The New York Times had an article about displaying children's art, and it got me thinking about what we do here. Each child has an art table in a dedicated art space, with lots of materials out and many more available with supervision. This means we end up with daily works of art. What to do with it all?
The most basic approach for the most basic art, such as these index card portraits, is to simply put them up on the bulletin board. I use a pin with a clip so that we don't poke a hole in the drawing.
For monthly favorites and seasonal themes, we have this very large frame from Michael Olaf. It has a birch frame and a long sheet of plexiglass that lifts out easily. I should have included a person in this photo to give you a sense of scale. You can figure it out by knowing that the two pictures on the bottom left are 9 x 12 inches. This frame hangs at a child's eye level, about three feet off the floor, so that the kids can see things easily and add art as they wish.
Sometimes we use this little wood easel frame for tabletop display.
Over in doll world, where my daughter keeps all the doll clothes and supplies that her grandmother and I have made for her, we have an informal display on the wall above the doll bureau. She chose a few of her favorite drawings of dancers and fairies and we arranged them spontaneously.
One thing you will notice is that nothing is permanently framed. I have set aside a stack of things I particularly love, but because they are so often odd sizes, I need to take them to a frame shop to have them framed. I just haven't gotten around to it. In the meantime, this assortment of rotating display options seems to suit the children's prolific output. When they are tired of one drawing and ready to hang another, the older pieces get added to a giant bin, which I will sort through someday when I have time! At the very least, I do label each piece with names and dates.
Finally, we often like to give the art as gifts. Here my daughter made a picture for a good friend on her birthday. I sewed the drawing to the cover of a blank Moleskine sketchbook. Perfect to encourage more art!
What do you do with kids' art in your house?
