Photos and story by Rob Baynard, editor-at-large, www.DowntownSaintPete.com, (c) 2011.
First printed in the Mar/Apr 2011 edition of the Northeast Journal.
“Clackity-clack-clack!” Two kids are putting together life size wooden puzzles on the gray linoleum floor of Vickie Brunner’s classroom at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. On the left wall sits one 8×12” framed poster of Dali’s The Average Bureaucrat, which was originally painted in 1930. A stand sits on the table below it that reads, “Name three things Salvador Dali is famous for.” Clue number one is a picture of a moustache. Number two is a picture of a melting clock, and number three says, “An ‘S’ word, a style of painting.”
In the far corner sits Brunner, with a black chenille-stem mustache coming out of her nostrils. A table is prepared before her with ten different bins, filled with various colorful craft products for making what she calls “spoon people”.
Brunner has coordinated the family programs for the Dali since 2005, and she incorporates Dali and surrealism into educating young children.
“I conceive and develop all the kids arts and crafts here,” said Brunner. “I have about 60 different projects that they can do that are all directly related to the symbols and things that are in Dali’s paintings.”
The “spoon people” project encourages kids to create their own renditions of Salvador Dali or Abraham Lincoln, using paper cutouts of shirts with a melting clock or the American flag, fastened to a plastic spoon and finished off with a moustache or a beard. Several kids approach Brunner’s table and begin to work on making Lincolns. Brunner teaches the children about Lincoln as they work on creating their own “spoon people”.
“Some of these things they’ve never done before so they have to think it through,” said Brunner. “I make them make the decisions. I try to let them be creative about different choices, and I try to let them have as much of that tactile exploration as they can handle, at whatever age they’re at.”
On the other side of the room sits Mary Helen, a longtime volunteer for the museum’s family programs. Florescent-colored sunglasses, glue and scissors sit on her table next to a bin of brightly colored creatures printed on white pieces of paper. A plastic sign reads, “Snail glasses.” Helen is wearing one of those black moustaches and describing how to make them to an Indian family who just walked in to the room.
“They love the moustaches. They really do,” said Helen. “The whole family will do it, and then they take a picture of everybody with a moustache. One little girls thought it was gross. She said that she would not like that. She would not want to be a man, and she didn’t think I should wear the moustache. I just said that it’s surreal. It’s not real for me, this is pretend.”
Children learn from the crafts as they exercise their imagination, which Brunner hopes will make learning fun for the kids. As the children are making their glasses and “spoon people”, Brunner and Helen provide further instruction about Dali and the history of surrealism.
“I think it’s related to their creativity,” said Brunner. “I think that children retain better when they physically make something or physically are involved with it on a personal level.”
In addition to offering arts and crafts and community outreach programs, the Dali museum provides a landscape that will broaden most families day-to-day activities with a visual and interactive experience that was designed with children in mind.
“We wanted, as a central architectural feature describing both energy and information,” said director Hank Hine. “This helical structure is to be at the core.”
The Progress Energy Helical Staircase is the main focus of the interior, with a gravity-defying concrete spiraling out of the ground to over 60 feet in the air, finishing above the third-floor gallery space, just below the glass enclosure.
“This gallery is sort of more open,” said curator William Jeffit. “It’s a little more playful and open ended, and there’s not really a beginning and middle. It’s sort of you can just do what you want, so it’s also kind of fun.”
With a special map from Brunner’s classroom, children can make a game out of touring the museum. The guided pamphlet leads families on a search for Dali’s symbols of ants, eggs, clocks and flies, while learning about why he used them in his paintings. Visitors can redeem their completed treasure map for a small prize in the gift shop. The treasure hunt, combined with the crafts, puzzles and worksheets in Brunner’s classroom, keep kids scattered throughout the museum learning and enjoying the works of Dali.
“Dali as you know is an artist of youth,” director Hank Hine said. “His rebellion, his lack of orthodoxy appeals to the young, and many of his works, particularly those done in the later years, are the works that many young artists embrace.”
According to an article published in Visual Arts Research by David Ebitz, former director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, “We may see the diverse ways in which museums can be places for learning and the diverse means used by educators, other museum staff, and members of the community to facilitate experiences that are engaging and meaningful.”
The new Dali museum was designed with the experience in mind. The geodesic glass dome has redefined downtown St. Petersburg’s waterfront and will soon become an iconic image of the city for the future. Rising 84 feet above sea level, the “Glass Enigma” as its named, features nearly 1,000 individually-sized glass triangles that are anchored in steel beams and then supported by the thick concrete walls able to withstand a Category-5 hurricane.
“The biggest reward for any of us will be standing here and watching people’s faces,” said architect Yann Weymouth. “Good spaces, good architecture and especially great art, can make a difference in people’s lives and stay with them.”
The Raymond James Community Room enables children ages 5-12 gather for activities and an interactive tour on the first Saturday of every month called Breakfast with Dali. Children can also climb on the rocks outside of the Dali, and try their luck with the outdoor labyrinth or the geometrically-inspired hopscotch court.
The Dali also has an education gallery. “We do different shows like this one, which is a student surrealist exhibition from secondary schools in Pinellas County,” said Jeffit. “It’s quite good, and we do a couple of shows similar to this every year and then other types of education programming. It’s an important part of what we do.”
Amidst harsh economic times where art programs in schools are disintegrating and unemployment levels are skyrocketing, city officials invest in the future of art at the Salvador Dali Museum.
Completion of the $35 million Dali is a testament to the generosity of St. Petersburg philanthropists such as Tom James and Bill Hough and visionary city leaders like former mayors Bob Ulrich and Rick Baker.
“This took a very long period of time; of treacherous times, about 14 years,” said James at the grand opening ceremony. “So, in a sense I would tell you that this is an event that one was never quite sure would ever be completed.”
“It probably is best illustrated by a children’s allegory entitled ‘The Little Engine that Could’,” said Ulrich, as he addressed visitors just before the ribbon cutting. “So you see this community’s little engine chugging up an improbably summit, uttering as it goes: we think we can; we think we can; we think we can. We knew we could; we knew we could, AND WE DID IT!”
The new Dali was constructed against all economic odds, and it remains focused on getting parents and children involved in exploring their creative imagination through art. Other programs include an “art-mobile” that brings art to the schools throughout the community, a summer program offered to four local recreation centers, and a junior docent program, which allows kids to lead the first public tour of the day.
“Back in 2005 when they hired me,” said Brunner. “They made definite decision that they wanted to start attracting families with children. Museums were really suffering there. We just didn’t have the local visitation we needed.”
Now that the Dali has been retooled and revamped with a more family friendly design, visitors from St. Petersburg no longer have to find a babysitter to go to the museum and enjoy art. Bring the kids along, and they just might have fun.
Rob Baynard
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