Albany Museum draws large crowd for its fall Family Day

ALBANY — More than 250 people came out on Saturday to enjoy Family Day at the Albany Museum of Art, according to Kristin Caso of Albany Recreation and Parks.

“We started Family Day eight years ago as a collaboration,” Caso said. “I work with (city of Albany) Recreation and Parks and one of my good friends, Crystal Morrison, was working here at the museum and we decided to hold an event together. We had no idea that it would be so successful.

“The first one (Family Day), we had over 400 people show up in four hours. So, we decided to do it again and we have been doing it since, twice a year.”

According to Caso, Family Day is held in each spring and fall.

“It is a wonderful event for the community,” Caso said. “We have a treasure hunt through the museum and art activities everywhere.”

Along with the numerous activities, visitors could also check out booths from various local groups.

“We have C.S.R.A. Girls, that’s kind of like the Girl Scouts,” Caso said. “We’ve got our 311 call center and then we have the Dougherty County Library here. They are all giving out program information.”

During the event, crowds of children happily buzzed around the museum enjoying different zones of fun, including arts and crafts, a treasure hunt and activities like sack races and tug-o’-war.

“My deal is I am in charge of art activities,” Caso said. “So, we’ve got little 3D foamy pumpkin patches and scarecrows. Everything is fall related. We have clothes-pin crafts that you get to choose between making a turkey, a witch or a scarecrow. The hard part is you have to choose, because you can only do one. We have jewelry making. Outside we have all sorts of games like sacking races, bean-bag relays and other fun stuff.”

Also, according to Caso, the entire museum becomes a fun zone during Family Day.

“Someone walked in early and said I want to go into the playroom and I told them the whole museum is a playroom during Family Day,” Caso said. “Back here in the classroom, we have mask-making and fall bags, and in the Amazing Space section we have tattoos and scratch art in the kid’s Hands-on Gallery.”

During Family Day in previous years, organizers noticed that visitors were not really viewing the main attraction of the museum — its art — so they came up with a solution to engage guests.

“One of the things that Crystal and I noticed the first time we did this was that people were coming in and going into the classroom, the Amazing Space, the auditorium and going out the back door,” Caso said. “They weren’t looking at the museum. So, to help encourage people to look at the art, we came up with the gallery hunt.”

Particpants in the hunt have a variety of items that they have to locate around the museum. Once the items are located a scorecard is punched and children can collect a prize from the treasure box.

“There is all kinds of cool things in the treasure box,” Caso said. “We’ve got everything from funny glasses to fake snakes to scare your sister with. The gallery hunt is a great way to engage kids in looking at the art.”

For more information about events at the Albany Museum of Art, such as Family Day, visit www.albanymuseum.com.