On the drive back we had to go past New York City, and I decided that as it was early, stopping at the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side would be awesome. I have been fascinated by the immigrant experience since I was very young. I am only a third generation American on a few sides and my grandparents all have incredible stories about their, or their parents immigration experiences. Because of this I've always been drawn to the stories of people struggling to fit in and thrive in this country after leaving everything they knew back home. When I first heard of this museum I wanted desperately to go and have a look.
The museum is housed in two buildings, 106 Orchard Street, and 97 Orchard Street. At 106, there is a gift shop which has the most amazing array of books and good NYC souvenirs I have ever seen. This is where the tours lead from. There are four tours to choose from, they vary in their scope and age appropriateness. We chose the Moore's story, which is about a young Irish immigrant family and their struggles and focuses a good deal on sanitation and health. Pictures aren't allowed to be taken, but they have an extensive Flickr collection. This set shows the restoration of the Moore's apartment.
The tour was conducted by a young energetic woman who was quick to ask our group about their heritage and share her own, which was a nice touch and added to the ease of the tour. The group was only four people which also made for a very nice personal tour. She was a very good story teller and had a lot of knowledge to share about the property, much of which did not seem to be scripted. I really felt like I could easily stay and talk with her, and our whole group for many hours, which is not a feeling I normally get with group tours.
At one point in the tour there is a short audio visual portion with songs, sounds and pictures of daily life for this family which is projected on a window in the building. I really liked this section and it was well done and didn't seem out of place or jarring as a video screen would probably have seemed.
All and all, I can't recommend this museum enough. There is a great website with a wonderful virtual tour and fun educational games for kids.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Museum Exhibits in the King of Prussia Mall?
No trip to this part of the country would be complete without a shopping trip to the largest mall on the east coast. (Actually, for those of you in the Boston area, don't bother, the Natick Mall is nicer and has nearly as many stores) But if you are dying to go to the King of Prussia Mall, there are still things for the savvy museum visitor to see!
This Christmas season there are in fact two exhibits being shown at the mall, a collection of costumes used in the Philadelphia Opera and an exhibit of all of the Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers and an interactive walk through of scenes from the covers.
The Philadelphia Opera costumes are set up in the main section of the mall, similar to how fashion might be displayed, which in my opinion is very cool as it allows these works of art to be appreciated by people who are already out to appreciate fine fashion.
The Norman Rockwell experience is behind a 5 dollar pay wall, which I did not end up going to, mostly because since the mall is so huge, it took me until the mall was just about to close to find the exhibit (It's near Rite Aid). But I did see some of the teaser sculptures that had been placed around the mall to build excitement for the exhibit. I'm sure this is a for profit venture, though some of the proceeds are going to charity. It is an intriguing venue that brings the museum experience to the people. I'm sure some will say this cheapens the concept of museums, but if we keep talking about people not having museum literacy and feeling uncomfortable in museums, perhaps ventures like this will allow more people to experience museums in a place they are already comfortable and then they will go to traditional museums.
What do you think? Should museums and malls mix?
The Philadelphia Opera costumes are set up in the main section of the mall, similar to how fashion might be displayed, which in my opinion is very cool as it allows these works of art to be appreciated by people who are already out to appreciate fine fashion.
What do you think? Should museums and malls mix?
Moravian Pottery and Tile Works
After finally understanding the "madness" of Henry Mercer as possibly intentional, I desired to know more about this man. So we chose to go to his workshop and factory, The Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.
This museum is a living historical factory that still produces tile in the same manner as it did when Henry Mercer had been in charge of the factory.
Being an active factory, tours are the only way to visit the site. This has the advantage of orienting the visitor to the site in a manner that was sadly lacking at the Mercer Museum. The tour starts with a short film about Henry Mercer and his life and how the tiles are made. Then the tour is entirely self directed via signs throughout the factory. Periodically there are people working various jobs throughout who offer information about the site and the tiles.
The building is based on a Spanish Mission and is entirely made of concrete once again. The floors all slope downward to facilitate in hosing the entire factory out periodically. The first room that you enter is Henry Mercer's office/show room and it is richly decorated using tiles created at the factory. Here are a few pictures to show the amazing work on display:
Being an active factory, tours are the only way to visit the site. This has the advantage of orienting the visitor to the site in a manner that was sadly lacking at the Mercer Museum. The tour starts with a short film about Henry Mercer and his life and how the tiles are made. Then the tour is entirely self directed via signs throughout the factory. Periodically there are people working various jobs throughout who offer information about the site and the tiles.
The building is based on a Spanish Mission and is entirely made of concrete once again. The floors all slope downward to facilitate in hosing the entire factory out periodically. The first room that you enter is Henry Mercer's office/show room and it is richly decorated using tiles created at the factory. Here are a few pictures to show the amazing work on display:
The grand fire place with a story written out in clay tiles
The work area for sketching out designs
This museum was very well staffed and curated. Everything was labeled and clearly explained. This probably comes from the fact that this museum was created in the last twenty years after the factory was painstaking restored, unlike the Mercer Museum, which has remained mostly as Henry Mercer envisioned it.
