Real Grown Up Art Exhibits That Kids Will Like Too

We all love a good kiddie show. Sure. But every once in a while it's great to go to a real grown up museum and see real art and remember what it feels like to have a full working brain, and speak a sentence that has more than three words and isn't about scrambled eggs.

Through some confluence of the gods there happens to be quite a few art exhibits running right now (real art exhibits in real museums) that not only can you get away with bringing your kids to, but they might actually really enjoy. Art exhibits where children will experience them on a kid level and you can enjoy them on another level with that part of your brain you'd forgotten you had.

Below is a summary of 5 different art exhibits worth checking out??”for yourself and with your kids:

WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution
We mentioned the PS 1 exhibit earlier this week. WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution is a serious art show (It's feminist art, you don't get more serious than that.) with the redeeming quality of having a room full of mattresses kids can literally bounce off the walls in.

William Steig Show
This weekend is your last chance to see the William Steig Exhibit at the Jewish Museum. This show covers the cartoonist's career from early work for The New Yorker to the development of Shrek. Some sophisticated art and humor for adults and lots of cartoons and silly stuff for kids. To get a taste, you can browse the online exhibit. While on the site, you absolutely must play the online 5 lines game, which presents you with 5 random lines that you have to turn into a drawing of a face??”a Steig favorite. The five lines game is also a great addition to your repertoire of restaurant and waiting room time wasters.

This child-friendly exhibit closes after Sunday March 16th, so download a $2 discount coupon from the Jewish Museum website and check it out this weekend. The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street.

The Whitney Biennial
The Biennial, touted as NYC's art event of the year, is frequently a safe bet for taking kids??”with loads of video and installation pieces. This year you can also get your kids deeper into the exhibits with educational kid programs where children of all ages can interact with Biennial artists to explore the Biennial exhibits, create art and learn about the work. Programs run on most Saturday mornings. Check the website to see descriptions of the different programs and dates and times. Note: strollers are not allowed in the museum galleries. You may want to bring a carrier.

The Whitney Biennial 2008 runs through June 1. The Whiney Museum is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street.

Cai Guo-Qiang
Perhaps the most dynamic art exhibit up in New York City right now and the one I most want to go see, and take my kids to see is the Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim. I'm sure you've all heard about this exhibit by now, but if it didn't quite make it through the parenting fog, here's some highlights: Real cars hanging as if tumbling down through the central rotunda of the Frank Lloyd Wright gallery space with fiber optic lighting, installations of stuffed tigers and wolves, paintings created by exploding gun powder through stencils and videos that show how he does it. This exhibit sounds incredibly dynamic, and mesmerizing for kids as well as interesting and appealing for adults. I can't wait to see it myself. Note: Strollers are not allowed during this exhibit.

Cai Guo-Qiang exhibit runs through May 28th at the Guggenheim Museum at 1071 Fifth avenue at 89th St.

The Vision and Art of Shinjo Ito
There are no cartoon, no videos, and no mattresses at the Milk Gallery's Japanese sculpture exhibit. In fact, there's nothing fun about this exhibit at all. It's a bunch of very rare, very serious buddha sculptures that have never been outside of Japan before by one of Japan's preeminent sculptors. These aren't even the fat, jolly buddhas, these are skinny serious buddhas.

But the Milk gallery wants to make this art accessible, and to help get as many people as possible to see these sculptures, they're trying to make it easy for parents with a one-time-only Children??™s Day event. The Children's Day will take place on Saturday, March 22nd, from 10 am ??“ 4 pm in the Milk Gallery Penthouse with Japanese themed arts and crafts that include Japanese fish ???rubbing???, origami, a cherry blossom garden mural and a scavenger hunt in the exhibition gallery. Lunch will be provided and children will be able to take home a gift bag of all their arts and crafts. The events are free, but space is limited. Register by emailing your name and the number of people in your party to shinjoitoevents@dcinyc.com.

The Vision of Shinjo Ito runs February 21- March 30 at the Milk Gallery, 450 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011

Metropolitan Moms
Metropolitan Moms is a business started by NYC mom, Molly Snyder when she was looking for something a little smarter to do after having her own children. Met Moms takes parents on guided tours of museums and other cultural activities with or without children in tow. They are currently offering two tours of the Whitney Biennial??”one for moms with babies and one for just moms??”just in case, GASP, mom wants to really feel like a sentient human being. Check website for dates of Biennial tours and other Metropolitan Moms events.