kind storytime experience! Each week offers a fun and fresh theme for our youngest artists and their adults. Get a fun and hands-on introduction to a new artwork each week, and participate in a joyful read-aloud filled with music, stories, and movement. Then, stay and play while your little artist creates. No reservations or tickets required. Nursing caregivers are welcome. Stroller parking is available in the Hirshhorn Lobby. If there are access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive (e.g., ASL interpretation, live captioning, etc.), please contact hmsgeducation@si.edu; 1–2 week’s advance notice is recommended but not required. For a group of ten or more, please contact mcgettigant@si.edu to reserve a program in advance.