What do you think, should founder's visions always be followed through with precision?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Mercer Museum - The Bucks County Historical Society
Conveniently across the street from the Michener Art Museum is one of the strangest buildings I've ever seen:
This building houses the Mercer Museum. It was purpose built to hold the Bucks County Historical Society's collection of 18th and 19th century tools, crafts and vehicles. It is made out of concrete and over 200 windows and appears at first, and maybe second glance to be the work of a madman. Henry Mercer built the castle in 1917 to house the growing assortment of goods that he was collecting. As a Harvard trained Anthropologist and Archeologist he sought to preserve the artifacts from the historical way of life in Bucks County that was rapidly being put aside in favor of modern technology and innovation.
Being a trained Anthropologist and Archeologist he classified all the objects he collected by their use and function (tinsmithing tools in one room, whaling tools in another) and created rooms and alcoves to display these objects.
Due to extremely rare signage and explanations, this creates an interesting challenge for the visitor as you try to discover the common theme of the objects, most of which are not labeled. Also, to add to the weirdness and discomfort of the visitor, many of the objects are displayed upside down and hanging from the ceiling. (I'm actually not sure if this picture is correctly oriented as I don't remember which way was up. But this picture shows a Chaise cart and a sleigh hung from the walls)
Henry Mercer chose to disorient the visitor so that they would experience every day objects that they had grown up with in a new and different light and perhaps through this gain a better understanding and appreciation of the world around them.
Most of this information I picked up after I had gone through nearly the whole 6 floors of the museum. The woman at the front desk had been very gruff and uninterested in being welcoming and helpful, despite my asking, and had directed us to make sure we went to the 6th floor to see some old pictures of gas stations. Being given this information and a map, we headed up the elevator to the 6th floor with no idea what we were walking into. On the first floor, had we been directed properly, there was a very good introductory video and an exhibit about the organization and creation of the museum, which would have been helpful to know before venturing into what otherwise appears to be insanity.
The themes on the sixth floor are also some of the weirdest in the whole museum: a large collection of wrought iron stove plates, a room about education, a room with a solar salt mill, a room about punishment, and a room about death rituals. You walk from a very random collection of stove plates (which I didn't even determine were in fact stove plates for the first 15 minutes I was in there) to a room with stoves and various other machinery, to a room that has this weird wooden structure that you have to walk through, when you reach the other side of the room you realize you have just walked under a gallows, right where the dead body would drop through the opening in the floor. In the room is also a collection of torture devices and restrainments. Through this room you are lead to a room that has coffins and hearses, which took me a few minutes of staring at to register as well, and then a room done up as a one room school house. Remembering that this is all in the attic of a weird, strange cement building that has uneven floors and weird stairways to alcoves full of unidentified objects, I was understandably extremely confused and questioning the sanity of the entire experience. I was left feeling extremely ill at ease and we nearly left.
Here is a high resolution picture of the stove plate room, which was my first experience in this place
Being a trained Anthropologist and Archeologist he classified all the objects he collected by their use and function (tinsmithing tools in one room, whaling tools in another) and created rooms and alcoves to display these objects.
Due to extremely rare signage and explanations, this creates an interesting challenge for the visitor as you try to discover the common theme of the objects, most of which are not labeled. Also, to add to the weirdness and discomfort of the visitor, many of the objects are displayed upside down and hanging from the ceiling. (I'm actually not sure if this picture is correctly oriented as I don't remember which way was up. But this picture shows a Chaise cart and a sleigh hung from the walls)
Henry Mercer chose to disorient the visitor so that they would experience every day objects that they had grown up with in a new and different light and perhaps through this gain a better understanding and appreciation of the world around them.
Most of this information I picked up after I had gone through nearly the whole 6 floors of the museum. The woman at the front desk had been very gruff and uninterested in being welcoming and helpful, despite my asking, and had directed us to make sure we went to the 6th floor to see some old pictures of gas stations. Being given this information and a map, we headed up the elevator to the 6th floor with no idea what we were walking into. On the first floor, had we been directed properly, there was a very good introductory video and an exhibit about the organization and creation of the museum, which would have been helpful to know before venturing into what otherwise appears to be insanity.
The themes on the sixth floor are also some of the weirdest in the whole museum: a large collection of wrought iron stove plates, a room about education, a room with a solar salt mill, a room about punishment, and a room about death rituals. You walk from a very random collection of stove plates (which I didn't even determine were in fact stove plates for the first 15 minutes I was in there) to a room with stoves and various other machinery, to a room that has this weird wooden structure that you have to walk through, when you reach the other side of the room you realize you have just walked under a gallows, right where the dead body would drop through the opening in the floor. In the room is also a collection of torture devices and restrainments. Through this room you are lead to a room that has coffins and hearses, which took me a few minutes of staring at to register as well, and then a room done up as a one room school house. Remembering that this is all in the attic of a weird, strange cement building that has uneven floors and weird stairways to alcoves full of unidentified objects, I was understandably extremely confused and questioning the sanity of the entire experience. I was left feeling extremely ill at ease and we nearly left.
