Engaging Experiences for All Ages

From Family Free Days, to tours designed with families in mind, to drop-in art making for all ages, there is something for everyone at the Albany Institute.

Upcoming Family Events

11:00am–11:45am Enrich your experience of our current exhibitions through an insightful docent-led tour of the galleries. Docent tours are an excellent way to learn more about the artworks and objects on display, in addition to the stories they tell. Interaction and questions are encouraged and visitors of all ages are welcome. The tour is free with museum admission, no registration required. Please meet in the museum atrium main level near the admission desk before the tour begins.

12:00pm–4:00pm Art for All is free with museum admission every Saturday from 12–4PM. All ages are welcome to participate. Enjoy your visit to the museum and explore your artistic side with a hands-on project inspired by the museum's exhibitions and collections. Inspired by the flowers in A Life in Bloom: The Floral Paintings of Julia McEntee Dillon, participants will create mixed-media wildflower seed packets. Taking inspiration from decorative seed packets from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and from Julia McEntee Dillon’s floral paintings, participants will use a variety of materials to customize their packets. At the end of the program, participants will receive wildflower seeds, to be kept safe in their packets until they are ready to plant them in the ground!   Julia McEntee Dillon (1834–1919), Pink Peonies and Roses, pastel on paper laid on canvas, 1885, Ulster County Historical Society.

11:00am–11:45am Enrich your experience of our current exhibitions through an insightful docent-led tour of the galleries. Docent tours are an excellent way to learn more about the artworks and objects on display, in addition to the stories they tell. Interaction and questions are encouraged and visitors of all ages are welcome. The tour is free with museum admission, no registration required. Please meet in the museum atrium main level near the admission desk before the tour begins.

12:00pm–4:00pm Art for All is free with museum admission every Saturday from 12–4PM. All ages are welcome to participate. Enjoy your visit to the museum and explore your artistic side with a hands-on project inspired by the museum's exhibitions and collections. Blanche Lazzell’s artistic career was heavily influenced by Modernism, an art movement characterized by a break from traditional artistic methods and abstraction. One of her paintings, Church Around the Corner, is a prime example of her Modernist style. Using tissue and construction paper, scissors, and glue, participants will create cityscape collages inspired by this painting and the larger Modernist movement.   Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), Church Around the Corner, 1949, oil on canvas, 28 x 36 3/16 in. Art Museum of West Virginia University Collection, acquired through Frances Sellers.