THIS MONTH IN ART-TO-GO:

The month of May is always a staff and student favorite in our K-12 campus outreach program, Art-to-Go.

Each month of the program focuses on a different cultural or social awareness theme, and includes a multi-media presentation of Prezi, books, music and videos, followed by investigation and discussion of a museum artwork or artifact, and a coordinating studio activity.

And after 8 months of these visits to their campus, students travel to the museum for both their final session as well as a tour of the collection objects they have explored over the course of the school year.

This May’s focus was Inti Raymi (the Sun Feast)- a cultural celebration that began with the ancient Inca and continues to this day in modern Peru.

Taking place in the capital city of Cuzco, it is a thousands year old celebration of Inti (the Sun), growth, and gratitude, which includes food, music, parades, performance, and colorful ceremony.

WHAT WE EXPLORED:

Younger students explored the traditions of Inti Raymi through the story of one young family in Peru.

Older students watched video of the modern Inti Festival to discuss how social, climate, and technological changes have shaped modern celebrations.

All students investigated Incan and pre-Incan artifacts currently on view in our Ancient Americas exhibit, which reflect connections to different elements of the Festival.

WHAT WE MADE:

Younger elementary students tried their hand at metal tooling to craft a golden Inti Headband inspired by that of the festival’s Sun King! They decorated their bands with traditional Incan shape patterns, and then donned their Golden creations to exclaim “Inca Forever!”

Older students explored the history and sounds of an ancient wind instrument which plays an important role in the Inti Festival. The Siku (“See-koo”) is a pan flute crafted of bamboo chutes and held together by strip of decorative weaving.

Students created patterned warps, then cut bamboo straws into exact lengths to create different tones of sound. They wove their chutes as weft through their decorative warps, and then attempted to play one simple tune of the Sikuri (Alpaca Shepherds who are masters of the instrument).

After exploring traditional Chakana imagery of the Festival, our oldest teens discovered the popular Peruvian game of Sapo! This game, based on an ancient Incan folktale about a Golden Frog, has players toss gold coins into holes on a wooden game board. (Much like fiddly-winks or ski-ball) Traditionally, the winner is the player who manages to toss their coin into the mouth of a golden frog statue in its center.

Students first decorated their golden frogs with traditional Chakana motif, and then assembled a standee to compete and flick their “Incan coins” through. (More difficult than it might sound!)

All of these Golden Crafts were a hit as students learned and crafted in our Stasney Center for Education.

Our program Instructors were excited to invite each student to our own Inti Raymi Festival, which will take place on museum grounds on June 18th.

This month’s program was a wonderful way to conclude a challenging, but meaningful year of outreach to students in our Region. We are already looking forward to the Fall..

Hannah Rankin

Campus Outreach Lead