2012 Free Fun Fridays Schedule

Free Fun Fridays opens the doors to some of Massachusetts’ best cultural institutions at no cost to visitors. This year, a record-breaking 50 venues will participate in Free Fun Fridays, with five cultural institutions in Massachusetts open free-of-charge every Friday for 10 weeks this summer.

To learn more about the Free Fun Fridays and the Highland Street Foundation, visit www.highlandstreet.org or join us at facebook.com/HighlandStreet and on Twitter @HighlandStreet.

FRIDAY, JUNE 29

Tanglewood (Lenox)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston)

Peabody Essex Museum (Salem)

Heritage Museums and Gardens (Sandwich)

Museum of African American History (Boston and Nantucket)

FRIDAY, JULY 6

Boston Children’s Museum (Boston)

Stone Zoo (Stoneham)

Cape Cod Museum of Art (Dennis)

Wenham Museum (Wenham)

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown)

FRIDAY, JULY 13

Franklin Park Zoo (Boston)

Children’s Museum at Holyoke (Holyoke)

Danforth Museum of Art (Framingham)

deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln)

Reagle Music Theatre (Waltham)

FRIDAY, JULY 20

Buttonwood Park Zoo (New Bedford)

Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center (Canton)

Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield)

Pilgrim Monument (Provincetown)

Higgins Armory Museum (Worcester)

FRIDAY, JULY 27

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (Boston)

Children’s Museum in Easton (North Easton)

Springfield Museums (Springfield)

New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston)

New Repertory Theatre (Watertown)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3

Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston)

Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge)

Amelia Park Children’s Museum (Westfield)

Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton)

Arnold Arboretum (Jamaica Plain)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 10

Battleship Cove (Fall River)

Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield)

Cape Cod Children’s Museum (Mashpee)

Fruitlands Museum (Harvard)

The Sports Museum (Boston)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17

Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston)

Edward Gorey House (Yarmouth Port)

New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford)

Garden in the Woods (Framingham)

Concord Museum (Concord)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 24

Boston Harbor Island Alliance (Boston)

USS Constitution Museum (Charlestown)

American Textile Museum (Lowell)

Old Sturbridge Village (Sturbridge)

Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum (Boston)

Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth)

The Discovery Museums (Acton)

MASS MoCA (North Adams)

EcoTarium (Worcester)

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About the Highland Street Foundation:

Since 1989, the Highland Street Foundation has worked to enrich the lives of children and families in Massachusetts by donating more than $130 million to worthy non-profit organizations. From its support of the TADpole playground in Boston Common, to providing tickets to local sporting events to local non-profits, to building capacity and providing technical assistance of hundreds of nonprofit organizations, the foundation is dedicated expanding opportunities families in Massachusetts and beyond.

Flamenco at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield CT

Family Art Adventures: Capturing Movement in Portrait Form!                                  Learn how to combine dance and drawing at a unique workshop

Yesterday, my close friend, associate and artist Elizabeth Taylor and I traveled to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield CT to bring flamenco and drawing to their on-going series of Family Art Adventures. We had a wonderful group of about 35 adults and children who leaned about the spine and movement through yoga, dance and drawing. We explored different ways to make sounds in flamenco (i.e. stamping, clapping, snapping, saying "ole"); I demonstrated the Sevillanas (while playing my castanets); we talked about the form while both standing and while engaged in movement; we explored shapes of a fan (a line to a triangle to a half circle); we danced rumbas all together (the kids had costumes and props to use supplied by the museum) and we drew!

What a wonderful and refreshing day. The art room was full of joy, light and inspiration. A big shout out to Audrey and Clara for dancing and expressing themselves so beautifully ¡OLE!

The Aldrich is a fabulous gem of a museum. There were numerous current shows that I throroughly enjoyed: James Esber: Your Name HEre; Hope Gangloff: Love Letters; KAWS: Caompanion Passing Through; Robert Taplin: Selections From The Punch Series 2005-2010 and Timothy White: Portraits. Also, one permanent installation is a pinhole camera that you can enter inside. It is very cool! I reccomend paying a visit. The town of Ridgefield is very quaint. We ate at Fifty Coins Restaurant- a great place for the whole family!

Thank you to Tori Reimann, Head of Youth & Family Programs, for the fabulous opportunity! And thank you to my dear husband Rob and our son, Anthony, for driving us and being such great, supportive people!