Experiencenter

The Museum's Interactive Gallery for Children and Adults

The Experiencenter provides formal and informal learning activities for children and their caregivers, in a relaxed museum setting, by encouraging visitors to engage in active participation at hands-on stations located throughout the space. Connecting activities provide opportunities for families to explore the museum and its collections together, enhancing the visitor’s learning and social experience.

Currently on View in the Experiencenter

Trash? Look Again

On view April 30, 2011 – April 7, 2012

Trash? Look Again focuses on art created from found objects and reclaimed materials. Visitors have the opportunity to learn how a variety of artists take discarded materials and place them in a new context to make a visual statement. In addition to selected pieces from the museum’s permanent collection, work by two nationally recognized artists, Michelle Stitzlein and Linda Pace, are also on view.

Teams of 4th – 6th grade students from six Dayton area schools partnered with The Dayton Art Institute in the development of this exhibition and created installations that are on view as part of the exhibition. The exhibition also contains several hands-on activities that invite museum visitors to further explore art and its relationship to conserving the earth’s resources. 

Watch video of the students creating their works

The Art Place for Young Learners

Permanently on view

The Art Place for Young Learners is a permanent space in the Experiencenter that focuses on early learners, ages 3 - 6, supporting the growth and development of young minds through creative play and problem-solving activities. As new exhibitions are installed in the Experiencenter, the activities and design of this space reflect the new exhibition theme.

Shimmering Madness

A permanent installation by Sandy Skoglund

Created by artist/photographer Sandy Skoglund in 1998, Shimmering Madness is an installation of two jellybean-covered mannequins assembled in dance-like poses on a jellybean-covered floor. Small kinetic, hand-painted butterflies cover the surrounding walls. By incorporating multiples of everyday objects, such as food, into her installations (seen here in the form of thousands of jellybeans), Skoglund redefines the concept of what is precious and beautiful in art.

"I like to work with food because it is a familiar material," Skoglund explains. "The value of art, the educational value of art, the sort of life affirming value of art has to do with bringing our awareness of the everyday miracle that's around us, that everything is, in its own way, if you look at it, quite strange and quite marvelous. For me, food is an icon of familiarity, which is so natural to us on a daily basis that it's almost invisible." Skoglund has achieved international recognition as a photographer, and her installations have been
commissioned and acquired by museums and universities around the world.

Sponsors

The Experiencenter is supported in part by The Frank M. Tait Foundation, PNC, the Rotary Club of Dayton, the Harry S. Price, Jr. Family Fund, and LexisNexis.