Join us this month as we welcome back Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, we’ll explore how music, art, and movement resonate through us. How can we connect through these art forms, at a distance? Come explore, look, create, and move as we dive into contemporary art and making.
Advanced registration required. Participants must supply their own materials. Registration is currently closed. Join us for October Virtual Play Date: Infinity and Beyond on Fri, Oct 30.
Live Program Schedule
Please note the new Fall Play Date schedule, beginning this month: Little Play Date from 10 – 10:45 AM for families with children ages 5 and under; Play Date After School starting at 2:45 PM for families with children of all ages.
Little Play Date
For kids ages 5 and under + their grownups
Moving Around Our Space with Ellice
10 – 10:45 AM EST
Join us for a family movement workshop with Ellice Patterson, Founder and Director of Abilities Dance. Explore how your own personal movements and expressions can tell different stories. To prepare for this workshop, create a space where you can move freely and safely during this workshop!
Play Date After School
For kids of all ages + their grownups
Junk Instrument-making with Brooke
2:45 – 3:15 PM EST
Explore your identity and repurpose household items to create a personalized instrument! Together, we’ll investigate sounds, reflect on music, and construct a homemade instrument.
You’ll want to collect and bring:
- An empty tin can
- A balloon
- Scissors
- A pencil
- Rubber bands
- Optional materials:
- String/ yarn
- Cardboard
- Rice, beans, and/or beads
- Found objects that might make interesting sounds! Like a cork, or pine needles.
- Decoration supplies like markers, colorful paper, or duct tape
Music of My with Maria
3:30 – 4:15 PM EST
Explore the sounds of objects in your home, kitchen, minds, and family with percussionist and artist, Maria Finkelmeier. From containers of rice to shake, magazines to crumble, or bowls to ping, families will explore and identify sounds– are they quiet? Loud? Short or long? Sparkly? Deep? Together, families and participants will make music through guided techniques and experience a special performance by Maria on marimba, drums, and keyboard!
You’ll want to collect and bring a collection of three sounds from your home, this can include (but is not limited to … be creative!)
- Box of rice or pasta
- A few bowls and utensils
- Paper or magazines that can be ripped and crumbled
- Sandpaper
- Toy Building Blocks or Legos
- Pens and Pencils
- Egg Carton
- A Pillow
- Dried leaves from outside
Moving Around Our Space with Ellice
4:30 – 5:15 PM EST
Founder and Director of Abilities Dance, Ellice Patterson will lead us through creating personalized stories through shapes and movement. Explore the space around you and learn how we all move and express ourselves differently. Connect with yourself and others in a new way, virtually! To prepare for this workshop, create a space where you can move freely and safely during this workshop!
Artist Bios
Ellice Patterson (she/her/hers)
Ellice Patterson founded Abilities Dance in 2017 as a space for diverse artists to train and perform. Through their work, they use art as a tool to promote intersectional disability rights. They have performed at the MFA, Peabody Essex Museum, Wimberly Theatre at the BCA, Gibney Dance in NYC, and more.
Brooke Scibelli (she/her/hers)
Brooke Scibelli is a Boston-based artist and educator and is the Family and Art Lab Programs Coordinator at the ICA. When she’s not coming up with workshop ideas for the ICA or creating handmade pieces for her studio at Non Issue Studio, she likes to sew her own clothes, make a mess in the kitchen, and be outside!
Maria Finkelmeier (she/her/hers)
Named a “one-woman dynamo” by The Boston Globe and Boston’s Best 2018 “Creative Catalyst” by The Improper Bostonian, Maria Finkelmeier is a percussionist, composer, public artist, educator, and arts entrepreneur. Maria has created large-scale multimedia events in public spaces from Cincinnati to Northern Sweden, with several locations in Boston, including Fenway Park, Charlestown Navy Yard, Edison Power Plant, and Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.
Empowered by and curious about the sonic world, Maria finds music, narrative, and collaboration in unexpected places. She’s created entire works from found, non-traditional sounds, and transformed iconic structures into percussive playgrounds. She’s been commissioned by the National Parks Service, BLINK Cincinnati, TEDx Cambridge, New Gallery Concert Series, i = u festival, the Illuminus Festival, Boston Center for the Arts, and the Outside the Box Festival. In 2018, she released her debut album as a composer “A Line that Terminates at the Present.”
An experienced entrepreneur, Maria has founded and directed numerous ventures, including Kadence Arts, Make Music Boston, Quartet Kalos, Masary Studios, and Ensemble Evolution. Dedicated to shaping the next generation of creators, she is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and Lecturer at Northeastern University’s Music Industry Leadership program. Find out more at www.mfdynamics.com.
Virtual Play Date activities are designed for kids and their grownups to participate together. Workshops will be held on video conferencing platforms and will be live and interactive. Recommended ages are provided as a guide, but you know your child best! If you have questions about a particular workshop, don’t hesitate to reach us at familyprograms@icaboston.org.
Are there access accommodations that would be useful to help you fully participate in this program (e.g. captioning, ASL, post-program transcript)? Let us know at accessibility@icaboston.org.
Free Admission for Families
On Sat, Sep 26, museum admission is FREE for families when accompanied by kids ages 12 and under, with up to 2 adults per family. Limited timed tickets are available in-person and all on-site programming has currently been suspended. More details
Your support helps keeps programs like this – both virtual and in-person – free and accessible in this time of uncertainty. If you are able, please consider becoming a member or making a one-time gift to support the ICA.
ICA Kids and Family programs are supported, in part, by Vivien and Alan Hassenfeld, the Hassenfeld Family Foundation, the Willow Tree Fund, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Raymond T. & Ann T. Mancini Family Foundation.
