Join Autism Speaks New England for an Adult Services Town Hall!

Image result for Autism speaks logo jpg
Join Autism Speaks New England for an Adult Services Town Hall!

Monday, March 20, 2017
6pm Resource Fair | 7pm Panel Discussion

University of Hartford, Gray Conference Center
Resource Fair: 1877 Club | Panel discussion: Wilde Auditorium
200 Bloomfield Ave, West Hartford, CT 06117

This Town Hall will focus on the services and resources available to adults on the autism spectrum. Panelists will provide you with options to think about and explore as you or your family seek out adult services.

Who should come? Young adults preparing for the transition to adulthood, adults with autism, family members, school staff, adult service system professionals, and policy makers.

The event is free; registration is required. RSVP today!

 

Save

Save

The Great Pagoda at Kew

Students Create Their Own Pagodas

On Saturday, February 18th, we learned about the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens, and its architect, Sir William Chambers.

After learning about Chambers’ Great Pagoda, students made their own miniature pagodas.

It was a fun day at the YCBA! We look forward to next time, March 18th!

Constable’s Landscape- Recreated!

kids and adults sitting on floor looking up at landscape painting
Looking at Constable’s Stratford Mill

On Sat., Nov. 19, we spent the morning looking at John Constable’s 6-foot painting of Stratford Mill in the gallery.

cropped to image, recto, unframed
Constable’s Stratford Mill

We looked at how he painted the sky and foliage as well as how he moved  his brush with paint in his “Cloud Studies” before making our own 3D creation while sitting in front of the artwork.

Kids with baggies of landscape inspried art materials
Multi-sensory landscape fun

Next, we made our own landscape paintings in the class room. We used brushes and aluminum foil to create marks on our paper.

Exploring Artism Nov 19

Fun was had by all.

Happy holidays to all and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday, Feb. 18 for the first Exploring Artism of 2017.

Save

Save

Life at Sea!

dsc00593

For the Oct. 15 Exploring Artism, The Center’s September 17 Exploring Artism focused on all types of boats and how they interact with each other on the high seas.  We returned to the Center’s Special Exhibition Spreading Canvas: Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting in order to see how boats interacted on the high seas.

dsc00613

First, everyone met in the Docent Room to look at pictures of different types of boats.  Participants shared stories and create our very own sea-scape.  We used sponges to cover a very large piece of paper with blue paint, then set it aside to dry so we could use it later.

dsc00624

After painting, we used wooden pieces to make boats.  We decorated our boats using markers and stickers. Some boats had wires and strings coming off of them so that they could catch fish while out at sea.

dsc00639

Then we took our boats upstairs to look at Willem Van De Velde the Younger’s Sea Battle of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.  We discussed what we saw going on in the painting.  We saw that there was a lot of smoke and flags, so we thought about what the smoke could be coming from and why the flags were important.  After that, we placed our wooden boats on top of the big blue piece of paper we had painted earlier, which had dried and been laid out on the gallery floor by our great volunteers.  While the volunteers used iPads to play ocean and cannon noises, we added cut-outs of other ships to the scene and moved our own wooden boats around.

dsc00657

Finally, we went back down to the Docent Room to present our boats to everyone else.  After that we cleaned up and went home!

 

The next Exploring Artism will be on November 19, 2016.

All About Boats!

Large painting of chaos, ships on fire, smoke, waves and men
Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg’s oil painting, The Glorious Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

The Center’s September 17 Exploring Artism focused on all types of boats and how they interact with each other on the high seas.  We looked at paintings from the Center’s Special Exhibition Spreading Canvas: Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting and used what we learned to build and decorate our own model boats.

First, everyone met in the Docent Room to look at pictures of different types of boats.  Participants shared stories and experiences they have had on sailboats, canoes, rowboats and motorboats. We also discussed what other things one might find on a large boat, like cannons and flags!

woman and children sitting on floor looking up at large oil painting of ships of fire

Looking at de Loutherbourg’s large oil painting

Next we went upstairs to look at Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg’s oil painting, The Glorious Defeat of the Spanish Armada.  In this painting, we saw a number of large ships very close together, lots of people on smaller rowboats and a large fire!  Using what we saw in the painting, we discussed the different reasons two ships might sail that close to one another, and why one of the ships was on fire.  We also talked about the meaning of the flags we saw at the top of the ships and how important it is for ships to use those flags to tell other ships where they’re from.

Creating a sequence of events from the painting.
Creating a sequence of events from the painting.

After looking at the painting, we went downstairs to build our own boats!  Using small wooden pieces that fit into one another, participants were able to create boats that could then “sail” around the sea we had drawn on the table.

ea4 ea3

We look forward to seeing you at our Oct. 15 Exploring Artism!!!

Save

Save

Save

Save