Museum Months 04/09/2012
Despite the calendar on my wall, it is unclear to me how April got here and one fourth of the year zipped past. I don't mark the passage of months, I mark the passage of exhibits and events:
Mendocino Heritage Month and Education Day will make it May. And our 40th Anniversary Chautauqua program will happen with a flourish in June. Months might unfold differently at some other place, but, at the Museum, they're marked by the things we show and the things we do to share Mendocino with our visitors and friends. Add Comment Another New Year! 01/22/2012
The Chinese New Year starts on January 23, 2012 and I am writing this on New Year's Eve. I wish all the friends and partners of the Mendocino County Museum a happy and healthy new year. I wish the Museum an especially prosperous new year. The Year of the Water Dragon is the 40th Anniversary of the Museum. Dragons are one of the most auspicious of Chinese symbols. This year is predicted to be transformational, and for the Museum it will be.
During Chinese New Year, referred to in China as the Spring Festival, families get together; they eat special foods, and they wish each other harmony and wealth in the new year. We are in the process of creating a Mendocino County Museum family that stretches across and even beyond this county. May the Museum have "The energy of a dragon and a horse" and "May money and treasure be plentiful!" Guò Nián Hǎo 过年好 Happy New Year! A New Year! 01/11/2012
We're putting the finishing touches on our schedule for 2012 and it's going to be wide-ranging, educational, and fun. My first year as Director in 2010 was a chance to figure out what the Museum was all about. We featured a couple of traveling exhibits, "Gold Fever!" and "Past Tents: A History of Camping", and we experimented with several community events, from the Chinese Lantern Festival Dinner to our first Heritage Ranch Tour and Campfire Programs. Last year, 2011, we exponentially increased our activities and launched our first Countywide Artwork Outreach with the "Why Mendocino?" Collage Project, our first home-grown exhibit with "A Passion for Plants & Place: Carl Purdy of Mendocino County", our first Wine Heritage Brunch, and our first Holiday Open House. This new year, we are focusing on anchoring our most successful programs and including different topics and directions that exemplify Mendocino County, from wine history to veterans history, from ranch heritage to solar energy, from reactivating our dark room for photography to celebrating our do-it-yourself heritage with a Mini Maker Faire. What happens behind-the-scenes is just as important, though our limited resources have most negatively affected this area. To date, we have not been able to implement or update a computerized system for donors and donations, for documentation of collections and exhibits, or for our store and publishing program. Research access to artifacts and archives is currently almost impossible to arrange. Nor have we yet been able to address necessary facility repairs. We hope to make progress in these areas as well this year. Being the Museum for all of Mendocino County is not a one-shot, narrow-range endeavor and trying to encompass all that has gone into making us Mendocino is exhilarating and daunting at the same time. We need the ideas and involvement of the people and communities from throughout Mendocino County. Especially as we get ready to celebrate our 40th anniversary! Do you know where your Mendocino County Museum is ??? Check us out. Tell us what you think. Discover your story! ~ Alison A Passion for Exhibits 03/29/2011
The creation of the new exhibit on Carl Purdy - set to debut on April 16, 2011 at the Mendocino County Museum - is in motion. Under the able curatorial direction of Dot Brovarney, a local historian and author, and former curator at this Museum and the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, the imagined presentation is becoming real. The research is taking form as words on panels and labels, as photos and drawings of flowers and plants, as ledgers and furniture that were used by Purdy and now will be part of the display. The space in the Museum has been cleared and primed, ready for the colors chosen to highlight the natural beauty of native plants and the Arts and Crafts time period. A team of people (stipended and volunteer), two Museum staff, Purdy family members, community contributors, and business partners are all part of making this happen - a celebration of the 150th birth year of a quintessential Mendocino County resident, who devoted a lifetime to study and entrepreneurship, native plants and local agriculture, right here in Mendocino County. We hope you'll join us Museum Collage Project - Must See 01/31/2011
The Opening Reception for the Museum Collage Project was on Saturday evening. Over 100 people visited the Museum to see the long-awaited results of the Collage Project, meet fellow Museum-goers and artists, eat some food, and listen to music. Kathleen Kirkpatrick, the Artistic Director, Museum staff, spouses, and key volunteers had been laboring since the beginning of January to figure out first how to display the collage pieces (1/4" birch 4'x8' plywood sheets), then how to arrange them, and affix them (Loctite clear tape), label them, and hang them in the Long Gallery. It has been an educational opportunity (as is much of what I do these days) to practice exhibit techniques on reasonably low-security and low-maintenance materials. The question we asked people to answer in collage was "Why Mendocino?" Why are you here? Why do you live here, stay here, like it here? And the answers were creative, heartfelt, thoughtful and stunning. From dinosaurs to family trees, from nature shots to souvenir buttons, from photos to drawings to poems. It's a wonderful and thought-provoking display of collages from people of all ages, and from all parts of the county. We called out to county residents and we received nearly 100 responses. It became clear that the written messages and explanations were as important as the composite images of the collages themselves, so we made sure that labels accompanied the pieces. We hope people will stop by and see what our county means to people. And we hope that people will come to see what the Museum can mean to this county. Happy New Year! 01/17/2011
New years seem bright and shiny and new and they take off like a rocket. Only two weeks into 2011 and I'm planning events in May while scrambling to get ready for the Collage Project Reception at the end of January, and realizing I should start work on February. We're not bored! This will be a very pivotal year for the Mendocino County Museum. Another Wonderful Holiday Express 12/05/2010
