MEDIA CONTACT: Judy Moore at (847) 491-4819 or jkm229@northwestern.edu

January 6, 2004

Block Offers Quarterly Family Programs

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive, will launch a new quarterly series of exhibition-related family programs at the Evanston campus museum Feb. 29.

Children aged 5 to 12 and their parents are invited to participate in interactive tours and engaged viewing in the galleries that will be followed by a related hands-on project.

The first program of the quarterly series, Expressive Portraiture, will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 29. Youngsters will explore portraits in the Block Museum’s “American Expressionism: Art and Social Change, 1920s-1950s” exhibition (on view from Jan. 30 through May 9 in the Main Gallery), and the expressive lines that artists of the 1930s and 1940s used in their work to convey human emotion.

Participants will make sketches in the museum’s Main Gallery of the different types of expressive lines visible in the portraits. In the adjacent classroom, working from their sketches, youngsters will be offered a wide array of expressive drawing materials to create their own self-portrait.

Admission is free for Block Museum members, or $5 per family for non-members.

Since space is limited, reservations are required. To make a reservation for the Feb. 29 family event, call the Block Museum at (847) 491-4852.