(Posted January 24, 2011)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Local school children will "carve" out new art experiences at two separate outreach programs aimed at elementary school students and middle school students at the Juniata College Museum of Art.

The Museum will invite children five to eight years of age to participate in a hands-on educational experience including an interactive tour of the art exhibit "Wood Work," by Mary Cady Rubinstein, followed by safety conscious activities centered on woodworking art techniques.

A program for students between the ages of 5 and 8, using etching onto plastic foam plates to simulate the woodcut printing process will run from 10 to 11 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 29 at the Museum.

The other program, designed for students between the ages of 9 and 12, teaches carving techniques, as the budding sculptors create sculptures out of bars of soap. The carving session takes place Saturday, Jan. 29 between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the museum.

Mary Cady Rubinstein's work explores many aspects of wood. For example, her painted wood reliefs are painstakingly carved into various types of wood and then those scenes are painted in vibrant colors. Her wood sculptures, focusing on human figures and animal figures, come from wood collected on walks in the woods near her home.

Carving art out of wood also is at the center of making woodblock prints, the third part of Cady-Rubinstein's exhibit. Artists making woodblock prints carve away the wood surface until only the area meant to be represented in the final image remains.

For registration forms and information about the Art Museum Program, please call (814) 641-3657 or e-mail streb@juniata.edu. The program is free, but space is limited. Send registration and release forms to Jennifer Streb, Good Hall Juniata College, 1700 Moore Street, Huntingdon, PA 16652. The registration deadline is Sept. 23.

The tour of Rubinstein's exhibit will be led by two Juniata students: Erica Strang, a senior from Altoona, Pa., studying art and museum studies, and Elizabeth Sunde, a sophomore from Farmingdale, N.Y. studying art and museum studies.

The outreach project "provides a unique opportunity for Juniata museum studies students by allowing them to use knowledge gained in our museum education class to create and lead the sessions," says Jennifer Streb, assistant professor of art history.

The art department has held various programs like this one over the past five years with hopes to continue increasing interest among community kids and art education.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.