Contemporary art (and art in general) can feel very inaccessible — even for adults. But at the Contemporary Arts Museum’s UnMuseum, art is presented in an interactive, family friendly and wholly accessible way.
Located in the Contemporary Arts Museum’s Sara M. and Patricia A. Vance Education Center on the sixth floor, the UnMuseum is a educational space for children, schools and families. True to its name, the unMuseum is *not* your typical art museum, but rather an eclectic collection of interactive art ready to be experienced.
Everything in the UnMuseum is designed to be touched, felt, experienced and enjoyed. There are bright buttons that, when touched, play music and flash colors. There’s a room where a flashlight’s beam on the ceiling results in musical chords. There’s a space where you can basically be the star of your own music video.
There’s a bench for sitting (and waiting for a bus next to a shark girl); a graffiti-covered camper for climbing into; sinewy sculptures for touching and feeling.
The UnMuseum is unabashedly extra, in every way. In addition to being an expansive space full of family-friendly pieces to be experienced, kids are invited (and encouraged) to make art. With tons of materials and supplies, washing stations and kid-sized counter spaces and tables, the UnMuseum’s Art Lab is the perfect place to create. It’s open during normal CAC hours and you can drop in anytime.
The whole UnMuseum space is warm and inviting, and it doesn’t hurt that you get million-dollar views of downtown Cincinnati from the CAC’s sixth floor.
In keeping with the theme of accessibility, admission to the UnMuseum (and the CAC), is free. And in 2020, the UnMuseum is offering more family-friendly programming than ever, with the addition of the Play Cafe. Once a month, the CAC is hosting a giant play date just for families. The CAC lobby will be transformed into a family-friendly creative space filled with sensory stations and curated toys all designed to inspire exploratory learning — all for free! There’s also Thursday Art Play, which costs just $5 and features a story time, activities and kid yoga.
