Here There Be Dragons: Mommy and Me Museum Adventure

I have no excuses for being a slacker on this journal.  Just moving and it taking time to get my groove back.

This museum adventure is from more than six months ago.  We're stepping back in time to our days frequenting the Boston MFA.  This is an adventure we'd love to repeat at our new favorite, the British Museum or the V&A sometime soon, though!  Who doesn't love dragons?  My boys are as  enchanted as can be about the mysteries of dragons.  Finding them in the art museum makes for a most excellent treasure hunt.

There's just something about choosing from a stack of free colorful flyers that can bring out the kid in anyone--especially if you are a kid!  Having a special paper to carry around gives a child a sense of responsibility and ownership.  My boys held on to their papers so carefully and wanted to find exactly the objects shown on the map.  There were clear instructions on where to find each of the objects, so it was easy to wander on our own but make sure we found what we were looking for.

The MFA has a whole section for kids' treasure maps, even on the days they don't offer a special program or art cart.  There are a lot of great choices.  Chocolate was high on my list of trails to follow.  Dragons won out, which was also fine by me.  Maybe we'll get back to the chocolate trail another time . . .

Once we had our selection--dragons, of course--we took a quick peek at where we were headed.  And into the Asian art wing we went.  We knew we were ultimately searching for this sleepy-looking dragon.  On the way, though, we spotted plenty more dragons guarding the path.

Many of the dragons were high above our heads and we had to crane our necks to find them.  They came in all sizes and styles, and all moods from fanciful to fierce.

Then we turned a corner and found him!  The dragon we'd been looking specially for.  He was in a huge series of panels that covered an entire wall.  The lighting was dim and mysterious, perfect for our slightly sad dragon.  We told each other stories of why he might be feeling the way he looked.

After we found as many dragons as we could spot in Asia (though I'm sure there were many more we didn't catch), we wandered through the Americas and forward in time many centuries.  There we found ourselves marveling at St Michael slaying the dragon.  (Actually, until I just looked it up in the catalog I thought it was St George and his dragon.  Shows how much I read labels when breezing through with small children!)  This image is from another visit, with a friend.  I included it because we returned to that painting almost every time we visited the museum.  The children want to see at least some of the same things every time, like reading the same familiar story.  Interesting how it is a picture like the shark painting or this dramatic dragon painting that hold such fascination.  Somehow I don't think it is necessarily comforting to see works like this every time, but it must be a learning process in some way.  The work is consistent each visit, but one's ability to understand and to feel may change and improve.

Does your museum provide these types of trail maps for your visit?  Can you create a simple one on your own?  Decide a topic for that day's visit and run with it!  Could you find brides, babies, knights, birds, flowers, trees in different seasons--anything that your child is interested in at the time might work.

Do you find yourself needing to come back to the same one or two works of art repeatedly?  What makes you want to engage with them again?  Does your child feel comforted to know they will see the same thing each time, in addition to discovering new and wonderful works?

Animal Crazy and Other Fun at the Zoo

I was surprised when I learned that zoos are categorized as museums.  The animals are not at all stuffed or stationary.  Children love going and are even welcome to run and use loud voices, for the most part.  Yet zoos (and aquariums and arboretums) are museums.  So luckily for us, we get to count our favorite outings as educational museum visits!

I have to admit, however, that as an adult I have not liked zoos at all.  Although I never had a terrible specific experience, I was always left with a distasteful sort of taste in my mouth about the zoo experience.  I don't even know exactly what it was or how to describe it.  Something about all the walking, the smell, the disappointment of never seeing the animals I was most interested in up close, the crowd of people crushed around a little portion of glass to peer at a poor creature.  I would take the children from time to time when the opportunity arose, but I did not seek out zoo experiences. 

Then I met the London Zoo and I found myself won over in only a few visits.  First, it is a good size but not too big.  We are within walking distance and so can visit when we want, never having to exhaust the whole thing to make a trip "worth it."  We can visit during the least crowded times and often have the zoo to ourselves.  The zoo is tidy and doesn't smell at all.

I know this is a fortuitous circumstance most don't have--and we are likely never to have again.  So we'll enjoy every bit while we can.  And start putting together some good ideas of how to best enjoy a zoo.  Meanwhile, here is some highlights of our adventures so far.

