Tough Art is an annual exhibit started in 2007 featuring interactive artwork created by artists during a summer residency at the Children’s Museum. The program challenges artists to design durable, engaging pieces that withstand interaction from children, emphasizing hands-on prototyping and direct visitor impact.

2026 TOUGH ARTISTS

We created a special format in honor of the 20^th anniversary of the Tough Art Residency Program by inviting back two former Tough Artists who created beloved works and a new artist who comes highly recommended by several past Tough Artists as special fit for the residency:

Neil Mendoza

Neil is a UK-born, US-based artist who produced Mechanical Masterpieces for the Museum’s 2018 Tough Art exhibit. He also created the intriguing piece Hamster Powered Hamster Drawing Machine II for the Museum; both pieces can currently be seen in MuseumLab.

Neil blends sculpture, software and engineering to animate objects and spaces, and employs humor and absurdity as tools to investigate how we mediate our interactions with each other and the natural world. His art often repurposes found objects, offering viewers a fresh perspective that challenges their preconceptions. Learn more about Neil Mendoza on his website and Instagram.

Owen Lowery

Owen produced the piece Cosmic Geometry for the 2019 Tough Art exhibit. He also created the outdoor installation Crytid Critter Crawl for the Children’s Museum in 2021.

Owen is an interactive artist with a mission to create situations that foster and reward curiosity, and  prioritizes Universal Design so that all people, regardless of background or ability, can engage meaningfully. He sees art not as physical objects, but as situations that come alive through curious exploration and hopes people will take a little of this curiosity away with them. Owen’s work often inhabits non-traditional spaces, such as libraries, community centers, hospitals, halfway houses, psychiatric care facilities and maker spaces. Learn more about Owen Lowery on his website and Instagam.

Morgan Shankweiler

Joining Neil and Owen in the 2026 Tough Art residency is artist Morgan Shankweiler, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Art who came recommended by former Tough Artists as a particular fit for the residency.

Morgan’s background in sociology informs her work, which elevates “learning” to the position of medium and situates agentive engagement as a necessary combinary threshold for the building of potential systems. Her work traces engagement through annotation and intra-active game-play, mapping interconnectedness, social commonalities and the entanglements of the lived experience.

She hails from Swarthmore, PA, and currently splits her time between Pittsburgh, PA, and the coast of Maine.  Learn more about Morgan Shankweiler on her website and Instagram.

The 2025 Tough Art pieces are now on display in the Children’s Museum. Learn more.

The 2024 Tough Art pieces can be seen in MuseumLab next door to the Children’s Museum. Learn more.

Questions on Tough Art?Contact Lacey Murray, Associate Director of Creative Experiences.

 more on Tough Art

• Tough Art Residency web page
• Tough Art: Making Art as Strong as Kids by Anne Fullenkamp and Claire Pillsbury
• Attractions Management,  Issue 1, 2021

Duing the COVID pandemic, we transitioned our Tough Art residency to a virtual experience in Summer 2020. It yielded such interesting work that we continued it in 2021.

Selected artists created art-making activities related to and inspired by their artwork/process for people to engage with at home or wherever they might be.

• Learn more about Tough Art @ Home 2020 
• Learn more about Tough Art @ Home 2021