Looking for somethig to do with your children now that they are home all the time? Virtually step inside NHM’s award-winning Dinosaur Hall and discover the Age of Dinosaurs from the comfort of your home. Learn how Museum scientists study our ancient past through a variety of fossils and get an up-close look at a one-of-a-kind T. rex growth series. You can also discover dinosaur and fossil activities that complement the tours — suitable for families, school-age children, and learners of all ages! You can search for your favorite dino in your own home with a virtual scavenger hunt and guide, or maybe you’ve always wondered what color dinosaur eggs were? With some special tools paleontologists have a good idea what different dinosaur eggs looked like in the Mesozoic Era. Using these discoveries, you can color some dinosaur eggs of you own at home for your breakfast table!

Maybe you’d like to make your own trace fossil. Fossils are the evidence that Paleontologists use to learn about life in the past. With just a few materials you probably already have at home and detailed instruction on the NHM site you can make your own trace fossil. There are wonderful coloring pages, instructions to make your own dinosaur shadow puppet, and many more.  The activities are divided into groups from Early Learners, to Elementary School, Middle School, and High School, so there is fun and learning for every age.

For more details, click here. 

International art gallery Hauser & Wirth has teamed with Art Review to host the second annual edition of the June Art Fair virtually August 20 – 31. The fair will run concurrently with Art Basel Online. There will also be a special, dedicated microsite featuring additional content that supports each participating gallery on artrevview.com. Founded as an independent project by galleries VI, VII (Oslo) and Christian Andersen, Copenhagen ), June Art Fair is an initiative led by pioneering galleries working at the forefront of contemporary art. The event was conceived as a platform to promote the work of emerging artists and to encourage rediscovery of more established but under-recognized figures.

The first edition of June Art Fair, which debuted during Basel Art Week in 2019, was set inside a concrete bunker transformed into an exhibition space. Providing an alternative to a conventional art fair viewing experience, this new addition to the Basel Art Week calendar was distinguished by a highly selective, inter-generational group of participants presenting projects in an open format more akin to a meticulously curated, collaborative, public exhibition. Modestly sized the fair is easy to navigate with a focus on artists not gallerists. The COVID-19 pandemic has, of course, forced the fair to innovate. Instead of the bunker, the internet beckons as June swaps its underground lair for the more accessible, but virus-safe online environs of the Hauser & Wirth website.

For more information, click here.

Need a break from news of COVID 19 and protests? A trip through Art Share’s virtual Garden show is a perfect way to bring a bit of peace, tranquility and beauty into your day. Gardens have played a key role in the evolution of art from the early 1860s through to the 1920s: With artists from Monet to Matisse being fascinated with them. Gardens gave artists the freedom to break new ground and explore the ever-changing world around them. Claude Monet, who is perhaps the king of garden painting once stated “I am following nature without being able to grasp her… I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” It’s a classic theme which we’ve all seen in museum exhibitions. Now the thirteen Los Angeles artists featured in Garden have taken this theme of Gardens and made it fresh with new concepts and perspectives. Janet Milhomme’s photographs of flowers with just a hint of color are stunning. Lisa Baldwin’s Wildpeace, is exactly what the name implies, a peaceful wild place of mustard, daisies and wildflowers. Committed to painting from life outside the confines of a studio space, Baldwin captures moments directly experienced in nature.

Mingu Kweon is a Korean painter who made himself a promise he is going to be the most influential artist of the 21^st century. Check out his Eternal 2 and see if you think he can live up to his promise.

For more details, click here.

We could all use a few laughs about now so I was thrilled to discover The ODDyssey, presented by the Troubadour Theater Company (aka The Troublies), my favorite free-wheeling group of talented madcap performers. Streaming on the Getty Museum’s website, The ODDyssey – done in a Zoom format –is a hilarious retelling of Homer’s 8^th century BC (Before Covid) epic poem told in true Troublie-style with plenty of over the top characters, subtle (and not so subtle) satire, twisted song lyrics, pop culture one-liners, remote challenges and wonky props.

The family-friendly story – narrated by Homer himself (played by Troubie mastermind and artistic director Matt Walker) – follows Odysseus on his perilous 10 year journey to return home after the Trojan War.  The featured players are introduced via a Brady Bunch format – Odysseus, his wife Penelope, god Poseiden, the nymph Calypso, goddess Athena, Cyclops (let the one eye jokes begin), Circe the witch and the beautiful ditzy Siren.  I always love the modern living references – to Tesla, AT&T, The 405 et al. Song wise long suffering Penelope’s I Will Survive was spot on as was Poseiden’s lament in rap format. The second episode features an appearance by The Getty’s Dr. Shelby Brown, a classical archeologist, who gives a short light-hearted historical perspective on The Odyssey.

All five webisodes of “The ODDyssey” will be available in August.