The Line Collector

Brought to you by: MoMa

Game type: Single-Player game

Duration: Varies

Used by: MoMa

Click here to play the game

“Calling all art agents! Featuring art and characters by best-selling author Peter H. Reynolds from his internationally-acclaimed creativity storybook THE DOT, this kid and family-friendly game invites players to get creative and discover lines, shapes, and colors in works of modern art. Players search for and recreate works in the gallery using paper handouts, and can use a digital companion app to record their findings and answer follow-up questions about what they see.

• How it Works

  Players are given cards with tasks on one side, such as "Find a line that looks loud," and a box on the other side where they draw their findings. Players also have access to an app where they can enter the names of artworks they used and answer follow-up questions about each discovery. At the end of the game, the web app generates a report about the user's day at the museum, which can be downloaded as a PDF file.

• What You Need

  • One mobile device per player

  • Reliable in-gallery connectivity (WiFi or cellular data) strongly recommended

• Who Is This For?

  • Children and families

  • School classes

• How to Get Started

  Github Repository

  If you need help developing a new instance of The Line Collector, please reach out to kellian@fablevision.com.

Variations

Institute of Contemporary Art Boston

The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston created a self-guided booklet with prompts from the line collector.

• How did you use the game?

  • We created a booklet with seven of the Line Collector prompts to give as a self-guided gallery activity during our April School Vacation Week. The Line Collector booklets were distributed to families that came into the galleries by our staff members, who explained the activity and offered assistance if needed.

• What was changed from the original?

  • The previous museum (MoMA in New York) had printed the nine challenges as individual cards, and we combined 7 out of the 9 prompts into one booklet. We also added International Dot Day information from Fable Vision to the end of the booklet.

• What did you like?

  • The Line Collector had a great variety of prompts that encouraged intergenerational collaboration and worked well with the artworks in our galleries. The graphics and character of Vashti were friendly and approachable, and helped welcome kids into a sometimes-unfamiliar contemporary art space. Families that took the booklet really appreciated having a dedicated tool to use to navigate the gallery and spark conversations about art.

• What would you change?

  • We would probably do fewer challenges if we maintained the booklet format - seven was quite long for many kids. We would also would print on sturdier cardstock for ease of writing without a clipboard or hard surface. Since the booklets encourage families to work as a team, we would also keep this in mind when calculating printing quantities, as most families shared one booklet rather than having each family member take one of their own.