It's hard to say what my favorite part of the Roots of Motive Power Holiday Express event is. Hearing the steam engine's deep whistle early in the morning is the first sign of the day. The uncertainty of the weather is a customary concern - will it be too cold, will it or won't it rain? Anyone who was deterred by the weather reports yesterday missed a beautiful rainbow that arched over the train as it went around the tracks. The sight of all the orange shirts of the Roots volunteers is warming, and there's usually at least one snappy dresser in a conductor's uniform. Also in uniform are Mr. and Mrs. Claus, who are clearly long-time railroad aficionados, and all-round good sports. The Museum joins in the festivities with free admission all day to explore the exhibits, old and new. There is lively participation by First 5 Mendocino and AmeriCorps volunteers leading games to keep kids engaged and warm. The Willits Children's Librarian and volunteers read stories and Willits Kids' Club staff demonstrate making collages. A lot of people share their time so that children and their families can have fun together at the beginning of the holiday season. Actually, I do know what my favorite part is - it's seeing the curiosity and the joy in kids' faces as they climb up onto the caboose and then gaze out the windows at the passing scenery, as they walk up to Santa, and as they jump rope to holiday music, look for more cotton balls for their collages, or help read a story book. I suspect that's the favorite part of the day for their parents as well. Thank you to all who create this wonderful event. Being Busy/Persevering 10/05/2010
All I can write is that I've been incredibly busy. Saying good-bye to another staff person due to lay-off, our second in five months, is incredibly hard. Our Museum Partners are incredibly supportive. And we're persevering (one of my favorite words). Going to the Mendocino County Fair 09/20/2010
The Museum went to the Fair this weekend -- the Mendocino County Fair. We had a display booth in the Ag Building. Museum Volunteer Partner Kathleen Kirkpatrick presented a Collage Workshop right there on Saturday afternoon. It was great fun. Staff and volunteers helped to cover our booth over the three days, while checking out everything else the Fair had to offer. I have not been to the Mendocino County Fair in a very, very, very long time -- possibly as long a time as some people have not been to the Mendocino County Museum. It was a great reminder of how unique and local and real and friendly the Fair is -- just like the Mendocino County Museum. I met so many people who have links to and knowledge of the history of Mendocino County, and who are vitally part of the present of Mendocino County. It was fascinating to talk with them and hear about their families. As with so much of what the Museum is doing these days, this was a learning experience. I learned a lot from several very fine folks with wonderful stories and ties to communities throughout the county. I noticed that, on Saturday, about half the people were from outside of the county, from the Bay Area, Marin, Sacramento, and Sonoma counties. Friday and Sunday seemed to be more local people. There were folks who could tell me connections among county residents -- a third cousin, great-grandmother, or father's brother from Italy. I learned about a wonderful red wine, a Pinot Noir by Claudia Springs Winery -- being located next to the Wine Grape and Wine Commission tasting booth is not a bad thing. The rainbow colors of dyed yarns in the Wool and Fiber building were beautiful. Having spent most of the weekend at the Mendocino County Fair, I have great appreciation for the agricultural heritage of this county. I've got some new ideas for next year's Museum display I really want to encourage and capture more of people's stories and connections. Also, there's a serious need for a booth that sells fresh green salads and sandwiches in which nothing is fried . . . . If you've got ideas for the Museum at the Fair, please send us an email and let us know. [If you're a healthy, low-fat, low-carb food vendor, please contact the County Fair staff!] I consider almost everything the Museum is doing this year to be a rehearsal for next year, as we strive for the minimum two-year planning window that museums should have. That way, despite our focus in the past, there's always something to look forward to in the future. See you at the 2011 Mendocino County Fair! The Challenge of New Exhibits 08/22/2010
Working with a catchy title for a display is the least of the tasks associated with bringing a new traveling exhibit into being. The first order of business is finding a place to put it. In a small museum that doesn't have special temporary galleries, space is a zero-sum proposition. If something new is going in, something else is going out. In our case, we have focused on the Long Gallery, not to be confused with a large hallway, which had temporary displays that had been around for several years. Although we can't block it off when it's under construction, it has an expectant look when it's between exhibits, as it is right now. The second order of business, if one is availing oneself of the great resources of CERA, the California Exhibitions Resources Alliance, is participating in the arrangements for the delivery of said exhibit. There are several layers of people involved, including a group called Champagne Logistics, which is a catchy title. One day, a truck pulls up in front of the Museum and very strong people (okay, they were men) unload several big, unwieldy wooden crates and assorted packages, like very large and heavy presents. The boxes take up residence in the Long Gallery in their raw state, while we wonder what's inside. Unfastening the lids, we peer inside and see many items, wrapped and mysterious. It looks like a giant puzzle. That's when the third order of business begins - to create the exhibit for our museum out of this packaged deal that looks impossibly complicated. The curator sorts through the items and lays them out on a large table, just like when one searches for edge pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. We look for related items in our Museum's collections. The curator needs to plan the lay-out for the exhibit. Where will that large tent be pitched? Where will all the pictures go? And the biggest conundrum - how exactly will the pictures be fastened to the walls? Then we come to the always essential publicity - the fourth estate is the fourth order of business. Just like the sound of a falling tree in empty woods, there is no exhibit if nobody comes to see it. So we plan the opening reception and subsequent events, thanks to wonderful collaboration with two talented State Parks Interpreters and a troop of intrepid Boy Scouts. A volunteer, adept at Photoshop, has created a beautiful poster featuring this amazing picture of a couple in front of their striped tent and listing the special programs that we are planning. We want to create the atmosphere and share the story that will attract people to the exhibit, which is where that catchy title comes into play at last: Come see "Past Tents - The Way We Camped", an exhibit developed by the California Historical Society and the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, and being installed over the next week at the Mendocino County Museum. Please join us at the Opening Reception and Campfire Program on Friday, September 3, 2010 at 6:00 PM. | Museum Director Alison Glassey
Now that I'm starting my third year as Director of the Mendocino Museum,  CategoriesArchivesApril 2012 |
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