Family Activity Day returns to the museum this weekend.
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi Museum will host “Building Like Ben,” a drop-in Family Activity Day from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday (Nov. 14).
Family Activity Day is a free event that allows families from the UM-Oxford community to experience the museum’s exhibits, as well as participate in the various fun activities, which are organized and led by the facility’s education team.
This weekend’s Family Activity Day is inspired by the museum’s special exhibition, “Intervals and Disturbances,” by Ben Butler. Inspired by repetition found in nature, Butler creates exceptional sculptures made of wood and concrete.
“We will have a ‘free build’ room for kids to experiment with large, temporary sculptural materials, a mini-sculpture exhibit room where kids will use recyclable materials to build a small sculpture to take home, and a fossil imprinting station, as many of Butler’s works resemble fossils,” said Emily McCauley, the museum’s curator of education.
Participation in Family Activity Days has grown by more than 300 percent over the past four years, with more than 100 grandparents, parents and children attending each of the three or four Family Activity Days hosted by the museum each semester.
“I always look forward to seeing the interactions that occur between children and their parents or other grown-ups as they create art together,” McCauley said.
As a result of the generous sponsorship from Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi and individual donors from an Ignite Ole Miss crowd-funding campaign, Family Activity Days will continue to be free of charge for the next three years. Snacks are also provided at Family Activity Day events.
For more information visit, http://museum.olemiss.edu/sculpture-family-activity-day/.