My good friend (and former work wife) Samantha has been hounding me to check out ARTECHOUSE, an interactive art/tech gallery in DC – there are also locations in New York and Miami – for years now.  Several springs ago, ARTECHOUSE had a cherry blossom art experience, and Sam attended and has not stopped raving about it since.  She promised me that it was the kind of place that the kids would be into, and I promised her I’d look into it.  It took me awhile, but the stars finally aligned and I bought the whole family tickets to the #AURORAinDC experience that was running through the weekend after New Years.

We entered the gallery with a group of other people who had tickets for the same time slot, and everyone immediately spread out to different corners of the room.  It took us a little while to figure out how it all worked, but a helpful gallery employee explained how to “grow” the trees and create the snowflakes, and we all ran around like kids, exploring every nook and cranny of the gallery and creating our own enchanted forest.

I’ll just leave the pictures here for you.

(The kids invented a game called “summon the white stag” that involved placing their hands on the wall and chanting “White Stag.  White Stag.  White Stag.” over and over until a white stag – part of a light show cycle – appeared.  It was cute but also hella creepy.)

It was such a cool experience – I’m so glad we made it to ARTECHOUSE, finally, and now I’m keeping an eye on the website, ready to snatch up tickets again the next time there is an exhibit/experience that looks like something we would all enjoy.  Maybe Sam will join us as tour guide/babysitter.

Have you ever been to an interactive art experience?