Here is a high resolution picture of the stove plate room, which was my first experience in this place
James A. Michener Art Museum
The decision to go to Doylestown PA and the Michener Art Museum arose a year ago when I discovered that the Smithsonian had created a Jim Henson traveling exhibit. It is coming up to the Boston area in April of 2010, but I wanted to see it earlier, and considered where I could go to see it. I considered D.C. and Atlanta, but decided that the timing didn't work out quite right. Then, faced with more paid time off than I knew what to do with this fall, I decided to go on a small vacation and visit the exhibit in Pennsylvania.
The museum is located in the cultural center of Doylestown PA on the former site of the county prison that closed in the early 80s. The museum opened in 1988 and holds an extensive collection of Pennsylvanian art, and specifically a great collection of Bucks County art. It has a beautiful sculpture garden within the old stonework walls of the prison.
The decision to bring Jim Henson's Fantastic World to this museum was probably to increase the offerings for families in the area. The museum is directly next to the town library and there is a good working relationship between the two institutions. The day that I was at the museum there were a number of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts visiting the museum for the Jim Henson show. The museum set up activity rooms for the groups to further explore the themes and the library also had some joint programs to continue the experience.
To facilitate the groups and larger than expected numbers of visitors the museum set up a special sign in table for the scouts, and a separate check in for people going to the Jim Henson exhibit. (As unlike the normal ticket, these were time specific) The price of admission to the museum included the price of the special exhibit and was only 10 dollars per person and could be purchased in advance on their website using a very easy interface.
The exhibit itself was very good though very heavily paper artifact based, which was unexpected given the subject. There were a number of video screens set up around the room, and due the hordes of screaming scouts, the closed captioning on these videos was very helpful. The exhibit traced the life of Jim Henson and his growing creative process.
There was an audio tour available for download on their website, which I downloaded and listened to at home, and then forgot to bring my headphones into the exhibit, but as there were no signs about the audio tour, it is very unclear how this was supposed to relate to the exhibit. The audio tour was produced by the Smithsonian and traveled with the exhibit.
One of the most interesting things about the exhibit was watching people in their late twenties and early thirties excitedly talking to their children about what they remembered from Sesame Street, and the kids looking on a bit bored. While it was on a "kid friendly topic" the people who got the most out of the exhibit were much older than the small children running everywhere.
My favorite part was the old commercials that he had done early in his career for Wilkins Coffee
See some of these commericals on youtube! (Early version of Kermit!)
What was your favorite memory of Jim Henson and the Muppets?
The museum is located in the cultural center of Doylestown PA on the former site of the county prison that closed in the early 80s. The museum opened in 1988 and holds an extensive collection of Pennsylvanian art, and specifically a great collection of Bucks County art. It has a beautiful sculpture garden within the old stonework walls of the prison.
The decision to bring Jim Henson's Fantastic World to this museum was probably to increase the offerings for families in the area. The museum is directly next to the town library and there is a good working relationship between the two institutions. The day that I was at the museum there were a number of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts visiting the museum for the Jim Henson show. The museum set up activity rooms for the groups to further explore the themes and the library also had some joint programs to continue the experience.
To facilitate the groups and larger than expected numbers of visitors the museum set up a special sign in table for the scouts, and a separate check in for people going to the Jim Henson exhibit. (As unlike the normal ticket, these were time specific) The price of admission to the museum included the price of the special exhibit and was only 10 dollars per person and could be purchased in advance on their website using a very easy interface.
The exhibit itself was very good though very heavily paper artifact based, which was unexpected given the subject. There were a number of video screens set up around the room, and due the hordes of screaming scouts, the closed captioning on these videos was very helpful. The exhibit traced the life of Jim Henson and his growing creative process.
There was an audio tour available for download on their website, which I downloaded and listened to at home, and then forgot to bring my headphones into the exhibit, but as there were no signs about the audio tour, it is very unclear how this was supposed to relate to the exhibit. The audio tour was produced by the Smithsonian and traveled with the exhibit.
One of the most interesting things about the exhibit was watching people in their late twenties and early thirties excitedly talking to their children about what they remembered from Sesame Street, and the kids looking on a bit bored. While it was on a "kid friendly topic" the people who got the most out of the exhibit were much older than the small children running everywhere.
My favorite part was the old commercials that he had done early in his career for Wilkins Coffee
See some of these commericals on youtube! (Early version of Kermit!)
What was your favorite memory of Jim Henson and the Muppets?
Friday, November 13, 2009
Welcome to this blog!
Hi and welcome to my blog. This blog will be a survey of five different museums in Pennsylvania and New York City visited between November 14 and November 16th. Each museum is very different and raises interesting questions about how museums serve the public and educate. The selection process was mostly done on the spur of the moment, aside from the Michener Museum, which had been planned in advance.
This blog is part of a school project.
This blog is part of a school project.
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