WQ #20: May 18: HERITAGE/INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY
Happy Thursday, and welcome to #WQ (Wednesday Quotes). WAIT – WHAA – I got one text wondering if I were dead. Turns out I’m not.
Here’s your chance to showcase your photos, poems, thoughts, and stories about museums. All you need is one awesome quote. Feel free to skim, but don’t skip the very end where your posts are highlighted! Please read at least a few of the other links in this party.
As a museum lover, I visit museums frequently and wherever I travel. I was thrilled when I read the calendar that said May 18th is International Museum Day.
The objective of International Museum Day is to raise awareness of the fact that, “museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.”
–International Museum Day
Growing in Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding
I’m still a little hazy about what we can call a museum and what we can’t. If it’s history, I think we are all safe calling the place a museum. History is the study of human events and interactions-social studies or social science. However, what about studying animals? We call that natural history, but there is no preservation or study of culture, peace, or any other type of interaction.
“Museums should be places where you raise questions, not just show stuff.”
– William Thorsell
For example, the Wickenburg Cowboy Museum displayed items, and many had question boxes. What clues would tell you what this might be if you didn’t already know?
I got my four-year-old arm caught in one of these, helping my great-grandmother do chores. I survived that, too.
Tips for Helping Children Enjoy Museums
“I want to meet a guy named Art. I’d take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.”
-Jarod Kintz
Maybe that’s not the best tip, but we want to teach children to think critically. That’s part of learning history and social studies. Here are some better ideas.
- Children enjoy activities. Make use of interactive guides or activity sheets provided by the museum. At some museums, they also participate in dressing up, painting, drawing, short and longer videos, and playing games. Check museum websites for activities.
- Ask your child to interpret their visit by pretending to be visitors from another country, artists, or scientists to name a few examples.
- Start a museum scrapbook.
- Have them pick one exhibit and draw a picture of it.
- Provide a sheet with a range of “emotion/describing” words. Have them complete this sentence, “My visit to this museum made me feel … because ……………………….”
- amazing, bored, coddled, distracted, excited, funny, great, happy, intelligent, jealous, klutzy, lovely, marvelous, negative, open, passive, questioning, respectful, surprised, thankful, useful, vigilant, wondering, x?, yucky, zealous
- Prepare your child for their visit beforehand by suggesting reasons for the trip. What do you want them to gain from the experience? How should the experience contribute to their learning goals?
- Scavenger hunts and worksheets are great, but use these to encourage higher-order thinking by asking students to develop connections to ideas learned at school or in a specific class. Have them choose which objects they might share with their class or friends. Ask them how they might use social media to share with a broader audience.
Some museums allow and even encourage you to take pictures. Others prefer that you not take pictures. The same is true of articles with advice for visiting museums. I take way too many pictures. But I use them in my blog, so I’m reprocessing and researching the information a second and third time. I love the last tip for high school or college students, in which case photos make their presentation much more interesting.
I wonder what questions are going through this little girl’s head as she plays with the display at the California State Train Museum in Sacramento.
Museums are excellent ways to help your children and grandchildren grow in knowledge and understanding. No matter where your travel this summer, try to visit at least one museum.
“Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.”
~ Orhan Pamuk
Does the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa, AZ have the right to that name? Do these handsome fellows enrich our culture?
“Nobody ever flunked a science museum.”
– Frank Oppenheimer
Community Enriching Experience
In 2016-17, I had the privilege of being on the museum committee to found the Woodlake Valley Cultural Museum. Much thought goes into what to include in the museum. The committee had to weigh what was important to the town’s formation and growth. Decisions are limited by what items are donated.
At the grand opening, we had several speakers lined up to help us all grow in our knowledge of the different aspects of the town. Starting with the Watchumna Yokuts Indian tribe, who had inhabited the area for centuries up to the influx of Americans and Mexicans in 1852. Many of their descendants reside in Woodlake and serve as leaders today.
Native Woodlakers grew excited when they saw artifacts from their childhood. One Woodlaker, Carl Peden, left home as a youth to become a pilot. He served as the Air Force One pilot for Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. We were honored to hear him speak that day. Four days later, on President’s Day, he passed away.
A Little Poetry – Food for Thought
Growing in wisdom Understanding the values Learning history Valuing contributions Lessons from our ancestors Games and dressing up Using props, drawing pictures, Watching videos. An important amusement - Visiting a museum. ©Marsha Ingrao 2023
To participate in this week’s poetry, write a tanka using synonyms for Work and Play. The first part of my tanka is about the work of growing up and learning about culture, the last part shows the fun we can have doing that in a museum.
“Tanka are written in a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure, or s-l-s-l-l. Tanka consists of 5 lines written in the first-person point of view from the perspective of the poet. The third line is considered your “pivot,” but let it happen anywhere or exclude it. It is not mandatory. If you use a pivot, the meaning should apply to the first two lines, as well as the last two lines of your tanka. Tanka is untitled and does not rhyme.”
Your Museum Verdict
The Butterfly “Museum” has much to offer besides butterflies. In this case, something to do with UFOs. This art display was outside at the entrance.
“Oh, to be standing next to a stranger, staring at the same painting in an art museum, an unspoken romance between us.”
― tearinthestars
A woman and I chatted as we tried to capture the beauty of the butterfly that landed near us. We created art rather than admiring someone else’s.
Did Vince’s and my visit to Butterfly Wonderland this week count as a museum visit?
Last Week’s Featured Mother’s Day Bloggers
- A FRESH CUP OF COFFEE – MOTHER’S DAY CONVERSATION
- LADY LEE – TRIBUTE TO MOM
- LOVING LIFE – READ THIS AND GET A MOM CRUSH
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – SACRED SPACES
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – PURPLE PREVIEW
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – THE COLOR OF THE MONTH
- THIS IS ANOTHER STORY – CRANKY MOM GETS A GREAT POEM
- TWO TRAILS ONE ROAD – LOTS OF PURPLE IN THESE MEMORIES
Your Museum Post Goes Here
Try Mr. Linky to link your post or to read other posts. It’s easier than waiting for me! 🙂 Try it, you’ll like it.
- A FRESH CUP OF COFFEE – LIVING MUSEUMS
- KEEP IT ALIVE – WORLDWIDE MUSEUM VISITS
- LADY LEE – MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD SOME WILL MAKE YOU CRY
- LOVING LIFE – A LOOK AT MUSEUMS AND KIRSTIN’S HERITAGE – LOTS OF COOKS!
- PICTURES IMPERFECT – ODE TO A LOCAL HERO
- SECOND WIND LEISURE – WALKING/SURFING DOWN HERITAGE LANE
- WHERE THE WILD THINGS WERE – DINOSAURS
INSPIRED BY
- Tanka Tuesday #320 – Synonyms for work & play
- Cellpic Sunday – great story about an AI conspiracy against John.
- FOTD – Lots of flowers in the Butterfly Wonderland. It was a tropical atmosphere.
- Denzil’s Nature Photo Challenge #13 – Butterflies
- Lens Artist Challenge – Public Art
- Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share and Photographing Public Art Challenge
Upcoming and Ongoing on Always Write
Lots of love to all of you and best wishes for a wonderful week.
- WQ Page
- WQ #21: May 24: HONORABLE
- WQ #22: May 31: MIDPOINT/WRITER’S CHOICE/DOUBLE DIP CHALLENGES
- #DICKENSCHALLENGE started February 7th. Join Yvette Prior, Trent McDonald, and me in reading ONE – not THREE Dickens’ novellas by June 9th. Donna from Retirement Reflections posted an excellent review on her challenge, What’s On Your Bookshelf this month.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 