For Kids
Gallery Exploration
MMoCA offers families a variety of open-ended, fun, and flexible resources for exploring its exhibitions. Click on the links below to access a selection of these activities from home.
Learning Centers
MMoCA’s Learning Centers offer touchless ways to engage with current exhibitions. Read about the importance of printmaking in Mexico and explore how a woodcut print is made by visiting the Learning Center for Caja de visiones/Box of Visions, in person or online.
MMoCAkids ArtPacks are temporarily removed from the galleries. View and download drawing activities from past exhibitions: Gladys Nilsson | Roger Brown | Robert Lostutter
MMoCA’s Free Family Resources are generously supported by the Nimick Forbesway Foundation.
Kids’ Art Adventures
MMoCA occasionally invites families to pick up a free Kids’ Art Adventures ArtKit complete with supplies and instructions for at-home art-making inspired by art at the Museum. When available, a different project is offered each month focused on a specific artist’s work, which you can see, up close, in the Museum galleries when you pick up your kit.
Instructions for Fall 2021 Kids’ Art Adventures ArtKits can be found below:
- AMENDS Inspired Wish Boxes | Project Instructions
- Sandra and Wence Martinez inspired weavings | Project Instructions
Art Cart & Art Cart Extra!
Art Cart and Art Cart EXTRA! are free outdoor art programs that travel to parks and playgrounds across Dane County. In response to current health guidelines, MMoCA and MSCR are pleased to offer Art Cart ArtKits for families to take home to complete.
To pick up an ArtKit, look for the colorful Art Cart van at parks listed in the schedule linked below. ArtKits are limited and available first-come, first-served.
Art Cart
Art Cart continues this summer with ArtKits available for pick-up at a different park beginning on Monday, June 14, 2021 and ending on Wednesday, August 18, 2021.
View/download the Summer 2021 schedule here. View the 2021 Art Cart map here.
Project Instructions
Download written instructions to the first Art Cart project, inspired by artist Nick Cave’s Sound Suits, in English. Find the instructions in Spanish here.
Video Instructions
Week 1 & 2
Art Cart Project Instructions
Week 3 & 4
Art Cart Project Instructions
Week 5 & 6
Art Cart Project Instructions
Week 6 & 7
Art Cart Project Instructions
Art Cart Extra!
A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.
Art Cart EXTRA! travels to communities in Dane County to distribute ArtKits again this summer. ArtKits are available for pick-up at parks each Saturday through the end of July. Check the 2021 schedule for times and locations.
Download instructions for the Art Cart EXTRA! project, based on the artwork of Suellen Rocca, here.
Art Cart is a joint project of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) and Madison School & Community Recreation (MSCR). Art Cart EXTRA! is organized by MMoCA.
Major sponsorship for Art Cart and Art Cart EXTRA! has been provided by the Cummings Christensen Family Foundation; the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company; Madison Gas & Electric; and the Theda and Tamblin Clark Smith Family Foundation in memory of Sylvia Vaccaro; with additional support from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation and TDS Telecom.
Art Zone
ArtZone is MMoCA’s afterschool art program for 4th through 6th grade youth. The program involves students from neighborhood and community centers in a two-hour workshop at the Museum that combines engaging gallery discussions with related hands-on art activities. A flexible schedule of ArtZone workshops led by an experienced art educator is offered on selected Friday afternoons throughout the school year and in summer. MMoCA provides supplies, instruction, and transportation free-of-charge.
Support for ArtZone has been generously provided by the Nimick Forbesway Foundation, US Bank Foundation, the Capital Times Kids Fund, the Madison Arts Commission with additional support from the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Green Bay Packers Foundation, and Zendesk Neighbor Foundation.
Girl Scouts
Girl Scout troops may work toward completion of a Fine Arts badge by visiting MMoCA on a guided tour. Troop leaders may request an in-gallery drawing experience inspired by works of art.