By Allison McCartney

April 01, 2010, 6:00PM

Sunday, April 11 from 12:30-4:30 pm; includes Special Teen Talk

Ever wonder how artists and architects seem to select the perfect combination of angles, colors, shapes and lines to create beautiful abstract art and buildings?

Participants in a Newark Museum Family Day experience on Sunday, April 11 will have an opportunity to discover for themselves some of the wonders of design.  This special event, entitled Colors, Shapes & Lines, complements the museum’s acclaimed exhibition, Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s-50s.

Through hands-on art and science activities, families can discover how artists and architects use shapes, colors, and lines to create abstract art and build strong structures.  Events including hands-on art and science activities, a scavenger hunt for prizes in the galleries, an animated film with a surprising twist, and stories read in the galleries about famous abstract artists.

A special gallery talk for teens by teens will also be presented at 2:30 pm, followed by a reception.  Students from Newark’s Arts High and Science High School, along with Nightingale-Bamford School students from New York City, who created a teen podcast about Constructive Spirit, will share their perspective on selected works from the exhibition.  Participants will discover artists who broke the rules and pushed boundaries to create new art forms of geometric abstraction.

Events occurring throughout the day include:

Marianne’s Theatre, a family film shown at 1:30, 2:30 & 3:30 pm. This magical animated film is about a troupe of marionette acrobats. No matter what the ringleader does, each act goes awry until we begin to wonder who's really running the show. (2004, 16 min.)

Drop-in Family Art Activities run from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm.  Families can construct an abstract collage using many geometric shapes and colors in Shape Up! or learn about different types of lines and shapes, then create a unique abstract painting in theAbsolutely Abstract activity.  Another fun activity is Tessellation Nation. Learn how to make your own tessellation, which are repeating shapes that make a pattern.

Family Science Activities run from 1 pm to 4 pm and include The Strength of Shapes.  Buildings are made of different shapes and in this activity, visitors will find out what shapes are the strongest. Meet some of the Museum’s Mini Zoo animals and discover the extreme adaptations that allow them to survive in Animal Explorations.

Storytime in the Galleries:

1 pm: Sandy’s Circus, A Story about Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone

2 pm: An Eye for Color, The Story of Josef Albers by Natasha Wing

3 pm: Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni

4 pm: It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw

For more information, visit newarkmuseum.org.