Take Your Kids for a Surrealist Nature Walk through Indoor Art

Even though it was a mild evening in January, we were expecting to spend the evening outside. We began the evening by bundling up in coats, hats and gloves. To our surprise, MOA (Museum of Outdoor Arts) is headquartered indoors on the second floor of the Englewood Civic Center and has just opened its newest exhibit, Natura Obscura.

Founded in 1981, the MOA is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to making the visual and performing arts accessible to everyone by implementing its mission of “Making Art a Part of Everyday Life.” MOA owns and operates Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre and features more than 150 pieces in its outdoor collection. Nature Obscura is its first ticketed gallery event.

When we arrived and realized we would spend the evening inside, we unbundled from our outdoor expedition gear, downloaded the app, turned on our black light flashlight and began our exploration. The app lets you highlight wooden blocks with characters carved into them that pop onto your screen as an animation and tell you more about the exhibit.

Natura Obscura is an immersive arts experience featuring more than 30 Colorado-based artists. MOA and Prismajic designed and produced the installation, collaborating with well-known Colorado artists and 10 intern emerging artists from MOA’s Design and Build education program. Natura Obscura features installations by local artists Chris Bagley, Nicole Banowetz, Tiffany Matheson, Travis Powell, Scott Soffa and Ian Wagner. In addition, Grammy award-winning recording engineer, Mickey Houlihan, along with MOA, produced a custom cloud chamber environment in MOA’s Sound Gallery as part of the immersive experience.

The installation is creative, fun and full of opportunities to explore and sit and reflect. It’s open to all ages and is a great way to introduce your kids to art with a self-guided exploration through a surrealist, dreamlike forest that combines art, sculpture, and the latest in virtual, augmented, and digital technologies. There are flashing lights and dark rooms, so be prepared if you have sensitive kids, but for most kids, being able to run around and find the wonderful phrases and animals with a flashlight is more than enough to keep their fears at bay.

The exhibition opened on January 11th and will run through April, 2019. 

Location: 1000 Englewood Parkway, Suite 2-230, Englewood, CO 80110.

Hours: Open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets range in price from $10 to $20 based on day of the week and time of purchase.

Tickets: http://www.naturaobscura.org/.

Free SCFD days will take place on the first Tuesday of February, March and April.

Contact MOA (303-806-0444) if you are interested in a school or group tour of the exhibition. 

About Prismajic:  www.prismajic.com.

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