Young learners search for artworks across the collection in this scavenger hunt designed for kindergarten-2nd grade. Print out one copy per chaperone and watch students discover animals, shapes, colors and different mediums as they explore the Detroit Institute of Arts!

Students call upon their own life experiences and imagination in these drawing activities as they explore what elements can be used to create a still life, portrait, and self-portrait.

Creating a piece of art from smaller pieces of paper, fabric, or other objects is known as collage. American artist Romare Bearden, developed his unique approach to collage in the 1960s, as seen in his 1971 Stamping Ground, that captures the richness of contemporary African American life in a New York neighborhood.

Create your own collage, inspired by Romare Bearden’s Stamping Ground, using things you have around the house to show your neighborhood, or another favorite place. Think about who lives there, what kind of buildings do you see, or what sort of plants start popping up this time of the year. Before you glue the paper down, try out arranging and overlapping the pieces in different ways.

American artist Alexander Calder first trained as an engineer before studying art. He’s known for his playful, airy works made of simple shapes cut from sheet metal. Some of them include moving parts and he called those “mobiles.”

Stationary constructions he named “stabiles.” Let’s make a free-standing geometric sculpture inspired by Alexander Calder’s Young Woman and Her Suitors, a giant stabile on the DIA lawn.