Homes of People's Stories

Blanket Stories: Talking Stick, Works Progress, Steward, Marie Watt Installation at High Desert Museum

I recently visited the High Desert Museum with Little Guy - as well as with Noodle and my Daughter. It was a delightful two-hour tour of all the things which interested Little Guy: the Desertarium, the Otters, the Miller Family Ranch, and the Lazinka Sawmill.  

We also did a quick walk through of the Plateau Indian Nations  exhibit because Little

Guy was curious about the sounds and music he heard through the door. Sometimes these exhibits are so difficult for children because they are enticing and open and appear so ready to be physically explored!  Really, who doesn't want to crawl into the small rounded tipi or use the baskets or run their hands across all the feathers?

Just outside the exhibit is Marie Watt's art installation Blanket Stories: Talking Stick, Works Progress, Steward.  I stopped to draw LG's admiration for such a tall tower of blankets, but needed to redirect his thoughts when he squealed, "Knock it over!" Thank goodness he was holding my hand - he usually prefers independence when walking - or we may have been the cause of an Incident.

Ahhh - a two-year old's delights are simple and basic.  Again, who wouldn't want to see what happens when a 15 foot tower of blankets is toppled?  Two-year-old people just say - loudly - what we are all really thinking....

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Tradition with a purpose

I love museums. And a family tradition for us is to visit museums when we are on vacation - and art galleries, but that's a different kind of museum. I hope we taught our Daughters to love museums. And, now, I get to share my love of museums with Little Guy and Noodle!

A museum is the home of people's stories -- individual stories, family stories, tribal stories, national stories.  Stories told through groups of artifacts -- big and little. One of the bigger grouping of artifacts I've seen is at the Clark County Museum in Nevada which has an actual street of stories in its collection of historic homes and buildings that were moved from Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson and Goldfield. They even have the original Las Vegas Little White Wedding Chapel. It was fascinating -- well, I thought it was fascinating, but the Boss not so much; maybe he was just ready for lunch.

Anyway, the stories told in museums are fascinating to me because if I look closely at the exhibit, I discover that people -- no matter how long ago they lived or how different their world -- were not that dissimilar from people today. I can see echoes of my story, my family's story in their stories. 

And this is why I want my Little Guy and Noodle to enjoy the tradition of visiting museums: I want them to know their stories are both unique and echoes of other people's unique stories.

Nonna