Museum makes a splash

Julie Brown

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The Yale Center for British Art opened its doors to about 350 princesses, pirates, and sea monsters for its annual "High Seas and High Tea" family open house on February 12. A theater troupe performed a shadow puppet show, and a storyteller roamed the gallery to help kids engage with the museum's collection. "Going to the museum doesn't have to be being quiet and going from picture to picture and behaving," says Cyra Levenson, an educational curator. Some of the art might even engage right back: a living mermaid statue (New Haven performance artist Polly Sonic) offered a treat to Sophie Kawall, a daughter of Branford College dean Hilary Fink, and her grandmother Barbara Fink.