Make Your Own cARTie Artist Hat

What does it mean to be an artist?

Well, what better way to explore than to play pretend, talk together, and get a little felt sense for being an artist along the way.

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Use this as an introduction to cARTie at home activities.

This cARTie at home activity is a great entry point into explorations, discussions, and creation activities that support your child(ren)'s critical and creative thinking, emotional intelligence, collaboration, confidence in museum spaces, and higher order thinking.

We encourage you to take the time to consider – really consider – what is means to be an artist with your child(ren), and see where their thinking and learning goes from here.

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Come back to your cARTie Artist Hats again and again.

In every art and museum -adjacent activity that comes after this, you can call upon the cARTie Artist Hats that you and your child(ren) make as a way of embodying their learnings about what it means to be an artist and increasingly deepen their thinking. Whenever you all put on your cARTie Artist Hats, you will be able to explicitly call upon prior, shared experiences, and implicitly identify artist habits of mind.

Behind the scenes, or under the surface, your child(ren) will build neural pathways and positive, empowered associations with the arts and museum enrichment. This sets your child(ren) up for lifetimes ahead benefitting from all that the arts and museums have to offer.

Research shows that our children learn through play. And they benefit from positive and prolonged early art and museum -based learning experiences. So, let’s get started…

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Here’s what you’ll need:

• Miscellaneous papers (whatever you have around, we’re all about recycling)
• Scissors
• Double-sides tape / glue sticks
• Pre-cut collage materials (again, we encourage recycling with old magazines)
• Modgepodge and a brush to finish

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Step 1

Before beginning this activity, look for opportunities in conversation with your child(ren) to see what they already know about artists.

You can prime this experience by calling out any preexisting knowledge and/or interest they have and saying “ooh I have a great activity for us to do together to explore this more!” Then, as you find the time, set yourself and your child(ren) up for success. Prep your materials and take pride in setting out an enticing display, or provocation. Here is an example!

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Step 2

Then, to get started, here is a video to watch with your child(ren).

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Step 3

Now that you and your child(ren) have had a preview, it’s time to start discussing what you all think it means to be an artist.

Make sure to use open-ended questions to followup on what your child(ren) share, or probe. For instance, you might add: “Can you tell me more about that?” “What makes you say that?”

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Step 4

As the opportunity allows, begin to bring your child(ren)’s attention back to the materials you laid out and start exploring as you discuss what kind of awesome cARTie Artist Hats you can make.

Be sure to celebrate their ideas. Maybe even ask them to show you how to emulate their ideas. Get invested and excited!

As you follow along their creations, try to stay curious and refrain from assuming you know what they are working on. Again, it’s best practice to ask them to explain and to document that.

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Step 5

Once you and your child(ren) feel you’ve made awesome hats, show them off.

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Maybe post a picture on social media. Tag us @CTcARTie!

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Later that day/night, when you get a chance, it will be helpful to brush some modgepodge over top of your hats to preserve them for long-term use.

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We can’t wait to see and hear what comes for you and your child(ren)!

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Here are some more examples from students we worked with during an afterschool residency in 2024...

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