 

The Whipsnade Zoo in Regent's Park in London is where Winnie the bear lived.  He was a favorite of children.  Christopher Robin and his father visited him in the zoo often, lending his name to one of the most famous bears of all time.  This statue of Winnie (and the soldier who acquired him in Canada) gets kisses from my kids every time we pass.

 

Zoos are so difficult to photograph, at least for this amateur.  I do love the moments of peeking and discovery, when I'm able to get them.  Getting to see animals close up is one I don't take for granted.  From my children's reaction, they don't either.  It's thrilling to see live animals at arms length, even though glass may divide.  

I think there is enough conversation about ticket prices to museums and membership options for another article another time.  We feel so fortunate now to live within walking distance of the zoo and a membership was a no-brainer.  The cost of membership is often only the price of three or so visits.  We get to the zoo here (and the art museum in Boston) at least three times a month, often once a week.  A membership is well worth the investment in our case.

Tiger nation in the London Zoo is perfectly magical.  The habitat is extensive, with plenty of space for the tigers (including three tiger cubs!) to roam and hide or to play, if they are in the mood.  The story of one tiger is told in parts as you wind through the enclosure.  My boys were enthralled by the "chapters" and insisted we read each one.  They acted several out as well.  Here my three-year-old is pretending to be the frog that the tiger cub was chasing.  (The frog escaped.)

You may not suspect it, but we actually really enjoy seeing the live animals, too.  It's not all climbing bronze statues of animals. 

The places my boys like best are the worst for getting any photographic evidence.  They head first for the dark and mysterious reptile house (the Harry Potter scene at the zoo was filmed at "our" zoo!), then for the bugs, and then for the large cats which like play hide and seek.

Do your children like to visit the zoo?  Do you?  How do you take pictures of your children interacting with live animals at the zoo or do you quickly give up and take pictures with them climbing on statues instead?  Which animals do your children like best?  Do they go for the "eww" factor or the "aww" factor?

Christmas (in July) from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England

Things have been very quiet on this blog space for the past month plus because we just relocated our family abroad to British green pastures (as much as you can get in a busy metropolis).  It's been a whirlwind process.  We're not yet settled completely, but enough so that I'd like to update here with a few museum experiences sooner rather than later.  Some gems are backlogged from our Boston tenure!  But for now, let's start with a truly English museum.

While on a day trip to Oxford and environs, we popped into the Ashmolean Museum because I'd remembered vaguely that that was one I wanted to visit.  Bonus, it's the oldest museum in the UK.

The moment we stepped in the front doors and turned down the first gallery lined with sculptures on either side, I thought that I must have somehow (in another life?!) been there before.  It was so familiar.  It wasn't until we hit the big wall of sculpture busts above a flight of stairs (where we paused to let the baby roam free) that my husband turned to me and said, "Isn't this wall in that Christmas video you showed me last year?"  Ding ding!  We have a winner!

If you haven't seen this yet, enjoy.  If you've seen it before, enjoy again!  My kids and I have watched it multiple times many days in a row.  And our favorite line that comes up at most meals is "Graaapes . . ."  So very educational, I know.

I'd return to the museum in a heartbeat if given the chance.  Such treasures!  I kept turning around and seeing some object or other that I'd written an essay for a test in some class in college, or another object that had been the star of a term paper.  I'd forgotten--or never known--where they resided and so it was like meeting old friends around every corner.  Happy surprise!

The kids, naturally, loved the Egyptian mummies most.  There was a great video that showed the mummification process that my five year old watched at least three times before we pried him away.

For future reference, there is a fabulous family/little children museum explorer cart right behind a little wall by the entrance.  I didn't see it until we were on our way out, though now I know where it is it would be easy enough to spot on the way in.  There were several fliers with different paths or scavenger hunts.  Pencils and clipboards were available.  Blank scratch paper for sketching was abundantly supplied as well.

 

Have you met any "old friends" at a museum recently?  I'd love to go back to some of my old Art History and Classics text books to look more closely at the small print and see which museums hold which treasures.  What do you think about the sense of humor the Ashmolean Museum shows about their art in the video?  Anyone else hoping for another holiday greetings from the museum this year?  ;)

Dinosaur Footprints (in two parts and places!) (Just Another Museum Visit)

One of my very favorite parts of being a mom is connecting the dots for and with my kids.  Sometimes it happens purely by serendipity and only looking back do I see that we had a fabulously well-rounded education (including museum experiences, naturally!) on, say, bees.  Sometimes I conscientiously seek out a part or two for my kids, using a book we read or a project we did as a jumping off point.  With dinosaurs recently it's been some of me-the-mom making a point of learning more and some of serendipity stepping in and doing the rest.  Davy did this project at preschool (above) a couple weeks ago and off we went on more dinosaur mania.

