Page 30 - August 2015 Life In Naples Magazine

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ASK THE ARTSPERTS INTRODUCING FINE ART TO YOUNG CHILDREN www.harmonmeek.com
by Juliana Meek and Kristine Meek

Dear Artspert: Families to grandbabies

My husband and I would like to ensure our daughter is exposed to fine visiting their relatives
art but she is only four years old, is that too young and how should we go
about introducing her to paintings and sculpture? on spring break, we

Signed, encourage school

Preschool Picasso groups and families to

Dear Preschool Picasso, bring young audiences

Who would ever think that an Army officer and his wife, stationed to the gallery.
in France and Italy for a total of six years might lead their son to a life in
the arts? That’s exactly what happened in the case of my father William Aside from visiting
Meek. As a child and early teen our grandparents took him to most of the
the gallery, there
art museums in Europe and opened his
eyes to the world of art. are three public art

Perhaps that is why our gallery has collections that my father has started in Naples and of those, he is
always hosted tours of the gallery for
children of all ages since the mid 1960’s. proudest of the permanent collection at the Golisano Children’s
Harmon-Meek Gallery was once the
only place for school children to see Museum of Naples (C’MON). There he set forth standards based
fine art until the Friends of Art started
doing art exhibitions at the train depot upon lifelong experiences of looking at art as a child himself and
in 1984, then later at the Philharmonic
Center for the Arts starting in 1986, observing how children react to art.
the von Liebig Art Center in 1997, the
Naples Museum of Art in 2001 (now The paintings in the Loos Gallery at C’MON are all hung at
Baker Museum), and Loos Art Gallery
at the Golisano Children’s Museum of four foot centers so most of the children can view the collection
Naples in 2005. Our gallery even paid
for school buses to come so that private and public school children could without tilting their head upward and all the paintings are framed
visit. Our dad would hang special exhibitions with paintings hung lower
and with subject matter that would interest younger audiences. One of with Optium Plexiglas, which appears without reflection and
our favorite exhibitions was the animals in American art exhibition that
included works by Milton Avery, is scratchproof so the children can get as close as they want to
Will Barnet, Jimmy Ernst and
Robert Vickrey. without concern about touching the surface, and finally, all of
To this day we continue to
enjoy seeing children’s eyes light the works depict animals or children as a subject so toddlers and
up when they see fine art. From
young adults studying graphic young children can easily relate to the images. Ours is the first
design at Lorenzo Walker
Institute of Technology to children’s museum in the country to have a dedicated art gallery
summer middle school students
at Grace Place for Children & with permanent collection.

Studies have shown that even newborns can determine

differences in colors and enjoy looking at bold contrasting colors.

Works that have easily recognizable forms and shapes are also

more accommodating for very young eyes.

You probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Kristine’s son

John William was in the gallery at four days old looking at the art

and she herself was caught staring at an abstract painting by James

Twitty as an infant.

Sincerely,

The Artsperts

Top Left: J.William Meek III at age 7 in
1958 in Mont Marte, Paris, France.

Bottom Left: Infant Kristine Meek in 1978

Right: Barbara Meek holding 4 day-old grandson
John William at Harmon-Meek Gallery in 2015

30 Life in Naples | August • September • October 2015