Picturing Paradise: Earth Day at the Icon Museum
Free.
Join us for a fun and free celebration of Icons and the Natural World for Earth Day at the Icon Museum. Enjoy a guided tour, explore natural materials utilized in icon making, create a card out of recycled materials, and plant a beneficial sunflower to take home.
10:30, 12:30, 3:30 Guided Tours
The beauty and variety of the natural world can be found throughout our galleries. Take in the vibrant colors and rich textures of the icons while learning about the natural materials used to create them during guided tours led by the Museum’s curator and registrar. Explore how the splendor of nature is celebrated in the iconography and learn how fantastic beasts convey complex spiritual messages.
10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Materials of Icon Painting
Explore the natural materials used to make icons! Most of the icons in our collection were painted with egg tempera. Artists would grind rocks and minerals into colorful pigments using a mortar and pestle; these would be mixed with egg yolk to create vibrant, long-lasting colors. Get a sense of how it would feel to use these materials while learning about the symbolic meanings behind different colors, grind with a mortar and pestle, create your own paints, and use imitation gold and silver leaf to adorn your paintings.
11:00-3:00 Drop-in Activity: Earth Day Cards and the Green Museum
Encounter how artists used scenes of nature and natural patterns to enliven their sacred paintings. Take inspiration from the natural motifs in our icons to create Earth Day greeting cards using recycled materials at a creation station located in our galleries. While you create, learn how museum founder Gordon Lankton envisioned a museum built and operated on the principles of environmental conservation. This short talk will include information about our solar panels, efficient lighting, and the daily practices we take to ensure that Gordon’s vision of a green museum holds true today.
10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Planting Peace
Sunflowers, the national flower of both Ukraine and Russia, have been revered by various cultures for centuries as symbols of happiness, resilience, and hope. Today, these magnificent plants are favored by conservationists for their beneficial effects on the environment. Learn about these incredible flowers and how to care for them as you plant your own to take home.
Free.
Join us for a fun and free celebration of Icons and the Natural World for Earth Day at the Icon Museum. Enjoy a guided tour, explore natural materials utilized in icon making, create a card out of recycled materials, and plant a beneficial sunflower to take home.
10:30, 12:30, 3:30 Guided Tours
The beauty and variety of the natural world can be found throughout our galleries. Take in the vibrant colors and rich textures of the icons while learning about the natural materials used to create them during guided tours led by the Museum’s curator and registrar. Explore how the splendor of nature is celebrated in the iconography and learn how fantastic beasts convey complex spiritual messages.
10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Materials of Icon Painting
Explore the natural materials used to make icons! Most of the icons in our collection were painted with egg tempera. Artists would grind rocks and minerals into colorful pigments using a mortar and pestle; these would be mixed with egg yolk to create vibrant, long-lasting colors. Get a sense of how it would feel to use these materials while learning about the symbolic meanings behind different colors, grind with a mortar and pestle, create your own paints, and use imitation gold and silver leaf to adorn your paintings.
11:00-3:00 Drop-in Activity: Earth Day Cards and the Green Museum
Encounter how artists used scenes of nature and natural patterns to enliven their sacred paintings. Take inspiration from the natural motifs in our icons to create Earth Day greeting cards using recycled materials at a creation station located in our galleries. While you create, learn how museum founder Gordon Lankton envisioned a museum built and operated on the principles of environmental conservation. This short talk will include information about our solar panels, efficient lighting, and the daily practices we take to ensure that Gordon’s vision of a green museum holds true today.
10:00-4:00 Drop-in Activity: Planting Peace
Sunflowers, the national flower of both Ukraine and Russia, have been revered by various cultures for centuries as symbols of happiness, resilience, and hope. Today, these magnificent plants are favored by conservationists for their beneficial effects on the environment. Learn about these incredible flowers and how to care for them as you plant your own to take home.