What was your first experience in a gallery or museum? Were you with an adult who hissed at you to stand still and keep your hands in your pockets so you didn’t touch anything? Not surprising as it’s the most common adult reaction to the spontaneity and unbridled joy that children express in such an environment. Granted, wide-open art galleries full of priceless art is no place for anyone to run riot. However, it is a great place for children to engage in observing and appreciating beautiful work, and in my book, you can’t start them too early.
Last Friday at the Barbara Conrad Gallery opening for the exhibit Art Inspired By Nature, 14 established and well-heeled artists displayed their work and presented a beautifully curated show by Deena Carney and Ben Dukeminier, the dynamic duo who run the visual art and gallery department at the Durango Arts Center. Over 300 visitors came to the opening. The adults in the room were all pretty serious until they were a couple of glasses of wine in and they started to enjoy themselves. The people I noticed who were engaged from the start were the very small ones, of whom there were only about half a dozen. I love seeing children at gallery openings. They’re learning so much. They watch the adults, they watch the feet shuffle around them until the bodies part enough to see something magical on the wall. And they keenly observe things that might surprise you.
My favorite thing to do when I meet a young person at a gallery opening is to make them feel welcome right away by humbly extending the offer of welcome and a free sticker. Then I ask them to take a careful look around the room and report back to me when they have decided on their favorite piece of art. And I ask that they tell me why it was their favorite.
Who cares what kids think of art? Well let me tell you, kids make the best art, and so I believe they know more than adults do. Here’s my theory: Plato once said that when we are born, we are as close to the proverbial wall of truth that we will ever be. For every year we age, we step one step back from the wall to discover that the wall of truth extends infinitely in both directions, and simultaneously, we discover that we are only moving away from it with the gift of such knowledge. Ah, the blessing and the curse of perspective and age. So, too, is our aptitude for making beautiful work. Kid art is nearly perfect. Adults are simply striving to get back to the beginning.
Out of all of the children who came to the DAC last Friday night, they selected one artist as their favorite and this is something worth celebrating. This is an artist who painted animals. Dinah Swan’s expertly executed painting of an opossum mama covered in adorable opossum babies would have won the children’s choice award, if we had one. Later they learn, through being told, that they might be wrong. But until then, they are in a beautiful place, so very close to the wall of truth. So if you need a critic, ask a kid.
- Night of Improv: May 12. Tickets $10/$15.
- Mr. B’s Vaudeville Show: 7 p.m. May 20. Tickets start at $20, buy them at www.secretcircussociety.com.
- Silent Sunday With Swanson: 2 p.m. May 21. Tickets $10/$15.
- Adult and teen auditions for Bye Bye Birdie: 6 p.m. May 21.
- That’s So Durango Adult Variety Show: 7:30 p.m. May 26-27 and June 2-3. Tickets $10/$15.
- The Looking Glass Collective exhibit “Art Inspired by Nature” featuring 14 local artists, runs through June 16. Free.
- Pastel Workshops by Juanita Nelson, 4:30-7 p.m. May 23, $90; Yvonne Holland, May 30-31, $90.
- Artisan’s Market: Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
- Adult summer classes and summer camps for theater and visual arts are now open for online registration. Scholarships available.
For more information, visit DurangoArts.org or https://linktr.ee/durangoartscenter.
Brenda Macon has been executive director of Durango Arts Center since 2018.