I'd heard of a place to see real tracks where dinosaurs really walked a gazillion (very accurate, I'm sure) years ago.  So a few weeks ago, some friends and my kids and I drove over an hour and a half to the western part of our state to visit some dinosaur tracks in situ.

When building a road in Holyoke, MA, workers uncovered dinosaur footprints on a hill slope of sandstone near the river.  The fossils are protected by a trust and preserved for all of us dinosaur-mad people.  This first part of the dinosaur footprints doesn't really qualify as a museum visit.  But it did serve as a fantastic bridge between museum trips and other dinosaur related learning we've been doing.  I find that for myself, having a picture in my mind of a real place and experience helps me process and internalize museum objects and experiences.

The experience was also, for us adults, an exercise in expectation.  Have you ever heard someone say, for example, that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were bigger or smaller than they had anticipated?  I have--both ways!  I hope someday to find for myself the scale of the structures on the Giza plateau.  (Knowing me and my obsession with all things ancient Egyptian, I'll be amazed and impressed and giddy with excitement).  I've also heard that the Mona Lisa is smaller than most people expect.  Out in the field or in the museum, each can have expectation of a particular object or experience attached that may be disappointed or exceeded.  Or simply reassessed. 

Speaking of the dinosaur tracks, I suppose I had done the most research on the adventure and so the place met and satisfied my expectation.  One of my friends said it was smaller than she had been lead to believe.  The other said it had exceeded her expectation.  Well, the place was what it was and we all experienced it together with similarly aged children (who I think all had a good time).  I wouldn't say any of us were disappointed, but certainly our expectations and our experience of the reality were individual.  All valid.  Just different.

Okay, enough thinking.  On to the illustrations!

I apologize to my dear friend if this isn't her favorite picture of herself.  But she is one of the coolest ladies I know, and I personally love how it shows how engaged she is with learning and teaching her little ones.  We were measuring the stride of the dinosaur footprints where it was clear that a single dino had made a path through the sandstone up the ravine.  We discussed whether we thought the dinosaurs were running fast or just walking with a much bigger step than we have.

I appreciated how relaxed the atmosphere was.  The prints were literally just off the side of the road (though relatively peaceful and quiet) and it was expected--encouraged!--to walk where the dinosaurs had walked and touch the prints they had made.  We talked with the children about being careful around the imprints to make sure that other kids could see them later.  The children were good about respecting those principles.  I think they learned so much simply by being free to touch and explore the area together.

The boys pretended to be dinosaurs.  And then zombie dinosaurs.  Boys will be boys.

The children were intrigued for much longer than I had anticipated.  They measured their hands and feet against the size of the prints.  After reading the convenient label that informed us that the dinosaurs who made the prints were between 10 and 15 feet tall I explained that it would be like mommy and daddy standing on top of each other.  I think that image was too much to process because I didn't get much response.  :)

Now fast forward several weeks to a family Saturday outing to the MOS Boston.  The Museum of Science is a favorite of the kids.  We have explored a good chunk of it, but as the exhibits change and it is huge, we have not fully seen all of it, even in many trips.  One part we hadn't previously explored enough was the dinosaur area.  I think it was a particular draw this time around as we had just seen those dino tracks out in Holyoke.  And what do you know?  An itty bit of those very prints had found its way to the museum in Boston.  Hello, again!  We remember where you came from!

And finally (referring to the picture below), I just love how my son and the triceratops behind both look like they are smiling the same smile.  This dinosaur didn't leave the specific tracks we are talking about in this post, but the picture is too cute to my proud mama eyes to leave out.

 

And so with those cheerful grins we say farewell for now.  Have you been tracking any dinosaurs recently?  Have you measured the scale of something much larger or much smaller than yourself and marveled?  Did it surprise you to find something in a museum that you had seen out in nature in real life?  Have you had to reassess your expectations--or your child's--when met with the reality of an object/situation/experience?  Bring on the discussion!

