Eli Whitney Museum

The evolution of color engineering began 40,000 year ago when primitive artists expressed themselves in colors made from natural pigments. They tested their colors on different surfaces and mixed them to concoct more colors.

Devote a day to exploring the nature of color and how your eye perceives color in the form of paint and light. Cook up colors with natural pigments like coffee and matcha green tea, mix these with natural binding substances and learn to create the right consistency to work with on different surfaces. See what happens to your colorful paint when mixed with soap bubbles to make bubble prints. Use shaving foam to marble the colors onto paper and coffee filters to learn about chromatography and how color can move and change shape when mixed in fun ways. Turn your creations into flowers that are vibrant and surprising.

Build a Benham’s disk top and learn how black and white spinning designs are processed by the three kinds of cones in your eye. Play with blending lights and making many colors out of three key ones.

Fee: $70
Educator: Kiran Zaman

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We strive to make our programs accessible to all. Please give us a call at 203.777.1833 to discuss opportunities for financial aid or sponsor a scholarship.

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