Fine Arts Day

This morning I chaperoned Brendan's class on a field trip downtown. We went to the Art Institute of Chicago. I spent the afternoon shepherding five fifth grade boys through as much of the museum as we could get to in an hour and a half, which wasn't very much. The best part of the trip actually came before the Art Institute. Brendan's school had been participating in a program called "Do Your P'Art," which encouraged environmentalism through art. The kids made box collages out of recycled materials. These boxes were displayed downtown. Here is Brendan showing off his box.

The kids' art was displayed at a building across the street from the Merchandise Mart. The building guard suggested we go over to the Mart and check out the display of canned food art. Someone had sponsored a sculpture contest to promote hunger awareness. The artists made sculptures entirely out of canned food and other non-persible food items. Here is the Cubs logo made entirely from cans. If you look to the left of the logo, the background is a train made out of cans. There were several clever sculptures in this exhibit, including a giant slice of pizza and a giant sombrero made of El Paso Refried Bean cans.

To round out my day of fine arts, the final band concert was this evening. This is the "All-Band Concert," where all four of our district bands perform. This was Theo's final band concert, as he is moving on to high school next year and couldn't fit band into his schedule. Theo had a solo in their last song. It made me to cry to think of how proud Tim would have been of his son at that moment.