We're officially on vacation this week, which means lots of fun day trips with the kiddos. Tuesday they saw an exhibit of Steve Gerberich's work that mixed machines and art, with buttons at kid height to push to get them going. The sculptures were full of toys and everyday objects that the kids could recognize; they loved pointing things out and seeing them move. Angela and Sophie's favorite was a machine that played music and contained the inner workings of a cuckoo clock. I really dug a sculpture where everything in it was blue - rubber ducks, hair curlers, flip flops, and the centerpiece - a child's chair in the shape of Cookie Monster. You can see a clip of an interview with him here. The sculptures look scarier than they really are - more zany than anything else. The kids also really dug that they could spot a doll of James Brown - yes, what discerning kiddos I have!

Note: as cool as this exhibit was, I was rather annoyed that the museum's website did not mention that due to construction, almost HALF the museum was closed at the time for renovation. We saw enough to interest three preschoolers, but just barely. The fact that the rock and mineral exhibit hadn't changed for 25 years (when I'd been there last, I like nostalgia), and this art exhibit, kept me quiet.