ArtWorks Interactive Gallery

Overview

Popular with all ages, ArtWorks Interactive Gallery is an engaging space designed to complement the Museum’s permanent collection. Visitors can connect with art through interactive elements that explore art’s materials, ideas, and techniques or enjoy the areas set aside for quiet reading and imaginative play.

What Can I Do In ArtWorks?

ArtWorks Interactive Gallery offers a plethora of ways to learn, create, and have fun. Find out what you can expect in the sections below.

Learn

Created by Birmingham artist Gary Chapman, this installation uses sliding doors to trace the steps taken to create an oil painting—from sketching to final glazing.

Learn about the Gary Chapman

Learn about the five major steps of the lost wax method by following along with an installation of works by Alabama artist Frank Fleming, who saw himself not only as a sculptor but also as a storyteller.

Learn about Frank Fleming

 

Take a spin at our color wheel! Perfect for young or new artists to learn about how primary and secondary colors overlap to create the rainbow of colors available to artmakers.

 

This community project utilized the golden ratio of the Fibonacci Sequence to create a larger-than-life installation of over 500 hand-painted ceramic tiles.

Frames tell their own tales: about when the artwork was completed, decorative styles popular at the time, and the artwork’s journey from artist to collector. This hands-on activity lets visitors try their hand at accenting art with a wide range of frame styles on eight works of art.

Unlike the more popular stained glass, glazed glass is a 16th-century art form where paint is applied to a piece of glass and then viewed from the opposite side. Learn how artist Cappy Thompson created her glazed glass installation, Stars Falling on Alabama: We Are Enraptured by the Celestial Fireworks of the Muses.

Learn about Stars Falling on Alabama

Good lighting isn’t just about the intensity of the lighting. It is also about lighting direction and its effect on the elements of the artwork. This lightbox, inspired by Edward Hopper’s Light at Two Lights (1927), uses knobs and dials to change the mood from fierce to cheerful to ominous by adjusting the interior lighting.

Learn about Light at Two Lights

Follow the history of art from around the world, from 3300 BCE to the 21st Century. This touch-friendly timeline includes information about the ages interwoven among replicas of sculptures, art, and media.

 

Printmaking is an artistic process that transfers images from a printing plate to another surface, often paper or fabric. This hands-on interactive covers all aspects of traditional printmaking techniques, including woodcut, etching, engraving, and lithography.

A family explores primary and secondary colors using the color wheel.

Create

The building blocks in ArtWorks use a wide range of shapes, from stacking squares to foam blocks and triangular magnets, to improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and logical thinking.

ArtWorks is home to multiple computer stations where children and families alike can play, create, and learn. Programs include: Kid Pix Deluxe; KID PIX 3D; Color Mixer; KAMI; Lucas & Friends: Coloring Games; Masquerade Mysteries: The Case of the Copycat Curator; Doozla; Let’s Create! Pottery; and Animal Coloring Book.

Quilts are made of a variety of different shapes, patterns, and colors. With this hands-on quilt activity, design and color quilt patterns by piecing together different shapes and colors on our felt board. Select from multiple patterns and let your imagination run wild.

Drawing at an upright angle instead of a flat surface helps visitors of all ages to develop fine motor skills. These drawing stations, set in front of a life-size set of Edward Hopper’s New York Office (1962), allow visitors to sketch the scene or to explore their imagination.

Adding light to color changes not only its hue but also its mood. With the light table, use colorful shapes to create unique collages.

Like building blocks, tangrams introduce learners to spatial relationships. These magnetic tiles recall the shapes found in quilts and can be used to create original, minimalist designs.

A child creates a foundation using building bricks.

Play

California-based artist Ed Tannenbaum creates interactive installations using cameras, projectors, and advanced computer processing. His works invite participants to create a “painting” using the motion of their bodies, with palettes and effects changing every five minutes. Step into Recollections IV (lovingly referred to as the Tannenbaum Screen) to create a unique ephemeral work of art.

Practice your close-looking skills with this one-of-a-kind creation by self-taught artist Elayne Goodman. Her mixed-media creations combine fabrics, pieces of wood, buttons, beads, paint, and more to make unique pieces of contemporary folk art. Can you solve the clues to find all the hidden parts in her sculpture?

A kaleidoscope is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces tilted to each other at an angle to create a symmetrical pattern when viewed from the other end. These reflectors are usually enclosed in a tube, often containing colored pieces of glass or other materials that create ever-changing patterns when rotated. While most kaleidoscopes can fit in your hand, the one in ArtWorks is almost twenty feet tall, providing an immersive experience

Playing with hand puppets helps children learn through social interactions, whether they act them out alone, watch others create scenes, or make new stories with friends. The puppets in ArtWorks reflect our community with a wide range of professional roles, including doctors, crossing guards, police officers, firemen and women, and more!

There’s a secret hidden in ArtWorks! See if you can find all the letters that spell one of the most unique spaces in Montgomery—ArtWorks!

Children race boxcars around Frank Stella’s Talladega Three II (1982).

Read

Take a break in our reading nook, home to over 300 books appropriate for all ages about art, artists, artmaking, and community.

For information about resources for teachers, contact education@mmfa.org.

Photo Opportunities

Step into Edward Hopper’s New York Office (1962), where you can file papers, make a phone call, talk to other visitors, or pose for a picture.

Learn about New York Office

This 5x scale replica of Stuart Davis’ Summer Twilight (1931) uses shapes and colors to create symbols of American land and culture. Become part of this abstract landscape along with the clouds, birds, and buildings.

Learn about Summer Twilight

 

Discover new worlds in our children's library, home to over 300 books!

Art

Charlie Lucas (American, born 1951), Barracuda, date unknown, found objects, iron, and steel

Located above the window near the computer bank in ArtWorks II.

George Rodrigue (American, 1944–2013), Mother-n-Law’s House, 2002, acrylic on canvas

Located over the doors leading to Wilson Gallery.

George Rodrigue (American, 1944–2013), Mother-n-Law's House (detail), 2002, acrylic on canvas

ArtWorks Community Gallery

The ArtWorks Community Gallery, located in the corridor between the Foyer and ArtWorks Interactive Gallery, spotlights the creativity of River Region students and community members. In addition to installations inspired by special exhibitions and permanent collections, the ArtWorks Community Gallery also displays community art acquired by the Museum’s Learning and Programs department over the past twenty years.

For information about current work on view as well as upcoming exhibitions and how to participate, please visit the links below.

Visit

Admission and Hours

There is no charge for admission to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts or ArtWorks Interactive Gallery. Ample free parking is available.

Tuesday–Sunday, 10 AM–5 PM
Last entry at 4:45 PM

Accessibility

All of our restrooms include at least one wheelchair accessible stall as well as baby-changing facilities and a step stool to safely reach the sink.

If you have specific needs, please provide us with information on how we can better serve you by emailing education@mmfa.org.

Group Visits

When ArtWorks Interactive Gallery is open, groups of ten or more are welcome but must make a reservation at least 48 hours in advance. Please contact tours@mmfa.org to schedule your group visit.

Visitor Policies

We look forward to welcoming you to ArtWorks. Please review our visitor and museum guidelines outlined below before your visit. By visiting in person, you agree to abide by these policies. The MMFA reserves the right to ask visitors who do not follow these guidelines to leave the Museum’s premises.

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