BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) is looking for scary, cute, ugly, cuddly, weird, shiny, silly, colorful, friendly, or even mean imaginary creatures for VT Kids Design Glass II.
Kids in grades K-6 are invited to let their imaginations run wild and then to submit drawings and descriptions of their homemade creatures to BMAC by June 1.
After the drawings have been submitted, about a dozen will be selected by professional glass artists from throughout New England to be transformed into glass sculptures that will be exhibited at BMAC in the fall.
“We had no idea how much fun, and how popular, this would be,” said BMAC director Danny Lichtenfeld of the museum’s first go-round with VT Kids Design Glass that took place in 2011.
“We received over 200 submissions, and the creatures were just fantastic. The drawings were great, and the descriptions were priceless,” Lichtenfeld said.
Lichtenfeld recalled Rei Kimura’s “Spike Monster,” which was transformed into glass by artist Gale Scott. Kimura noted that her creature is very scary to children but always nice to senior citizens.
There was Maggie Frazer-Olson’s “Onion Dog” that lives near farms so he can eat onions; and Kathryn Wocell’s “Swissasore,” a dinosaur that eats only Swiss cheese.
According to Lichtenfeld, the best thing about the program is the validation of kids’ creative impulses. Every drawing submitted, not just those selected to be fashioned out of glass, will be exhibited.
“It’s not every day a 10-year-old can see her work on display in an art museum,” said Lichtenfeld.
Among glass artists participating in BMAC’s VT Kids Design Glass II are Josh and Marta Bernbaum, Robert Burch, Charles Correll, Xander D’Ambrosio, Robert DuGrenier, Tucker Litchfield, Peter Muller, Sally Prasch, Chris Sherwin, Randi Solin, Jen Violette, and Andrew Weill.
In 2011 Burch faced the challenge of transforming Jahvon Parker’s “Snake Alien” into glass. Of that experience, he said, “It was like trying to balance an excited live snake on the end of a four-foot rod.”
Muller, another returning participant, said, “Creating ’Alex’s Adventure’ took me away from my usual day-to-day tasks as a full-time glass artist and challenged me to think about the medium in new ways.”
For more information, and to submit creatures for for VT Kids Design Glass II, visit www.brattleboromuseum.org, write susan@brattleboromuseum.org, or call 802-257-0124, ext. 102.