Creative Constellations: MoNA’s Youth Education Programs / Constelaciones creativas: Programas educativos para jóvenes de MoNA

June 20 - September 20, 2026 / 20 de junio - 20 de septiembre de 2026

This exhibition showcases MoNA’s Youth Education Programs, which are collaboratively interwoven with our community to create a vibrant network connecting people of all ages with various art forms, teaching artists, and ideas! Creative Constellations highlights the artistry of some of our youngest visitors: the 2-5 year olds that participate in MoNA’s Early Enrichment program, the families who make art in our Open Studio space, and the participants who join us for intergenerational learning and art creation on the weekends. The Teen Art Club will dazzle you with their take-over of the interactive Expression Exchange area, transformed into an interstellar exploration of the galaxy. The Creative Connections Teaching Artist program sparkles across classrooms in the region and reflects the powerful glow of MoNA Link, a professional development program that has been forging new constellations between educators and art education for more than two decades. Explore this creative solar system while participating in the collaborative cosmos display to express your own unique place in MoNA's fantastic formation of artistic community!

¡Esta exposición presenta los programas educativos para jóvenes de MoNA, que se entrelazan de forma colaborativa con nuestra comunidad para crear una red vibrante que conecta a personas de todas las edades con diversas formas de arte, artistas docentes e ideas! Constelaciones creativas resalta el talento artístico de algunos de nuestros visitantes más jóvenes: niños y niñas con edades entre dos y cinco años que participan en el programa Early Enrichment del MoNA, las familias que hacen arte en nuestro Open Studio y los participantes que se reúnen durante los fines de semana para la creación artística y el aprendizaje intergeneracional. El Teen Art Club le deslumbrará con su versión de Expression Exchange, un espacio interactivo transformado en una exploración interestelar galáctica. El programa de artistas docentes Creative Connections Teaching Artist brilla en los salones de clase de toda la región y refleja el poderoso resplandor de MoNA Link, un programa de desarrollo profesional que lleva más de dos décadas forjando nuevas constelaciones entre los educadores y la educación artística. ¡Explore este sistema creativo solar mientras participa en la exposición colaborativa sobre los cosmos para expresar su propio lugar único dentro de la formación fantástica de la comunidad artística del MoNA!

Special thanks to Howard Shapiro, Don Wesley, Lauren Grund, and Nikki Klinger for their contributions to this exhibition.

On Creative Constellations

by Howard Shapiro, MoNA Link Alum and Dedicated Youth Programs Volunteer

It is vitally important how we frame our understanding about the youth programs at MoNA. Knowing that children as young as two and up to eighteen years old are offered opportunities to experience and learn about far more than the work in the galleries may come as a surprise. In fact, youth programs at MoNA represent a vast universe of possibilities. This universe is made up of the youthful stars that are children and students from near and far who participate in gallery walks, discussions and studio projects here at MoNA. Whether it is a school program, teen program or Early Enrichment: the artful universe is expansive. 

These stars are part of constellations that are formed both within and outside the walls of MoNA. Look in classrooms in Skagit and Island counties, in MoNA’s art studio and the galleries and these constellations of creativity and excitement shine brightly. MoNA offers Early Enrichment for toddlers to preschool children and their caregivers along with MoNA Link that provides professional development for teachers in classrooms throughout the region. MoNA Link teachers spend a school year engaged in active professional development led by the Education Staff at the museum. MoNA staff come to MoNA Link classrooms to help prepare students for associated visits to the museum. Students have two opportunities a year to explore with their teachers the latest exhibitions. 

Just like the constellations we see high overhead, there is a mythology that occurs when children and students experience MoNA.That mythology is expressed through their reflections of the time they get both at the museum and through their MoNA Link teacher. This mythology becomes a set of multi-sensory experiences and memories that can be shared with friends and family. Children and students build on these experiences with art and artists while creating their own art. These young artists form their own stories associated with the art they come in contact with and take that with them as life-long learners. The formation of thoughts and feelings regarding art and artists is unmistakable. In addition to the mythology that grows from exposure to art in its many forms, students also get a little deeper awareness of the Northwest School of artists that form the foundation for the creation of MoNA itself. 

Enthusiasm ensues as kids get to express their own reactions to the art they see all around them through the use of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). This is a strategy that has no wrong answers, only the personal impressions of the art all around them during a museum visit or the art shared by MoNA educational staff in the student’s classrooms. Many MoNA Link teachers incorporate VTS across their classroom curriculum. VTS frees participants to simply react to what they see and share their responses verbally or through combinations of expression. This approach fits well in a variety of subjects beyond art. 

Younger children have their own set of experiences through Early Enrichment. They are offered a multi-sensory approach during their visits. Literacy through story telling is one component of MoNA Early Enrichment along with rudimentary VTS followed by studio time where new experiences and art understanding create new stars adding to the youthful universe and mythological constellations that make up the MoNA youth programs. 

There is a rich and varied palette available and waiting for children and students at MoNA. Like the night sky, MoNA’s youth programs are filled with bright and twinkling participants. Who is to say that sometime in the future one or more of these stars will have their own art hanging on the walls of MoNA’s galleries? As we all know the universe is vast and the possibilities infinite.