The wind blew stong and cold this past Saturday morning when my son and I met Michelle Cardulla outside 90 Webster Avenue. Cardulla is the Executive Director of the brand new Museum of Kids Art, which has its Grand Opening this Saturday (12/9) 6-9 p.m. MoKA sits atop a Flatiron-style building gorgeously restored by North East Area Development, Inc.

We bundled ourselves up the bright stairs, lined with colorful art patterns. The museum grew out of Cardulla’s concern for the marginalization of the arts in American education and life. MoKA’s purpose is “to activate art programming, by existing as a center for arts and learning that employs the visual arts to foster a sense of accomplishment and hope in the urban community.”

Massive paper lanterns, decorated in fantastic ways, hung from the ceiling. MoKA is currently designed to involve children from Kindergarten through Sixth Grade. Classes are being offered in dance, cooking, weaving, and painting. In the future, Cardulla hopes to involve teens both as participants and as mentors. For that matter, Cardulla would be keen to see MoKA grow into an arts center for the entire community writ large (“I’d love to attract world class people.”)

My son loved the insect drawings and the hand made tiles. Saturday’s Grand Opening will feature art to view, art to buy, art to do, refreshments, and a surprise or two. Visit www.museumofkidsart.org [defunct link] for more information.

December, 2006

Much like a toddler in a toyshop, The LEGO Group has reached out and touched everything within reach. Anyone unfamiliar with LEGOs needs to stumble away from their videogame and smell the plastic. In 1949, the first little red Automatic Binding Bricks poured from Ole Kirk Christiansen’s imagination. In 1953, they became LEGO Bricks and you could build anything with them- as long as it required only bricks, plates, axels, and wheels. They did not include instructions. More specialized parts followed. Then, town, farm, and space sets followed. Nowadays, LEGO is as tied into current youth culture as every other toy company: video games, movies, and apparel.

Out of this mix of rainbow colored plastic and undirected play, a culture of creativity has arisen. For instance, Brickfest 2005 has come and gone and you probably never even thought about going. Beginning on August 12, Adult Fans of LEGO® (AFOLs) gathered at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., where they did unspeakable things with LEGOs. Judging from the 79+ pages of photos available, AFOLs base their community on pirates, robots, and architecture. Perhaps that is the reason that Brickfest and its crazed attendees seem so oddly delightful. At their best, they have taken the directions out of the box and thrown them away.

Eric Harshbarger has built giant LEGO mosaics of Alice in Wonderland characters. Henry Lim has built a functioning harpsichord out of LEGOs and wire. Until it is your turn to borrow the harpsichord, the best online LEGO-related entertainment remains the Brick Testament created by Brendan Powell Smith. Smith has received a lot of publicity for his LEGO creations over the years (and published a few books), but there remains something magical about a well-executed LEGO diorama.

August, 2005

So, you’re standing on the library’s threshold with the towhead of your heart beside you. The youngster looks up in dismay and speaks the words that will haunt your child rearing nights: “So, where’s the good stuff?” You could ask a librarian, but they’re all busy with high schoolers doing research papers and patrons freaking out because the Internet is down. You could look in the library catalog, but you’re not convinced that there will be many entries under “good stuff.”

All Monroe County libraries are organized using the Dewey Decimal system, which arranges non-fiction according to a primary subject tied to a number from 0 to 999. This means that books about automobiles are together under 629 (though race cars are at 796). Hardback fiction has a distinct section; while mysteries, science fiction, short stories, and paperbacks are sometimes shifted to nearby shelves.

Within these sections, books are in alphabetical order by author. Biographies are alphabetized by subject matter (for example, Little Monsters, the Real Story of Pikachu by Kitty Kelley is under “P”). The libraries have a separate area for juvenile books, imitating the adult section with divisions for non-fiction and fiction. Adolescent fiction is usually placed in a Young Adult area.

The trick is to have some sense of what will appeal to your child. Use questions like, “What do you think of when I say the words, ‘baby pandas’?” or “Have I ever told you about the time Abbott and Costello saved my life?” Once you’ve defined the good stuff, it’s time to turn to:

August, 2005