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 #32 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:43 am Attaching the negative. |
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Hey, Barb, where did you go? Detroit, maybe?  |
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Molly
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| #33 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 17:24 pm Attaching the negative. |
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| Detroit? No, but I've been there. Lovely art museum. |
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Barb_D
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| #34 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 18:07 pm Attaching the negative. |
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| Barb_D wrote: |
| Detroit? No, but I've been there. Lovely art museum. |
Completely remodeled and expanded: http://dia.org |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #35 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 18:15 pm Attaching the negative. |
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I saw the Degas special exhibit there a few years ago. One thing that was funny was that after leaving the exhibit hall, I ran into someone from where I lived at the time - about 800 miles away. We greeted each other and then at the same time did a huge double-take, realizing that we were NOT where we expectetd to casually bump into each other.
My mother-in-law is a volunteer there as well.
I was also quite taken with Greenfield Village. Who knew learning about weaving could be so fascinating? |
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Barb_D
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| #36 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 18:58 pm Attaching the negative. |
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| Barb_D wrote: |
| I saw the Degas special exhibit there a few years ago. |
They have better German Expressionist works than most German museums do, because one of the early directors was a personal friend of the artists.
Believe it or not, at the dawn of the 20th century they were offered the whole Freer collection of Asian art, which is now in the Smithsonian. Mr. Freer lived just a few blocks away from the DIA. The rationale for turning it down was that it represented "the art of inferior peoples". Soon the people running the place realized they didn't know what they were doing, and they put the museum in capable hands. That was a big thing for a board of directors to admit -- almost a miracle.
| Barb_D wrote: |
| My mother-in-law is a volunteer there as well. |
Believe it or not, the training program for volunteers there is structured in such a way that most art school grads can't become volunteers. You basically have to be retired or a stay-at-home spouse.
| Barb_D wrote: |
| I was also quite taken with Greenfield Village. Who knew learning about weaving could be so fascinating? |
This must have been quite some time ago, when the weaving stuff was still out. Sometime in the 1980s they got a director who decided that the museum should focus on technology and began deaccessioning a lot of the crafts. The last time I went there, I hadn't been there for a long time, and I really missed all the various types of 19th century music machines they used to have, as well as the crafts. I seem to remember that as a child I saw the whole evolution of shoe design in there. The museum in its current form wasn't what Henry Ford had in mind when he founded it. |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #37 (permalink) Mon Jun 16, 2008 20:16 pm Attaching the negative. |
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| No, it was only a couple years ago. There's a whole section that has pottery in one buidling, weaving in another, glass blowing in a third ... I forget what else, because those were the three that I liked the best. It's set up like a little village. I think they told us that they had just done through a major redesign, so perhaps they went back to their roots. Then there was Thomas Edison's lab and a fellow who did a re-enactment of him while just after he'd finally found a filament for the lightbulb. That was interesting. And the merry-go-round, of course. |
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Barb_D
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| #38 (permalink) Tue Jun 17, 2008 4:44 am Attaching the negative. |
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| Barb_D wrote: |
| No, it was only a couple years ago. There's a whole section that has pottery in one buidling, weaving in another, glass blowing in a third ... I forget what else, because those were the three that I liked the best. It's set up like a little village. I think they told us that they had just done through a major redesign, so perhaps they went back to their roots. Then there was Thomas Edison's lab and a fellow who did a re-enactment of him while just after he'd finally found a filament for the lightbulb. That was interesting. And the merry-go-round, of course. |
They must have moved some things from the museum into other buildings, so that the technology must all be in the museum and the older stuff is in the village.
I haven't been to Greenfield Village in many years, but I know that at one point they actually had a working farm there, which raised "historic" produce, for example varieties of melons and various vegetables that are no longer farmed much. It sounds like a strange idea, but then I realized that some types of produce have disappeared from the market in my lifetime. For example, I haven't seen a snow apple since I was about 9. I have no idea what happened to them.
One funny thing strikes me when I think of Greenfield Village. A man from Dayton, Ohio, once told me that the only thing his town is famous for is that it's the place where the Wright Brothers invented their airplane. However, the Wright Brothers bicycle shop in Dayton isn't even real. It's a replica, because the real one was dismantled and transferred to Greenfield Village. |
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Jamie (K)
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #39 (permalink) Tue Jun 17, 2008 19:01 pm Attaching the negative. |
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Likewise Mr. Edison's lab! Say what you will about Mr. Ford, he did what he could to ensure what he considered important pieces of history were preserved.
If you haven't been in a while, visit it. We had a fabulous day. (We went to the Cranbrook Center too.) |
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Barb_D
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| Reading several books on that subject, Bill considered himself an expert. | Good day instead of hello? |
