ARTitorium close to the finish line

The Idaho Falls Art Council is gearing up for its Fourth of July ARTitorium “sneak peek.”

The children’s museum and high tech art gallery is filled with state of the art technology. Kids are able to compose music electronically, produce animations, reenact history or simply play around with life-sized graphics through green screen technology.

“It’s pretty neat. There is a slide, an animation studio and software. It’s as good as it gets,” said 12-year-old Garrett Newton.

Garrett said kids his age are more into texting and apps, so art isn’t their first priority. He believes that the ARTitorium will help kids reincorporate art into their lives without giving up their fascination with technology. Idaho Falls Art Council visual arts director, Georgina Goodlander said kids and their parents are going to forget everything they thought they knew about art.

“This is truly unique, I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere in the country before,” she said. “We have a lot of interactive science centers and other types of play centers for children, but we really don’t have anything that focuses on art.”

Goodlander said with the underfunding of art programs across the nation, she is thrilled the community has supported the project.

“It’s just amazing that we can bring this to the community and it has so much support,” she said.

Last year the IFAC asked the community for $1.3 million in capital funding. Not only did they council reach it’s goal, but collected all the funds sooner than expected.