Does it Count If We Didn't Go Inside? (Just Another Museum Visit)

A couple weeks ago my cousin was married in Albuquerque, NM.  My family was feeling desperate to escape a long winter in Boston, so we hopped a plane and crashed the wedding (with an invitation, of course).  In addition to the fun family festivities and lots of treats, we sampled a bit of the charm of this town.  But can you believe it?  We did not visit one museum!  There is a fabulous children's museum, Explora, a hot air balloon museum, some fantastic art museums, even a snake "museum" (I wasn't sure it qualified as a museum as I am 95% sure it was not a non-profit organization, being in a tourist trap shop.  :) ).  And we went in none of these--this visit.  Our one foray into the local museum world was spending a lovely hour in the sculpture garden outside the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. 

There are a couple of different opinions about how art should be treated when it is not behind a rope or a glass box or a security system.  I've been told--at the same place--by two different authority figures not to touch/climb on the art for fear of breaking them, and by another that it was meant to be a tactile experience and was designed to withstand people interacting with it.  I can understand both viewpoints.  I suppose I think that unless an object outside is placed in an out-of-reach location (say, a heroic statue of George Washington in a public plaza) or has a sign saying "don't touch" the art/object is fair game.  Obviously this opinion is qualified by treating the objects with respect, as you would any property not belonging to you.  Plus, I figure that if a bronze sculpture, discovered under the ocean in a shipwreck from ancient Greece, is still in decent condition two thousand years after it was created, my five year old can hardly do much more damage to a recent art creation exposed to weather.  I assume that metal and cement are pretty hardy materials and can withstand my three-year-old and your three-year-old as well.

Oops, I didn't ask my mom's permission to post this picture of her!  I am including it because it illustrates one of the aspects of the power of art to simultaneously bring out the playful in us (whatever our age), as well as the deeply, quietly thoughtful.  Whether actively engaging with the art, pondering by ourselves in a separate space (for example, playing with the gravel rocks by oneself), or in conversation with other observers, the links between art and our perception of our world, our reality is sublime.  I sometimes learn the most from my children, sometimes from people who normally have nothing to do with art in their regular routine, and sometimes from learned scholars who study nothing but a single work in history.  Don't you just get tingles when you think of how much insight and beauty there is to be told or shown by those around us?  I hope it's not just me!

Finally for this pseudo-museum visit recap, my personal favorite was a piece that was reminiscent of a Native American sacred circle.  I climbed in and lay right down in the ground to look up through the rainbow-hued shapes framing the sky.  It was such a calm and peaceful moment.  I may even have closed my eyes for a moment to soak it all in.  Then all of a sudden I hear, "Mommy?  What are you doing down there?"  Quiet moment over, but sweet tender feelings overwhelmed me as I peered up at my children peering down at me all surrounded by a cozy space.  A space that could fit all of us together and eternity besides.

 

Do you count this little wander as a museum visit?  Have you explored a sculpture garden recently?  What are your opinions on touching the art work if there is not a sign explicitly saying not to?  Have you and your children felt broadened in spirit and in mind by interacting with art?  I'd love to hear all your thoughts on any of these topics!

Exhibition Highlight (and unabashed plug): Sacred Gifts, Brigham Young University

It's the eve of Good Friday and I'm in the Easter mood.

I spent most of the afternoon on the floor playing with my kids in our living room.  Up on the mantel--as yet unframed--is an 8x10 print of Franz Schwartz's Agony in the Garden.  I kept looking at this print today with Easter on my mind.  It is by no means as spectacular as the original, but it holds a dear place in my heart nonetheless.  

Every time I see it I am reminded of my introduction to the artist and his paintings, especially this one.

Last winter, as my accountant husband was in the throes of his busy season, I left him alone in Boston and took my kids across the country to stay with my family for a semester while I interned as a curator's assistant at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art.  The internship is a requirement in Harvard's Museum Studies program and honestly I was not sure how my family and I were going to swing it.  It all worked out wonderfully in the end, and I had the supreme blessing of working with Dawn Pheysey, then the Religious Art Curator.  She had been instrumental in creating the Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand exhibition a few years ago and was preparing for a sort of follow-up/expanding exhibition involving the religious art of Bloch and several of his contemporaries.  I was taken on to assist in research and label text drafting artworks and background in what has come to fruition in Sacred Gifts.

I'm sure I will talk more about all this in due time.  It was a huge learning and growing time for me and my views on museums and their relationship/resource to my family.  But for now I just wanted to give a teensy background into why I am saying--get to this exhibition!!

If you can at all, get to this exhibition.  It will strengthen your faith in God and great art if you've got a kindling.  It will restore your faith in God and great art if you're in doubt.  It will magnify your faith in God and great art if you're already on fire.

