Spring Break Family Days: “Art with a Job to Do” at NRM

April 25 | Stockbridge, MA | 10am–4pm

Norman Rockwell didn’t just paint Thanksgiving tables and barefoot boys. For a big chunk of his early career he painted advertisements. That unglamorous but fascinating corner of his work is the jumping-off point for this Saturday’s Spring Break Family Days at the Norman Rockwell Museum, where kids and families are invited to spend the day figuring out how illustration gets a job done.

The program is built around the idea that artists like Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, and N.C. Wyeth weren’t just storytellers, they were professional persuaders, hired by brands like General Electric’s Edison Mazda Lamps to make a tungsten lightbulb feel like the key to a warm, well-lived home. It’s the kind of thing that looks like a pretty painting on the wall until someone points out what it was actually for, and then you can’t unsee it. The museum’s recent Illustrators of Light exhibition brought a rare set of those original ad paintings out of GE’s private collection, and it’s the direct inspiration for this day’s programming.

Kick off the day of activities with an educator-led family gallery tour, which run at 10:15am, 11:30am, 1pm, and 2:30pm. Drop-in art making runs from 10am to 4pm, no reservations, all ages welcome, which means you can show up whenever you’ve finally gotten everyone’s shoes on. After a tour, kids get the chance to try the work themselves, designing an eye-catching advertisement and seeing if they can out-Rockwell Rockwell.

The day is free with museum admission, and admission for kids, teens, and members is always free.

Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Glendale Road (Route 183), Stockbridge, MA. Tickets and tour reservations at nrm.org.