Visual Arts

How does an art museum create an exhibit that keeps the kids happy without boring adults – and vice versa? How does the brick-and-mortar museum highlight what can't be experienced online – but still provide the high-tech extras that only computers can supply?

The Dallas Museum of Art offered $27 million worth of new answers Saturday, with the grand opening of its Center for Creative Connections. A steady stream of visitors, many attracted by the special free general admission that extends through today, peered, probed and pondered the exhibition.

Here: a wall of mysteriously pretty stuff that turns out on close examination to include everyday plastic straws, rubber bands, paper clips and plastic fasteners. Touch gently. There: two busts of a woman, one of soap and one of chocolate. Definitely do not touch, but the exhibit includes sniffable plastic boxes holding chocolate and soap.

The item that seemed to have the highest wow! factor was a cardboard chair. That's not a typo. Architect Frank Gehry first designed his "Easy Edges" chair in 1971. An original is in a "no touch" zone. But smaller replicas, each one light enough for a kid to toss, were available for sitting. Children and adults seemed to have the same experience: a moment of nervous apprehension – will I break it? – followed by a surprised smile at how comfortable the chair felt.

"That's awesome!" said Donna Gibbs, 30, of Euless as she sat and gently rocked. She was a first-time visitor to the museum.

That's the kind of reaction museum staffers are hoping for from the "Materials & Meanings" exhibition, the first for the center. The new setup includes sections with child-specific activities, but most of it is designed to grab interest from all age groups.

"Adults get as much out of active participation as children do," said Gail Davitt, project director for the center.

Most of the DMA space is traditional museum stuff: paintings on walls, sculptures on pedestals, artifacts behind glass. Look, but not too close. And never, ever touch. The center is intended to break down the barriers between the viewers and selected items of art.

The Wave, a painting by the French artist Gustave Courbet, is a particularly good example of how some artists use thick layers of paint. In the center, it's covered with a plastic case a few inches from the canvas. The case has a movable magnifying glass that offers the kind of close-up view normally reserved for art experts.

A religious sculpture from Congo – a wood figure pierced with nails – is paired with a computer kiosk where viewers can touch a screen for explanations of what various parts of the statue would have meant a century ago to the people who used it.

The chocolate and soap sculptures are by Janine Antoni, who licked the chocolate and bathed with the soap to change the appearance of each. A metal desk curves around the busts, covered with magnetic words that viewers are invited to turn into prose or poetry that lasts only until the next visitor decides to use one of the words: "I like delicious creamy luscious brown." "Slow weakness women melt until they clean it up." "The bumpy unseen classical within flesh."

The goal, museum officials say, is for visitors to the center to transfer their experience to the rest of the museum, and to think differently about what they see.

Marlene Rodriguez of Garland was there Saturday with her son, 9, and two children of a friend. They watched intently as Ellen Buie Niewyk demonstrated how ancient jewelers converted ingots of silver into rings, necklaces and earrings.

Ms. Rodriguez seemed to be having as much fun as the kids. The cardboard chairs, they all agreed, were a highlight.

"I was kind of scared when they told the children to sit down," Ms. Rodriguez said.

Ms. Niewyk was part of the special grand opening programming that also included a Mayan music and dance group, a painting demonstration, and ubiquitous examples of the red bull's-eye logo and canine mascot of one of the important corporate sponsors.

While the designers hope the center will snag the interest of adults, some of Saturday's visitors were glad that it was diverting for their children.

"We go to see the art, but the kids get tired of it," said Polona Brooks, 34, of Garland. "This is good because it's not just 'don't touch it' all the time."