Monster Mash artmaking

Monster Mash is a drop-in art workshop at the Portland Art Museum's Finley Learning Studio, running Saturday, Oct 10 and Sunday, Oct 11, from 11 AM to 2 PM. It's a make-and-take session: you build your own monster to take home, and you can also add it to a collaborative monster family that's growing on the studio walls over the weekend. All the materials are provided, so you just show up and start creating.

The workshop is part of the museum's ScreenPLAY! series, which pairs film screenings with hands-on activities for kids and families. That series sits inside PAM CUT, the museum's film program at The Whitsell, which pairs classic movies with creative programming. This particular session is tied to a screening of The Addams Family (1991), so the monster-making fits right in with the movie's kooky, gothic family vibe.

If you're not familiar, the Portland Art Museum is the oldest museum in the Pacific Northwest, founded in late 1892, and it's the seventh oldest in the country, with a collection of more than 42,000 objects. The Finley Learning Studio is where the hands-on stuff happens, so it's a good spot to bring the kids and let them get messy without worrying about the galleries. Since it's a drop-in, you don't have to be there right at the start—you can swing by whenever works for you between 11 AM and 2 PM on either day. The studio is at 1219 SW Park Ave in downtown Portland.