Samurai Masks, Miniature Houses Featured at ArteJuntos/ArtTogether Student Exhibition

Elaborately decorated Samurai masks and armor, painted pint-size kimonos and miniature houses created from recycled materials were on display at the Ossining Public Library last week for the ArteJuntos/ArtTogether student exhibition.

The Katonah Museum of Art and the First Steps Little School collaborate for the annual bilingual art and family literacy program. About 60 families from the Little School participated in the fall or spring semester, which involved two parent sessions, nine classroom sessions and two visits to the museum.

Families created projects, modeling them after exhibitions at the Katonah Museum. In the fall, they designed their own Samurai masks, armor and flags, and they painted red, lavender, yellow and sky-blue kimonos. They also marched in a parade around the school wearing their Samurai armor and helmets. The artwork was based on the exhibition “Lethal Beauty: Samurai Weapons and Armor and Antique Kimono from the Alexander Collection.”

After viewing works of art and architecture at the museum this spring, preschoolers and their parents built houses and other structures with recycled materials, including cardboard, cereal boxes, wood blocks and paper. They first drafted blueprints and then created homes, trees, gardens with flowers, and even a farm with plastic animals and a farmer. The exhibitions they saw at the museum were “A Home for Art: Edward Larrabee Barnes and the KMA” and “Chris Larson: The Katonah Relocation Project.”

“It’s really a way to use the arts and help the parents to use arts in their child’s learning,” said Margaret Adasko, education program manager at the museum.

Shirley Campbell, who participated in ArteJuntos/ArtTogether with her 3-year-old son Machai, said it’s a great program. “I think the collaboration with Katonah Museum is just brilliant because children absorb so much,” she said. “It’s amazing what they will grasp at this age.”

ArteJuntos/ArtTogether introduces low-income, educationally at-risk preschool children and their families to the Katonah Museum as a resource for learning, discovery and creativity. The program is supported by the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. First Steps serves the most needy families in the school district. It is privately funded by donors in the Ossining community.