Bring Out Your Inner Child & Explore the World of STEAM at ARTech This Month

ARTech: Adventures in Art + Technology (ARTech) is a series of workshops, installations, and interactive games that provide children the opportunity to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics - STEAM - in an entertaining and engaging environment.

As a result of ARTech's hugely successful launch on March 1, the Meatpacking Business Improvement District (BID) received several requests for adults-only nights where parents and friends can explore these captivating activities at their own leisure.

Happy to oblige, ARTech Adult Night will occur on March 23 and April 13 from 7:30pm - 9:30pm at 459 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011, and will include light bites and refreshments. For a full two hours, guests that are 21+ can relive the excitement of childhood wonder and exploration - and learn and thing or two about STEAM along the way!

As art and technology are among the crucial sectors defining the district's commerce today, the Meatpacking BID developed ARTech to cultivate the next generation of artists, inventors, scientists and visionaries. ARTech leverages the generosity, ingenuity and creativity of our community to create an indoor haven of exploration for children and families at no cost to the attendees.

All guests must be 21+ to enter. Tickets: $20-Early Bird (by April 7); $25- Standard. Tickets available for online purchase only: artechadultnight.splashthat.com.

ACTIVITIES:

1) Build It - Using award winning design kit, Rigamajig, children will add wooden planks, pulleys, cogs, nuts, bolts, and rope to their imagination to create wonders of creative engineering. Is it a car? Is it a train? No, it's a thingamajig!

2) Velocity Area - What is the difference between speed and velocity? After designing and making their own custom wheeled projectiles, participants will shoot their rocket racers down the velocity ramps to consider what makes a vehicle go faster in One Direction. Is the long smooth ramp faster or do the bumps in the shorter ramp help to increase speed?

3) GIF making station - Everyone knows their favorite animated film, but may not know the simple technology behind it. Learning how to simply animate themselves, families will leave with short GIFS to use in their family albums and social media posts. In partnership with GIPHY.

4) Starlab - Families can experience the stars in the night sky and learn to star hop from key stars to their favorite constellations in the portable planetarium Starlab. iStop Motion and art making workshops will translate ideas about space into 2 and 3 dimensions!

5) Danny Rozin Installation - Have you ever seen an artwork that responds to your movement? Rozin's giant pixelated painting mirrors movement to create a surprising moving shadow of each visitor.

6) Ball Pond - CMA's infamous Ball Pond is recreated in the Meatpacking District. Kids can release their pent up energy before turning their minds to Art and Technology.

7) ACCESS: Artist and Scientist Collaborations - Families explore ideas such as ecology, connected systems, sustainability and climate change through art installations created by artist-and-scientist teams. Works include Monster in the Closet, an animated adventure by Laura Chipley and Hannah Zanowski that highlights the Southern Ocean's role in regulating Earth's climate; 1000 Fingers of Decision by Carrie Dashow and Matthew Liao, which explores the importance of an individual's decision-making in addressing climate change; and A Tale of Dogs in a Changing World by Coche Gonzalez and Jack Tseng, that takes visitors on a 40-million-year journey of the dog family.

The Meatpacking Business Improvement District (BID) is the not-for-profit business alliance of the area whose mission is to support the business community and to keep the area clean, safe and beautiful. The BID runs a robust array of marketing and events programming in support of the neighborhoods economic health. As the Meatpacking District community continues to reinvent itself year-in and year-out, the Meatpacking BID seeks to revitalize and reinvigorate right alongside all of the innovators that call the Meatpacking District home. For more information, visit meatpacking-district.com.