Adventure

ADVENTURES are exciting journeys or quests. You can go on adventures in your home, neighborhood, or even in your mind using your imagination. What adventures have you been on recently?

How Do You Adventure?

Think about somewhere you’ve always wanted to go for an adventure. It can be a real or an imaginary place. How will you get there—a boat, a car, or maybe a bicycle? See if you can build your own mode of transportation using recycled materials, like plastic bottles, milk cartons, toilet paper tubes, or even materials from outside, like sticks and leaves. Look at these works of art for inspiration.

A square ceramic tile depicts a three-masted ship sailing right across a stylized sea of dark blue tiered waves. Billowing sails and mast pennants are rendered in cobalt blue against a white, crazed glaze. Scrolling floral motifs fill the corners. The composition focuses on the ship, detailed with streaking lines and light shading, while a network of fine cracks covers the surface.
Tile–Ship, c. 1700s. Holland/Netherlands. Educational Purchase Fund, 1929.967

This boat was created on a ceramic, or clay, tile. Where do you think this boat is sailing?

Where will you adventure in your boat? Draw a picture or write a story about your journey.

In this work of art, the artist has painted a picture of his wife, Ada, on a road trip through the American Southwest. What clues from the painting help us to know where they’re driving?

A horizontally oriented oil painting depicts a woman with light skin tone sitting in profile. She looks forward from the passenger seat of a car with a red interior. A purple tie pulls her brown hair back in a ponytail, and she wears a blue and white horizontally striped shirt under a blue sweatshirt. Out the window, jagged peach pink and green hills extend under a blue sky with white clouds striated with grey.
Impala, 1968. Alex Katz. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund and Gift of the Eppler Family Foundation and Agnes Gund, 1983.68. Art © Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Have you ever been on a long road trip? How did you pass the time? Play a car game at home with your family! Try a round of I Spy using all the colors in this painting.

A horizontally oriented black-and-white photograph depicts a boy with dark skin tone balancing on the rear wheel of a bicycle, front wheel lifted high over a paved path. Facing our right, he wears a light t-shirt and shorts. Tall trees with luminous white foliage rise behind him against a dark, mottled sky. In the distance, a dark car and a patterned building sit within the pale landscape.
Cleveland, from the series Bike Cleveland, 2014. David Burnett. The George Gund Foundation Collection in honor of David Bergholz, 2018.247

This photograph was taken right here in Cleveland! The photographer, David Burnett, was interested in capturing pictures of how people bike in the city.

Do you have a bike (or maybe a scooter, skateboard, or roller skates)? Grab your family and take a spin around your neighborhood. Snap a picture of your family riding bikes and share it with us using #CMAatHome or #CMABikes.

Treasure Map Game!

Be a home adventurer and grab all your family members for this treasure map challenge! Each person starts by drawing a diagram of your home on a piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can even label the different spaces to help everyone follow your map. Once you have your map outlined, think about the things in your home that you treasure the most. On your map, mark the location of each object with a red X. Now, think of a clue to describe each object. You can write each clue on its own piece of paper or next to the X’s on your map. When everyone is finished, trade papers and see if you can find your family’s treasures!

House illustration by Paula Jackson
Illustration by Paula Jackson