Stark Museum's Saturday Family Day provides rainy day activities

The National Weather Service has rain in the forecast Saturday, but parents will have a place to entertain and educate their children as the Stark Museum of Art hosts a free Family Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The museum on Green Avenue in historic downtown Orange has activity-filled family days quarterly. This time, the special day is timed with the museum's "Art: It's Elementary" exhibit in the education hall.

The museum will display selected artworks from students ranging in age from kindergarten to third grade. The works were submitted by schools throughout the region. The museum will have an artist recognition ceremony from 2 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Family Day will include activities for all ages. One of the most popular is a scavenger hunt game where people are given a sheet with photographs taken of details from some of the artwork displayed in the museum. Participants go from gallery to gallery trying to find all the images. It's a game children are usually better at than the adults. The museum gives a prize to every kid completing the hunt.

A variety of arts and crafts will be offered, including a "Tot Spot" for children ages 4 and younger. Story time will be held in one of the galleries with volunteer readers and story books chosen by the museum's staff.

Visitors get to tour the regular displays of the Stark Museum's Western art collection along with the special exhibit "A Noble Pastime: Hunting" from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. The museum's collection includes works from Frederic Remington, John James Audubon, and Charles Marion Russell, along with weavings, jewelry, and baskets by Native American Indians.

Participants and volunteers leading activities for Family Day will include the museum staff, the W.H. Stark House, Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center, Heritage House Museum of Orange County, and the Service League of Orange.

The Stark Museum of Art offers free admission all the time for its vast collection from the late H.J. Lutcher and Nelda Stark.