Participants will be invited to take part in one of Swaner’s monthly Family Days, engaging in hands-on activities designed to explore the intersection of art and nature. The event will feature multiple art-making stations focused on play, curiosity, and wonder—encouraging families to experiment, explore, and create together.

The art stations include:

Cyanotypes

Participants will arrange natural materials onto light-reactive cyanotype paper in order to create sun-printed images inspired by nature. By exposing the paper to sunlight, guests will reveal deep blue and white designs that capture the delicate shape and structure of the natural objects. This process replicates the process used in Alexandra Fuller’s All Sketches Wish to be Real and provide an immerse look into capturing the natural world through one of its most basic assets, sunlight.

Clay Meadow

Families will carve directly into the surface of recycled clay slabs in order to create a piece inspired by a natural meadow. Participants are encouraged to think about the many layers of the earth’s natural environments such as grass, flowers, paths, and hills. They will focus on carving lines, textures, and patterns into the clay in order to show the complex systems that interconnect to make natural ecosystems. By removing clay material, guests will explore how landscapes can be shaped through subtle, repetitive actions such as the slow and natural processes that form real meadows.

Snow Art

Participants will use snow and found natural materials in order to build creatures that have adapted to survive in cold, snowy environments. Families are encouraged to consider factors such as insulation, camouflage, stability, and shelter as they shape the creature’s body and add features using sticks and stones. Just as animals adapt their forms to survive winter conditions, participants will design creatures that can endure snow, wind, and cold temperatures.

3D Design – Nina Katchadourian

Using 3D pens, families will trace a pattern in order to create three dimensional, web-like structures. Families will practice layering filament and connecting delicate pieces to one another in order to build forms that replicate the web-mending works of Nina Katchadorian. This hands-on process encourages careful movement, repetition, and attention to structure as guests experiment with building lightweight, interconnected shapes that jump off their flat surface.

The event will feature multiple art-making stations focused on play, curiosity, and wonder – encouraging families to experiment, explore, and create together. In addition to this family day, attendees can continue their curiosity at Swaner’s new interactive exhibition, Life on the Edge, for a free admission day! Visitors to this exhibit can explore extreme environments on Earth and how they help us understand possibilities for life in our Solar System and beyond.”