April Vacation Week
10:00 am–4:00 pm
All are invited to April Vacation Week for free programs where science and art collide! Explore the natural world, patterns, and design through hands-on art making and interactive programs.
All ages and abilities are welcome; children must be accompanied by an adult. No registration required. See Visiting with Kids and Family for more information.
Events and Activities
Drop-In Art Making
Wednesday–Saturday, 10 am–4 pm (last entry 3:45 pm)
Patterns in Nature
Druker Family Pavilion, Room 160
Nature is full of fascinating patterns! Some are mathematical, some are for attraction or camouflage, and some are more about functionality. Take a closer look, explore, and record some of these patterns using magnifying glasses, graph paper, and drawing materials. Can you find more patterns in “Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination,” in Calderwood Courtyard, and in other artwork from the Museum’s collection?
Planting a Garden
Shapiro Family Courtyard
April showers bring May flowers! Celebrate the start of spring and the season’s blooms by decorating a flower pot with paint and mixed media. Then pick up a seed-starting kit to plant flowers in your pot at home!
Physics Meets Art
Druker Family Pavilion, Room 159
Get inspired by the simplistic and balanced works of artist Alexander Calder on view in galleries 154, 258, and 332. Then make a kinetic artwork of your own while considering balance, shape, and structure.
Sun Catchers: Wings of Color
Gallery 268
Celebrate the beautiful colors of nature while taking a closer look at the wings of birds and butterflies. Then use colorful cellophane, tissue paper, and mixed media to create patterns that “glow” when held up to light or hung in a window.
Discovery Cart
Wednesday–Saturday, 11 am–4 pm
Gallery 232
Discover how artists transform colorful pieces of glass into a stained glass work of art. Drop by to handle the tools and materials that artists use, discuss techniques with knowledgeable staff, and view demonstration pieces and artwork reproductions that reveal how artists create these kinds of objects.
Available on Friday, April 24, 12:45–1:30 pm
Story Hour
Wednesday–Saturday, 11 am and 1 pm
Druker Family Pavilion, Room 156
Drop by for an interactive children’s story program. Stay for one story or for the whole hour.
Available on Friday, April 24, 11 am
Family Tours
Wednesday–Friday, 11:30 am and 1:30 pm
Meet at Sharf Visitor Center
Join us on a family-friendly tour that takes a closer look at the science we can find in art. Tours are 30 minutes and fun for all ages!
Available on Friday, April 24, 1:30 pm
Conservators in Action
Wednesday–Friday, 10 am–12 pm and 1–4 pm
Q&A with the conservator 3–3:30 pm
Conservation Center, Gallery 360
Stop by to observe an MFA conservator work on an ancient Etruscan ceramic piece. The conservator answers questions in the Conservation Center from 3 to 3:30 pm each day.
Available on Friday, April 24, 3–3:30 pm
Wheelchair accessible