Interactivity for Adults and Kids Comes to the Oakland Museum of California

A visit to the Oakland Museum of California turned out to be a very rewarding experience for me and for young children as I soon found out.
Ostensibly, I was drawn to see the Pixar exhibit because so many online respondents gave it rave reviews.
My visit to Pixar was limited to not even five minutes.
You may ask why?
The permanent exhibit stole my attention. And I wound up spending the bulk of my two hours here.
This is because I am drawn to California history having lived up in Paradise California one of the centers of the California gold rush which began in 1849 at Sutter's Creek. The museum has a marvelous collection of gold rush paintings and daguerreotypes that will keep you busy for an hour.
I soon became fixated on two interactive exhibits.
The first centered around Sunset at Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt, a member of the Hudson River School who went out west in the 1870's and 1880's. This particular painting intrigued me because of the lighting-- a sort of miraculous glow emanating from behind two mountains of rock with a stream flowing down the valley. (Click here to see the painting!)
I just happened to pick up a set of earphones next to a sofa facing the painting and was I amazed by the experience that followed. The narrator turned my attention to various foci in the painting-- e.g. the sunset, the blue sky, the pointed peak on the left side, the central grouping of trees, the river, etc, and for next 10-15 minutes elevated my awareness of art and myself -- via an hypnotic voice guiding me through visual sequences that seemed to unlock my unconscious; my experience of this magnificent painting was heightened to such a degree I wanted to repeat the experience.
I kept thinking, if art can uplift our spirits to such a degree, what are the possibilities of exciting a young child's imagination through interactivity?
It didn't take too long to find out. I wandered over to a kids computer installation and witnessed how easy it is for them to discover their innate love of creating images seemingly from nothing and then admiring their products which are then prominently displayed.
As the above two minute video illustrates, the kids can choose their favorite colors from a palette of choices and then hand paint their images below. In minutes they can complete their images and then click finished. In minutes their portraits join thousand of other peers who have preceded them. The audio indicates how excited they are.
What a fabulous way for tweaking both kids and adults appreciation of art!