We have lived here for almost 9 years and I have always wanted to visit the Museum of Art, but never have. I am not super adventurous going downtown on my own and our kids have always been little enough that it just seemed too stressful. Well, we finally got to go - Sarah, Angela and I. Sarah's class had a field trip there, so Angela and I ventured out and met them there. It was fascinating. The museum was very organized and divided up the group of nearly 200 into smaller groups of 10. Each group visited a different part of the museum with a docent. Our docent did a great job of making it interesting for the kids - she asked them questions to get them thinking and wondering about the Indian artifacts we got to visit. We heard fascinating stories and facts behind the amazingly ornate
costumes, bowls, feast dishes (one was literally as big as a canoe), dolls, purses, etc. It was so interesting and the kids, including Angela were very well behaved.
Toward the end of our tour, the lady had us look closely at some moccasins with a beautiful flower sewn into the leather. She asked us to guess what the thread was made from. We were very surprised to hear it was porcupine quills! She explained how the women would take wool blankets out in the forest and hide. They would wait for a
porcupine to come by and they'd throw the blanket on it. The porcupine would go crazy and shoot quills into the blanket and eventually get away. Pretty smart! Then they would pick the quills out and have to chew on them, one at a time, for a long time to soften them. Many women wore their teeth down considerably by doing this. After that they made dyes with their saliva and things like salmon eggs. And after all that, they could finally sew their designs on whatever they were making. When the lady was finished with this very detailed explanation, Sarah immediately asked, "What were all the men doing while the women did all this?" Referring to the room full of artifacts painstakingly made primarily by women. The docent and Shannan and I got a good laugh. And the docent explained that the men were mostly hunting.
Later, when I was telling my mom this story, Sarah overheard my conversation. My mom and I laughed and talked about scenarios when the Indians might have been gone for days and not really hunting the whole time. Maybe having a guys night out - smoking the peace pipe or something. Sarah piped up and said, "Yeah, maybe they went and had
rootbeer and pizza around the fire." (o:
Ahhh, but we are just joking guys. I have to defend Hal* and say that he is not like this - he "hunts" and works very hard for us. There are just those very few moments when he is 'smoking the peace pipe while I make quill thread for the moccasins'! (o: Hey, I think I have invented a new saying. It rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?
So our first experience at the art museum was fabulous and we will definitely go back. After Sarah got back on the bus, Angela and I stayed and looked at the outdoor exhibit. She loved running around and taking a close look at everything. We also had some fun looking around in the gift shop. We spent over an hour looking at all the interesting things there. They have some really cool things there. My favorites were the pop up books in the kid's section by David Carter (they're so cool I'm doing another entry just on them), a beautiful basket weaved out of chip and candy wrappers ($200 was a little steep for me) and a purse made out of those soda pop can lid opener-
thingys. It looked very
sheek and high end, believe it or not. I thought it was an awesome idea. That one was $100 - so I settled for a $15 book. See in my book review. Angela's favorite things were these amazing little wind up toys that bounced around and did all sorts of fun things. They looked like little robot bugs. I was so tempted to get one just to watch Twilight's reaction. (o:
We have lived here for almost 9 years and I have always wanted to visit the Museum of Art, but never have. I am not super adventurous going downtown on my own and our kids have always been little enough that it just seemed too stressful. Well, we finally got to go - Sarah, Angela and I. Sarah's class had a field trip there, so Angela and I ventured out and met them there. It was fascinating. The museum was very organized and divided up the group of nearly 200 into smaller groups of 10. Each group visited a different part of the museum with a docent. Our docent did a great job of making it interesting for the kids - she asked them questions to get them thinking and wondering about the Indian artifacts we got to visit. We heard fascinating stories and facts behind the amazingly ornate costumes, bowls, feast dishes (one was literally as big as a canoe), dolls, purses, etc. It was so interesting and the kids, including Angela were very well behaved.
Toward the end of our tour, the lady had us look closely at some moccasins with a beautiful flower sewn into the leather. She asked us to guess what the thread was made from. We were very surprised to hear it was porcupine quills! She explained how the women would take wool blankets out in the forest and hide. They would wait for a porcupine to come by and they'd throw the blanket on it. The porcupine would go crazy and shoot quills into the blanket and eventually get away. Pretty smart! Then they would pick the quills out and have to chew on them, one at a time, for a long time to soften them. Many women wore their teeth down considerably by doing this. After that they made dyes with their saliva and things like salmon eggs. And after all that, they could finally sew their designs on whatever they were making. When the lady was finished with this very detailed explanation, Sarah immediately asked, "What were all the men doing while the women did all this?" Referring to the room full of artifacts painstakingly made primarily by women. The docent and Shannan and I got a good laugh. And the docent explained that the men were mostly hunting.
Later, when I was telling my mom this story, Sarah overheard my conversation. My mom and I laughed and talked about scenarios when the Indians might have been gone for days and not really hunting the whole time. Maybe having a guys night out - smoking the peace pipe or something. Sarah piped up and said, "Yeah, maybe they went and had rootbeer and pizza around the fire." (o: Ahhh, but we are just joking guys. I have to defend Hal* and say that he is not like this - he "hunts" and works very hard for us. There are just those very few moments when he is 'smoking the peace pipe while I make quill thread for the moccasins'! (o: Hey, I think I have invented a new saying. It rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?
So our first experience at the art museum was fabulous and we will definitely go back. After Sarah got back on the bus, Angela and I stayed and looked at the outdoor exhibit. She loved running around and taking a close look at everything. We also had some fun looking around in the gift shop. We spent over an hour looking at all the interesting things there. They have some really cool things there. My favorites were the pop up books in the kid's section by David Carter (they're so cool I'm doing another entry just on them), a beautiful basket weaved out of chip and candy wrappers ($200 was a little steep for me) and a purse made out of those soda pop can lid opener-thingys. It looked very sheek and high end, believe it or not. I thought it was an awesome idea. That one was $100 - so I settled for a $15 book. See in my book review. Angela's favorite things were these amazing little wind up toys that bounced around and did all sorts of fun things. They looked like little robot bugs. I was so tempted to get one just to watch Twilight's reaction. (o:
1 comment:
So fun! I'm glad you all had such a good time! You should start a GoodReads account with all your cool books to recommend. If you do, add me as a friend. :)
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