The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in downtown Eau Claire hosts year-round art exhibits.

There are some great things about taking kids to an art gallery. Just for one, it’s a rare thing these days to see really well-made images that aren’t trying to sell you something. It’s another rare thing to be able to take time to look and listen. Art galleries put really well-made images into a space for taking time and listening. And the art objects are simply there (OK, complicatedly there) to resonate with us. They’re for looking at, imagining with, and talking about – all things that lots of kids really like to do.

Art galleries put really well-made images into a space for taking time and listening.

Now somewhere in the back of your head there might be the specter of an emaciated Scandinavian painter with a strangely angular ice blond haircut and severe black turtleneck glaring at you and your kid in disgust as you describe the abstract form in his evisceratingly nihilistic composition as a tasty blue hot dog. Just go ahead and close your brain door on that guy. He obviously doesn’t know how to talk to your kid, and you obviously do. One of the best things you can do when going to see art is give both yourself and your kids total permission to get engaged with the artwork in your own way.

UW-Eau Claire's Foster Gallery is open to the public.

1. Get Ready

It’s a good idea to look up some information before going, especially if you feel a bit at sea. Find out what you can about the medium that the artist uses, how long people have been doing it, what tools they need, what the tools look like, how long it takes, if it’s a dangerous process. Some kids love grim facts. Have more artists died in kiln explosions, brush stabbings, or by slow poison? This can be an easy add-on to the outing if you’ve gone to one of the art shows at the library. Finding things that will hook your kid’s interest like funny or tragic stories, tough technical puzzles artists had to work out, interesting clothes, animals, gold and jewels, chaotic messes, feats of endurance, crimes, etc., can spark some interesting connections.

2. Get Talking

This is the part where you get to learn about each other by talking about something else entirely. What do you think about this squishy tree made out of wax and yarn? What would it be like to walk around inside this painting? Do any of these pictures look like your dreams? That giant Trojan Horse looks like my job. That photograph over there looks just like where I grew up, way before you were born. Try pretending each person gets to buy one piece to take home, one to give away. Who would you give it to? What do you love about that one?

3. Play Games

You could start a storytelling game where one person chooses three pictures and another person has to tell a story that they illustrate. Very little kids might like a slapstick game where Mommy and Daddy can’t touch the art either. Looking and noticing games like “I Spy” can be fun for younger kids while older ones might enjoy the challenge of a scavenger hunt through something bigger like the Artist Market of Eau Claire on Saturdays or the Sculpture Tour. The Sculpture Tour also has a built-in art collector game since kids can vote for the sculpture that stays in Eau Claire.

Finding art around Eau Claire isn’t hard at all, and there are different kinds of venues to suit however your kids learn best. Whether it’s the quiet of a gallery, the open air of the Sculpture Tour, the chatter of a restaurant, or the bustle of Chalkfest, there’s a place with art in it that’s going to be a great opening for the question, “What do you see here?”

Hope Greene is a photographer, writer, and mother of two in Eau Claire.