If you've already been, go again during this Easter season!  If it's your first time, there is no better time!  The final weeks of the exhibition are approaching, and some of the artworks will never again be on exhibition at BYU (and likely anywhere but their home location in Europe).  Prints do not do any of these justice.  You may think you've seen a Bloch but until you see one in person you just don't know what you're missing!

And the iPad is awesome.  My dad and son agree, so there's all the reason you need for seeing the exhibition several times--once without to just soak in the art itself, once with the iPad to enjoy the extra features, once while your kids hog it the whole time . . .

Plus **bonus** you'll get to read some of the words I wrote.  :D  I mean, I guess if you got this far you're already reading what I'm writing.  But this is just me barfing up words into a blog post.  The words on the wall (as it were) were highly researched, thought-out, weighed, edited in collaboration with Ms. Pheysey and others, and printed VERY BIG and all official on the wall.  It's a tad exciting, no?

I would absolutely love to hear what you thought of this exhibition if you were able to see it, or even read about it in an article somewhere.  Did you learn anything?  Did your kids recognize Jesus, though he may look different in some of the images than we are used to?  What gifts do you recognize in this Easter season?

Small Yet Mighty (Just Another Museum Visit)

There is something about a small museum that appeals to my family.  I think the kids feel comfortable in a space that is more scaled to the familiar size.  Small means they (and we parents) can wander a bit but not feel at risk of getting lost.  Smaller means less general museum fatigue.  We leave the museum feeling more invigorated, though often we spend just the same amount of time as a larger institution.  Seriously--my kids go around and around the museum in a loop.  So we end up spending our usual 45 minutes, just in less square footage.

The smallness of a museum is not always to be confused with the smallness of its collection and exhibition.  Even in four galleries, a museum could display some remarkable specimens and information.  The exhibit area could be spacious yet full, thorough but not overwhelming or crowded.  I feel I'm speaking in silly hypothetical here ("it could possibly," etc.), but we've experienced a place where this is all absolutely happening.

The Brigham Young University Paleontology Museum (aka the dinosaur museum) is just such a perfect-sized museum with an excellent collection and exhibition design.  We have made it almost a tradition to visit this museum when visiting my family.  It had been an entire year since going to the museum with my then-four and two-year-olds, but when I mentioned visiting grandparents to my now-five-year-old he asked excitedly, "Are we going to go to the dinosaur museum?"  With a request like that how could we deny him?  So yes, yes, we went.

This view captures about a quarter of the museum.  I centered the lovely predator, but there are several more large, complete (or as good as) skeletons to the right of the me-holding-the-camera, behind me, to the left of me in the next gallery.  So, tons of awesome fossils and old bones for the kids (of all ages) to enjoy.

I hope I'm remembering right, as I'm not checking my facts here (for shame, wannabe academic!), but when I was a kid my parents would take me to a game or event at the athletic stadium at BYU and point to a massive area under the bleachers and say, "that's where they keep all the dinosaur bones!"  As we were always at the stadium at night it was kind of creepy thinking about all those old bones piled up in a dark and cold storage room.  And I may have had a nightmare or two about that.  When awake I thought it was awesome and would sometimes think about what would happen when someday the boxes of bones were taken out and opened.  I imagined great wooden crates with old packing material.  Had I seen Indiana Jones by the time I was ten?  I don't know, but that's what I imagined.

Some of those crates must still be being opened.  Or new specimens are arriving into the collection.  Either way (or likely both) we get to see some of the behind-the-scenes action from the comfort of the gallery.  A wall of glass allows us to see into the cleaning room and each time I have visited there has been a student or two working away at a big bone part or fossil remnant.

Can't resist a mommy and me museum moment photo-op with some hand-horns.

Each of the four galleries had at least one station for hands-on touching of fossils, petrified tree bits, dinosaur bones.  I didn't get any shots of the kids' cute hands touching the stuff, but I have lots of those like from other museum visits in my files for later.  Don't you worry 'bout that.

How can you not love a museum with a sense of humor?  All the labels had helpful phonetics so we could sound out the name of a creature when our kids asked.  This was our favorite for obvious reasons.

 

I leave you with this marvelous profile.  Hope there are no nightmares resulting from it.  Tell me, friends, have you been to a dinosaur museum recently?   What was your kid's favorite part?  Counting the teeth?  Trying to pronounce those names?  I'd love to hear all about it!