"Would you drink out of that?" fourth-year College student Meredith Powell asked a group of young children Friday afternoon.
They responded with a resounding and definitive, "No!"
Powell, an art history major, had just shown the children a picture of a work of art by surrealist Meret Oppenheim. It was a photo of a teacup covered in fur.
Every Friday, anywhere from 12 to 16 children arrive at the Virginia Discovery Museum -- located at the east end of the Downtown Mall -- to participate in Art Adventures, a drop-in program Powell both created and currently runs for children ages 4 and up.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, the museum is a collection of colorful rooms where children can learn about animals and log cabins, play dress-up and express their creativity. Right now, in its exhibition area, visitors can explore the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Gallery Manager Peter Clark described it as a "hands-on children's museum" whose visitors are generally ages 5 and under.
While the museum is clearly designed for children, the University community maintains a connection with it.
Many volunteers are University students, Clark said, citing the work of Madison House in particular.
"For the most part, they are floor volunteers," Clark said. They interact with visitors and help keep things "nice and tidy."
Sometimes, student volunteers help with exhibits.
In addition to the volunteers, Clark said the museum has been made available to the University Internship Program.
Clark said Powell is one of a half-dozen interns he has seen the museum take in over the past eight years.
Powell began her internship over the summer.
"I was basically given the flexibility to do what I wanted with my internship," Powell said.
Powell said she was able to find an interesting area through which she could introduce the children to new things.
Inspiration for the project came partly through an art administration class taken last semester, Powell said.
The guest speakers discussed things like outreach programs with local schools in music, visual and performing arts.
"The majority of kids are not exposed [to these areas] like they should be," Powell said.
In order to improve the situation, Powell said she wanted to provide children with a creative outlet.
Her ultimate idea, Art Adventures, became one of several weekly programs museum visitors can voluntarily attend, such as a poetry club and "Tuesday Travelers," where children learn about a new part of the world each week.
The basis of the Art Adventures program is to "talk about different artists throughout history from different areas," Powell said. "The kids ask questions and respond to what we've been talking about."
Every lesson is followed by an art project that ties into it.
For example, after learning about Michelangelo and how he painted the roof of the Sistine Chapel while on his back, the children were given the chance to do the same thing. To simulate the experience, they lay down on the floor and drew on paper attached to the bottom of their desks.
During another class, the participants learned about Jackson Pollock and his motion techniques.
For their activity, everyone went outside to throw paint at paper with their brushes.
"It went everywhere, but it was so much fun," Powell said.
According to Clark, while the museum does not do many formal evaluations, he believes the children have reacted to the program extremely well.
He said he bases his assessment on how many thank-yous the staff receives and "how many kids go home smiling."
Many of them even come back week after week, he said.
Powell said her goal is to expose the children to "things they might not get at home or might not experience in school."
Powell said she wanted to provide a good opportunity for anyone who was willing and able to come to the museum and enjoy learning about art.
It is a chance to "create art as they see it," Powell said.
While Powell's program creates an educational environment, "obviously it's not like a regular class," she said.
For starters, there are never any quizzes.
More importantly, she never sees the same exact group of kids each week. For this reason, Powell said, lessons cannot build off each other because otherwise, not all participants would be able to follow along.
Even so, many of the children entered the room on Friday talking excitedly about what they did in previous classes.
"They come here a lot," observed Sarah Hagan, a fourth-year College student baby-sitting one of the participants.
The program provides "great exposure to art," Hagan said, adding that "it's fun to mimic famous artists."
At the same time, the children get to understand art at a young age, Hagan said.
Hagan said she would love this sort of program if she were a child because "you get to create and you get to play."
On Friday, Hagan as well as other baby-sitters and parents helped their children mimic Oppenheimer's fur cup creation by constructing pieces of purple pizza out of cotton balls, pipe cleaners, felt, Popsicle sticks, beads, string, buttons and various other art supplies.
When they were finished, Powell made sure each young artist signed his or her work.
Art Adventures has also provided an educational experience for its creator.
"I have learned how to work with other people and learned how much time and preparation it takes to create a successful program," Powell said.
She has also discovered that "it's very refreshing and meaningful to know that people are responding to your work in a positive way."
Powell said she has even decided she would like to work in a museum setting after graduating.
"I'm not sure in what area, but I would like to be able to interact with people and be able to make some kind of impact in whatever kind of profession I take," Powell said.
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