Play Date: Together

2nd Floor, Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theatre

Inspired by Deana Lawson, ICA Teaching Artist and photographer Mel Taing invites families to gather in front of the camera in a celebration of love and connection. Through the enduring resilience of a family portrait, you’re invited to celebrate yourself and your family in the here and now.

Deana Lawson’s exhibition centers on themes of family, love, and relationships through portraiture. Her photographs become a capsule for time, culture, and connection.

All activities are drop-in, first-come-first-serve basis, and space is limited.

1st Floor, Bank of America Art Lab
Engage as a family in a hands-on artmaking project. Sculpt your own clay cup, inspired by Mel Taing’s Filling Your Cup activity. Our art making investigations are developed for all ages of children and adults to work together. All activities are drop-in, first-come-first-serve basis, and space is limited.

4th Floor, Galleries
Our Visitor Assistants are always eager to talk about the artworks and answer your questions.

Explore and learn more as a family about the exhibition Deana Lawson using our Family Resource Guide. Ask questions, engage in activities, explore a book list, and more!

Mel Taing is a Cambodian American photographer currently living in East Boston. Mel’s artistic practice is centered on the act of archiving and documenting the here and now through creative portraiture. She aims to capture the vibrance, radiance, and joy that her subjects share through color and subverting the traditional. As a child of Cambodian refugees, she is deeply interested in resilience in community. Her artistic practice is healing in action — honoring QTDBIPOC+ folx by creating spaces for them to play, witness, and celebrate their truest selves. Resilience does not always need to center the pain experienced but rather the ways in which we overcome adversity and choose to seek joy.

Mel’s process is collaborative: Co-creating new, shared visions that become a mirror for her subjects to witness themselves. She hopes to create a visual library and map for all the communities she has been honored to touch and be a part of. As she moves forward in her practice, she seeks to continue weaving this ever-expanding net of travelers, thinkers, and makers in the hopes of transforming the arts and culture sector in the pursuit of cultural equity.

Teamwork makes the dream work. Come together as a group or family on these artist-designed Art Lab at Home activities:

Move your body in Dance Spot with Elisa Hamilton

Build a temporary family sculpture in The Future in Hand(s) with Gerald Leavell

Guess these moves in Dance Charades with Ana Masacote

Watch Home Movie Tips with the Cote Family, then make your own movie

Organize your very own award show at home in And the Award Goes To with Jamie Lynn McCoppin