Museums are an excellent choice for a first date. This is something I tell people all the time. It gives you an opportunity to see your date in many different ways and in a safe, public place:
- What does he like in the exhibits?
- What is he interested in?
- Does he show intelligence in consideration of exhibits?
- Does he behave immaturely—guffawing at the nudes like a prepubescent child?
- Does he treat you with courtesy and respect? Yes, we can certainly open doors and pay our own way, but a date offering to pay at least shows interest and kindness, and opening the door for you is gallant. Is he gracious if you open a door for him?
- Does he let you see an item at the exhibit first?
- Does your date listen to you and ask your opinion about something?
- How does he treat other people?
Unguarded behavior is much more telling than the persona we are likely to adopt for a date in order to make an impression.
Seeing a museum exhibit can be quite an intimate, personal experience. Call the museum to find out when it isn't too crowded and if any large groups will be there when you plan to go.
What's your best first date idea? I will get them together for Valentine's Day! ❤❤
What's your best first date idea? I will get them together for Valentine's Day! ❤❤
☼☼ EXCITING NEWS ABOUT SHAPESHIFTING
in SALEM MA ☼☼
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| Awa Tsireh (1898 – 1955), San Ildefonso Pueblo; Koshare on Rainbow, ca. 1925 – 30; Watercolor on paper; 15 ½ x 20 inches (39.5 x 50.8 cm); School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, SAR.1978-1-318; Image courtesy School for Advanced Research, photograph by Jennifer Day. |
Through several series of paranormal genre fiction we have come to think of Shape shifting or were creatures as deeply rooted in the various Native American cultures. At several museums I have been to on the west coast of the US and in British Columbia, several exhibits have borne this out. The use of masks and skins, and fetishes, as ceremonial objects to assist the wearer and the viewer in a spiritual reality is very common in indigenous cultures around the world.
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| Rebecca Belmore (born 1960), Anishinaabe; Fringe, 2008; Inkjet print on paper; 21 x 63 inches (53.3 x 160 cm); Collection of Catherine Sullivan-Kropa and William Kropa; © Rebecca Belmore, image courtesy Rebecca Belmore, photograph by Henri Robid |
Today a flyer arrived in my NY Times about an exhibit called SHAPESHIFTING Transformations in Native American Art at the Peabody Essex Museum Running through April 29 (Note: Participants of the New England chapter of Roman Writers of America's conference will be able to take advantage of the exhibit's last couple of days).
Ooh, Shapeshifting! In reality, it looks like the programme is not really one of what we paranormal enthusiasts would think. It has more to do with "diversity and continuity in Native American art and culture." (exhibit brochure)
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| Marcus Amerman (born 1959), Choctaw; Postcard, 2002; Glass beads and rubberized cotton; 11 x 17 inches (28 x 43 cm); Private collection; ©Marcus Amerman, image courtesy American Indian Art Magazine. |
Native American art and culture are, after all, diverse and changing. They aren't stuck in a pre-industrial, pre-European-invasion time period anymore than Western-European cultures are; although, being endangered may make understanding the past more important. I know in Maine there are fewer and fewer speakers of the indigenous languages each year.
The museum website is excellent. In a press release they discuss the exhibit at length:
"Typically arranged chronologically, geographically, or by medium, exhibitions of Native Art have almost exclusively focused on either historical or contemporary works, with very little mixing of the two," says Karen Kramer Russell, exhibition curator and PEM's curator of Native American Art and Culture. "Shapeshifting will prompt visitors to see the links and continuities within the vast panorama of Native American art, and to consider it with fresh eyes. Our intention is to shift how Native Art is exhibited and discussed."
www.pem.org
Nearly 80 works from public and private collections worldwide offer afar-reaching exploration of Native American art as a continuum, juxtaposing historic and contemporary artworks. Through constellations of objects created in a range of media - sculpture, painting, ceramics, textiles, photography, drawing, film, video and monumental installation - visual and conceptual connections are drawn between generations of Native people, art traditions and cultures.
www.pem.org
The museum also containss the expected scrimshaw and nautical and art exhibits as well as the unexpected Ying Yu Tang Chinese house, reconstructed on the museum grounds. As much as we may associate it with the witch hysteria and murders on the 18th century, Salem in its heyday, was a prosperous center for international trade. Therein lie the origins of the museum:
The roots of the Peabody Essex Museum date to the 1799 founding of the East India Marine Society, an organization of Salem captains and supercargoes who had sailed beyond either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. The society’s charter included a provision for the establishment of a “cabinet of natural and artificial curiosities,” which is what we today would call a museum.
pem.org
I plan to head down to this exhibit as soon as it is feasible.
Related articles
- Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art at the Peabody Essex Museum (evolvingcritic.com)
