Offering Free Art Activities, 360 Museum Tours and More!
During temporary closure due to COVID-19, Young At Art Museum in Davie is “providing art relief for all” by helping children, and their parents, stay artfully engaged with its new online, multi-platform program YAA At Home. “We know how important it is to keep children educated and entertained through the arts while schools and museums are closed. We continue to provide exciting opportunities for engagement in the arts for all of our families,” said Mindy Shrago, CEO and founder of Young At Art Museum.All of the at-home art activities are free and posted on the museum’s new, dedicated page at www.youngatartmuseum.org/
The Museum has begun providing 360 virtual museum tours of each of its unique and colorful exhibition galleries with clickable content to be found throughout each digitized space. Young At Art’s current temporary exhibitions were the first to be made available including its major exhibition InnerSpace by Miami artist duo Nice n’ Easy where you can explore a home reimagined in the shape of an infinity symbol where the furniture and environments are fused with the feel of a subtropical island. Families can also enter the bright yellow, eccentric, textile world of Jen Clay’s Welcome to You & Me and view the museum-wide Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition which highlights over 200 winning artworks from Broward County’s most talented young artists. New 360 explorations of each interactive gallery are being posted daily on the YAA At Home webpage. The museum encourages the public to check back regularly for new adventures through spaces like legendary street artist Kenny Scharf’s technicolor Closet, the museum’s iconic I LOVE YOU Sculpture by acclaimed designers R&R Studios and each of its themed, permanent galleries full of eye-popping details to stumble upon.
Knowing that children need to remain creatively stimulated during this time, Young At Art is also partnering with talented artists locally and around the country to offer downloadable art activities created by them or inspired by their work. Each artist’s activity can be done at home in a variety of mediums and recyclable materials easily found around the house. The public is then encouraged to submit photos of their artwork to be incorporated into collaborative projects and highlighted on Young At Art’s Facebook and Instagram in a digital exhibition of the community’s creativity. Among the confirmed artists are Miami muralist David Anasagasti whose stylized eyes can be seen throughout Wynwood and all over the world, Friends With You who designed inflatables for the 2018 Macys Day Parade, J Balvin’s live concerts and Young At Art’s own mascot YAYA and Pepe Mar whose large-scale installation was included in Art Basel 2019. Other notable artists include Pablo Cano, Jen Clay, Nice n’ Easy, Milagros, Christopher Ian Macfarlane, Ali Shrago-Spechler, Ben Morey and many more. New projects are being posted daily and four collaborative art challenges are currently live. Public submissions are being collected in response to each which will be shared on YAA’s social media platforms in the coming weeks.
In depth online art classes are also being filmed and will be made available to the public through the YAA At home webpage along with other entertaining resources like South Florida PBS’s Kidvision 360 iSpy activity promoting the learning of new vocabulary words and a Virtual Fieldtrip through the museum.
As a non-profit organization and small business, Young At Art Museum relies on the support of its patrons, donors, local businesses and the public to fund programming like this and their Community Initiatives that serve more than 10,000 at-risk and homeless children and families. The museum acknowledges that this is a difficult and unprecedented time for everyone and aims to bring comfort and creativity to its community through art using this funding, so anyone who finds themselves able and interested in making a donation is encouraged to do so using this link. Sponsorship opportunities are also available for YAA At Home. For more information email marketing@
Young At Art Museum (originally named Young At Art Children’s Museum) was founded in 1987 to fill a void in arts education in South Florida public schools. Founded by artists Esther and Mindy Shrago, Young At Art traveled South Florida for two years as a Museum Without Walls, opening in 1989 in a 3,200 sq. ft. storefront in Plantation, Florida. Outgrowing its space immediately, YAA utilized creative means for meeting the demands of families, from leasing storefronts for camps and classes to establishing a Traveling Exhibit Program for small museums in Florida. Ten years later, in response to overwhelming community demand, Young At Art relocated to Davie in 1998, moving into a 24,000 sq. ft. leased space and proving its ability to successfully operate a $1 million+ museum with exhibit galleries, art studio classes, student field trips and events for 100,000 children and families annually.
