At Winterthur, day of family enchantment

Posted by Press Release on June 16, 2015

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library celebrates the start of a new season with an Enchanted Summer Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Saturday, June 20.

The The Fairie Cottage in Winterthur's Enchanted Woods. Image Courtesy of Winterthur, by Rob Cardillo. — The Fairie Cottage awaits visitors to Winterthur's Enchanted Woods. *Rob Cardillo photo courtesy of Winterthur*

Imaginative crafts, live performers, and outdoor games await visitors young and old in the Enchanted Woods, Winterthur’s award-winning children’s garden. Activities are free for members and children under 2, and they are included with admission.

"Enchanted Summer Day is a fun, low-key event for families in a beautiful setting," Lois Stoehr, associate curator of education, said in a press release.

Slyte of Hand will perform lively Celtic music throughout the day. In addition, storyteller Terry Colonna and Magic Tad will stroll through the woods from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Hoop chasing, ringtoss, and the Game of Graces will be played on the lawn north of Enchanted Woods.

Crafts include making tiny turtle puppets, bug-eyed visors, and fluttering friends. For $5, children can have their faces painted. Ice cream will be sold from the Woodside Farm Creamery cart.

Family-friendly events are also planned inside the museum that day. The Once Upon a Family Tour, designed for children ages 4–11, explains the lifestyle of du Pont family members while exploring rooms in their house and garden spaces where they played, worked, and entertained. The 45-minute tour starts at 12:30 p.m. from the galleries' reception desk, the release said.

The Touch-It Room, near the galleries' reception desk, is a kid-oriented space where everything is touchable. From 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., children can explore spaces inspired by a 1750s parlor, a colonial-era kitchen, and an 1830s general store. A tea set, kitchenware, dress-up clothes, and wooden toys provide playful ways to learn about early American life.

Preschool packs, available at the reception desk, allow children to discover and learn with hands-on activities that bring to life objects in the first-floor galleries. Each of the four packs includes stories, puzzles, and games on a different theme.

Enchanted Summer Day is made possible, in part, by the F. M. Kirby Foundation; Bank of America Foundation; a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts; the Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.; and the Dow Chemical Company Foundation.

Winterthur, esteemed for its preeminent collection of American decorative arts, naturalistic gardens, and research library, offers a variety of programs throughout the year. General admission includes a tour of some of the most notable spaces in the 175-room house as well as access to the Winterthur garden and galleries, special exhibitions, a narrated tram tour (weather permitting), the Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens, and the Enchanted Woods children’s garden: $20 adults; $18 for students and seniors; $5 for ages 2–11.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Winterthur is located on Route 52, five miles south of Route 1. For information, call 800-448-3883 or visit winterthur.org.