This Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised by the various demonstrations of creativity I saw during the day at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Every Saturday, as a part of Summer Fun, we engage in Surprise Supplies. This is a family activity where we grab random and fun materials from our studio, set them out on a table, and tell everyone to “create!”

This week, many families were making art together, which is the point of all of our family activities. What was interesting about this week in particular was the fact that the children were telling the parents what to do. At first, I was surprised because this is the first time I have seen the parents and children interact in this way. I have seen parents and children working side-by-side on different projects, “results-oriented” parents dictate what the child should make, or parents that supervise their child’s art-making (usually with a caffeinated beverage). This week I saw children and parents working together to create a singular piece that was the child’s creation. These “little artistic directors” were telling their parents exactly what they envision, and the parents were trying to make their child’s vision come to life. Parents working hard to see their child’s vision come to fruition isn’t a new concept, but it was nice to see it manifest itself in this particular way.