R & Company Art Exhibit in Tribeca
If you’ve read my past post about the 3 top reasons to take a toddler to an art gallery, you know we love frequenting them! Today, after school, we enjoyed another artsy adventure, this time closer to our home, in Tribeca. R & Company on 82 Franklin (between Church and Broadway) is a 2-floor, narrow unassuming space that you’d miss easily if not looking specifically for it. Step inside though and you’ll be greeted with playful bursts of color and sculptures that beg you to reach out and touch them. As soon as Juliet stepped in, she screamed in delight, “Mommy this place looks like so much FUN!”
And indeed it was! The tactile surfaces were fun to explore and luckily, this gallery encouraged not only feeling the exhibits but also sitting, climbing and exploring in them!
Yes, the artist’s name is actually “Porky Hefer…”
Isn’t this such a wonderous place for a child to enjoy art?
It inspires such curiosity and imagination!
“Each piece is meant to be inhabited like a hermit inhabits shells.” He encourages visitors to curl their bodies into the playful, human-scaled shells and nests, or to drape themselves languidly over the leopard’s branch.
Downstairs, though was where Juliet’s favorite pieces were. She got such a kick out of the coin couch because we were just teaching her the value of coins. “I wonder how the artist made this!” And so we discussed possibilities and she determined, “glue!” haha
Johnny Swing‘s iconic coin works have been exhibited in museums and institutions around the world. Swing, who is considered a master welder and craftsman, has developed a unique patterning technique that utilizes flat shiny coins to create furniture works. His innovative approach successfully transforms these industrial found coins into biomorphic and natural forms that transcend their material. (excerpt from the exhibit’s website)
Coins certainly take on a whole new value in the mind of this tiny toddler!
Juliet’s other favorite find was this fuzzy little beast. When it was time to go, she said, “but I LOVE him!!” So I let her stay for a bit and she spent the remaining minutes, cuddling and kissing this crazy fur creature. “Wait! 3 more hugs!” she exclaimed as motioned for us to go.
If you’re in the NY area, I highly recommend R and Company. This intimate art gallery will only take you 30minutes of your time depending on how many selfies you take 🙂 and is great to explore with kids! We went on a Monday afternoon and were the only ones in there! Woohoo! This exhibit is open until February 23rd.
To see more of our mommy and me artsy adventures, click here!
After having taken her Easter photos last year and having been challenged by my husband with the question of what I’m going to do with these print outs, I came up with the idea of putting them to use by displaying them at a future bunny themed birthday party! With that in mind, I immediately went shopping the day after Easter to snag all the party decor at 80-90%off. (I have to work within a budget, ya know)! From there, I scoured the web to find the perfect crafty, DIY, and fashion details buying everything at wholesale prices, and scoring amazing finds from the Target dollar bins. After having waited months to see it all come together, you can imagine my excitement finally getting to set it all up!
2. Post Easter or bunny themed photos of the guest of honor. We all like to marvel how much kids have grown during a birthday party so why not post pictures within the party’s theme? Last year for Juliet’s 
3. Bunny cut outs. There are so many ways to incorporate a decorative bunny as part of the party’s decor. I used enlarged bunny felts, bunny shaped-sandwiches, and bunny footprints leading up to the party’s entrance. For more ideas, check out my 
4. Offer bunny – themed entertainment for the kids. There was a coloring and sticker station, bunny book reading area, bunny game, a bunny and easter egg decorating area, bunny stuffed animals to play with and an Easter bunny to take pictures with at our party for instance. All were toddler-friendly activities that parents could help out with or not! (Note how easily a borrowed Bugs Bunny costume can easily be converted into an Easter bunny with a simple felt add-on)?
5. Encourage Easter animal adoption! A fun way for me to greet each guest at the door was to welcome them with the opportunity to adopt a pet of their choice. Cabbage Patch Kid Style, they were given a certificate of adoption after getting to name their new pet.
6. Host an Easter egg hunt! Juliet helped me fill a whopping 200 Easter eggs. (Child labor laws don’t apply in my home)! And the kids really seemed to have fun with this. I loved it as a parent because the public Easter egg hunts in NYC are always overcrowded which means long lines, toddlers getting trampled, and the big kids getting to the eggs before the little ones have a fair chance at finding them. Our private rooftop park gave them the exclusive opportunity to enjoy a leisurely hunt (ehem during a light drizzly snow day the day before Spring)!
The Easter eggs were filled with everything from egg-shaped chocolates to toys to coins and googly-eyed bunny stickers!
I think I smiled ear to ear the whole time being surrounded by all these cuties!
I liken planning this party to giving birth. It took 10 months of research, planning, buying, and preparing, and then intense laboring culminating in estatic celebration with post-op type recovery and bed rest in the end. Phew! I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on any one event, simply because I’m a one-mom production company. But come load-in and setup, I did have a little help from friends! Thanks Roniescia, Janell, Stacie and even John and Juliet! Read on about my tips for 
