Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate at the Walker Art Center

Parents and caregivers with youngsters ages 3–5 have a fun way to find artistic inspiration with

Arty Pants: Your Tuesday Playdate

, the popular Walker Art Center program designed to nurture creativity and engage a child’s mind. Arty Pants programs, presented on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, feature art projects, films, gallery activities, and story readings. Meet other families for a treat at the Gallery 8 Café. The Arty Pants programs in July and August are presented from 11 am–1 pm Tuesdays, July 14 and 28, and August 11 and 25. Activities are free with gallery admission; Walker members and children ages 12 and under always receive free admission.

Knead, smash, coil, create! In July and August, transform a ball of earth into a work of art inspired by the exhibition Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay. Participants will engage the tactile properties of clay through gallery activities, stories, film—and, of course, by using their hands.

Film: Miriam and the Flood by Riho Unt

US Bank Orientation Lounge
When Miriam’s pet hen decides to take a swim in the bathtub, everyone and everything gets soaked in this claymation short.

Art-Making Activity: Play with Clay

Star Tribune Foundation Art Lab
Play with clay alongside staff and a guest artist in a series of hands-on projects:

July 14: Making Mud
July 28: Crazy Containers
August 11: Edible Clay
August 25: Sparkling Sculptures

Story Time: The Dirtiest Hair in the World by Bob McAllen and Tom McClure

Cargill Lounge
In this poetic tale of dirt gone wild, find out what happens when young Claire decides not to wash her hair.

Gallery Activity: Ceramic Cities

General Mills Hennepin Lounge
Create a mosaic of a miniature city from ceramic tiles inspired by the Minneapolis skyline.