Westmoreland Museum of American Art offers 'Sweet Life' with candy-inspired memories

Bubble gum, chocolate bars and jelly beans were just some of the sugary treats that brought back delicious memories for visitors to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art during Sunday’s “Celebrate the Sweet Life” event.

The free event in Greensburg invited people of all ages to create candy-themed art, play the Candyland board game, design a custom-made lapel button and satisfy their sweet tooth with a frosted cupcake.

Kids and adults thought of their favorite candies while creating mini collages with images of name-brand candy wrappers or coloring pop art-inspired shapes.

Tim Rock of Unity prefers dark chocolate, while his daughter, Libby, 7, likes fruity Skittles candies.

Son Matthew, 6, didn’t have to think twice when asked to name his favorite candy.

“I like all of them,” he said.

Tim Rock helped the kids as they selected candy images for their collages.

“They love doing stuff like this and they like coming to the museum,” he said. “They like being artsy and doing crafts.

“It’s a great way to spend time with the kids on something creative. They’re not in front of the TV.”

Kerri Gerthoffer of Unity, the museum’s marketing and public relations coordinator, brought her daughter, Elliette, 6, to try her hand at the candy-themed creations, including a pop art-inspired coloring activity.

“We’re having a girl’s day,” Kerri Gerthoffer said.

Elliette Gerthoffer named fruit punch-flavored lollipops as her ideal treat. But, her mom noted: “She was excited about the cupcakes. That was our first stop.”

Hempfield residents Kathy and Rick Bowen, who came with their grandchildren, reminisced about more time-tested treats. While her husband revealed his preference for chewy honey- and molasses-flavored candies, Kathy Bowen said: “I like root beer barrels, and I can remember eating candy cigarettes. You can’t find them anymore.”

Participants were invited to write related memories on the back of their candy-themed collages.

One person recalled: “My grandmother used to love to eat fruit slice candy. She always made sure to offer some to others.”

The event was meant to trigger memories spanning the generations, said Hannah Vincent, the museum’s public programs manager.

“We’re trying to tie in the theme of candy with the theme of nostalgic memory,” Vincent said. “It’s about remembrance and love,” including “memories about somebody who’s been lost.”

That theme meshed with the event’s screening of the animated 2009 Disney-Pixar film “Up,” which follows the adventure of an aging widower and a young boy.

Sunday’s event was inspired by a three-dimensional piece of art by the late Felix Gonzales-Torres that is on display at the museum.

Spread across a corner of the second floor, “Untitled (L.A.)” consists of a triangular gathering of slightly minty cellophane-wrapped green candies. It was created in 1991, the same year Gonzales-Torres lost his partner, Ross Laycock, to AIDS-related illness.

Vincent suggests the candies can be interpreted as representing Laycock.

“It serves as a reminder of what he lost,” she said of Gonzales-Torres. “The candies are wrapped in a way that you can take a piece and eat it as you go through the galleries.”