MAD in the district

Gone for the summer

2009-05-21T22:43:00.004-04:00

MAD is away from DC for the summer. No District, no MAD.

But take heart - you can follow the pastoral adventures of MAD in remote, lovely Rushford, New York by clicking here and entering the World of Bs.

MAD will resume at summer's end. WOBs will let you know.

See ya!

MAD about the summer

2009-05-05T20:20:00.013-04:00

MAD is spending the summer away from DC and that means that means no MAD until I return.
The past few months of writing have been very enjoyable, full of discovery of places, process and software. I've spent a lot of time trying to put my experiences and my response to them into words; the focus and self-discipline have been beneficial to my adjustment to the time I spend in DC.

For the summer I'll be living in a cabin in a rural county in the Southern Tier of NYS, continuing to commute to work in Buffalo. But certainly not able to find a museum close by every single day.

So what's a blogger to do?

Must be time to begin The World of Bs.

Seems to me that most of my many favorites begin with the letter B: books, baking, baseball, basketball, babies, and balls of yarn. And my guess is that for purposes of that blog -oh and blogging- most anything can be creatively transformed into a B word. So for the summer I will be taking it easy, removing myself from the pressures of daily museum-going, and exploring all of the above items and activities and reporting on them. A request: if you have any B suggestions please pass them on!

MAD will pick up at this location in mid-august. Enjoy your summer.

Azaleas!

2009-05-03T19:52:00.006-04:00

Last week I was told that the azaleas would be peaking this weekend. So MAD waited until now and got stuck with a rainy day.

Big deal.

MAD, MR. MAD and MADYS (MAD's younger son) took an excursion today to the National Arboretum to see the azaleas. Hillsides of azaleas - lavender, red, white fuchsia and pink. One of such a soft pink that it looked like growing cotton candy. I was overwhelmed by the color and variety. Despite the dark day, the colors were intensified by the rain.

We didn't get to see azaleas like this in Buffalo. Maybe it has something to do with the difference in growing zones. I remember them in the DC area from when I lived in Arlington in the spring of 1973.

And I believe that I remember them with my heart from the magic placed that was my grandparents' house in Mount Vernon, NY. Their azaleas were clipped, formal foundation plants. I seem to remember that a few of them were transplanted to my parents' house when we moved there. The exposure must have not been as good and they didn't seem to bloom as well. Maybe I am imagining the whole thing , but I have always loved azaleas and this very early childhood recollection seems as good a reason as any.

As if MAD needed a reason to enjoy azaleas in bloom.

Sheepish

2009-05-03T12:49:00.013-04:00

Does the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival count as a museum? MAD makes the rules and MAD says yes.

Howard County Fairgrounds is the home of the country's largest sheep and wool festivals which makes for lots of sheep, lots of wool and lot and lots of people.

The barns are filled with artisan yarns - hand spun and hand-dyed, rovings and batts of wool in natural and rainbow of colors that make you reach out to touch the fibers. Many of the vendors sell breed-specific yarns and you are able feel the differences between Corriedale, Border Leicester, Romney, cashmere to mention only a few.

The you can see the differences - one of the barns has an example of all of the many breeds in the show. MAD's favorite is Jacob's Sheep, an ancient breed with two rows of horns that was dwindling until a program was initiated to stabilize and re-invigorate the breed.

An odd juxtaposition - to MAD, maybe you don't think so - is the exhbition of lambs and sheep, fleece and yarn next to the food boths which are selling (mostly) lamb items. No charge for the smell.

There was a lake of restrooms and a lack of places to sit. So to eat we sat down on bleachers in the barn where the animals were being displayed in the ring, vocally baa-ing and maa-ing sounding exactly like people pretending to be animals.

MAD was accompanied by MADOD (pregnant-with-twins Older Daughter) who gave her an excuse to buy yarn to make baby items as well as the joint purchase of Vintage Baby Knits, inscribed by author Kristen Rendgren to Baby A and Baby B. And we purchased yarn for each other for what has become our annual birthday gift exchange. Thank you , MADOD, for the excuse, for the birthday gift and for the day spent together.

Under the Dome

2009-04-30T21:27:00.006-04:00

It wasn't easy but MAD did get there.

Helen Suzman: Fighter for Human Rights had been on display at the Georgetown University Inter-Cultural Center until April 20 and MAD was disappointed to not get there in time to see it. Turns out I was very lucky.

The exhibit, developed by the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research at the University of Cape Town, is touring the US and for this week only had been moved to the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda - on its own an impressive sight. To get there from the Capitol South Metro Station you pass the Capitol, the Library of Congress and then the Supreme Court with Equal Justice Under Law carved on its pediment. You enter the Russell Building in the correct mood to learn about the life of Helen Suzman.

Beneath a dome three stories high, display panels tell in words and show in pictures, letters and documents the story of her life and work

Her parents, Jewish immigrants to South Africa from Eastern Europe, lived comfortably by the time Helen was born in 1917. We see pictures of her as a child and a young woman and mother and then we are amazed to see her as she magically (it seems) turns into a committed fighter for the freedom of all.

Originally sent to Parliament for the United Party, she was a founder of the Progressive Party and its only elected member as well as the only voice in opposition to apartheid for 13 of her 36 years in office. She visited Nelson Mandela on Robben Island and visited lesser and unknown people and places where injustices were being committed in the name of the government. She never gave up and was instrumental in the establishment of a unity government only retiring from elected office in 1989 .

During her entire career as a public servant she stood for the rule of law, even when the law was directly opposed to her own beliefs, believing that the law needed to be changed rather than disregarded.

MAD wonders what the forces were that set her on the course of her remarkable life -How amazing to learn of what one person can do, when most people don't.

How fitting to learn about her in this particular setting.

Chinese Art, Day Two

2009-04-26T16:15:00.022-04:00

What MAD doesn't do for you! Hot hot day -in case you didn't figure it out yesterday, MAD hates heat. I walked up 16th Street across from the lovely descending terraces of Meridian Hill a/k/a Malcolm X Park trying to stay in the shade. Followed the sign directing me left onto Belmont for the Meridian International Center, looking down at purple "snow" and sniffing up at what turned out to be the fragrance of wisteria hanging over a brick wall, only to find out (1) the turn onto Belmont (an uphill walk) only was necessary for drivers and (2) I was too early for Metropolis Now (shoulda paid attention to real, as opposed to perceived, time). Only thing to do was go away and come back later.

And am I glad I did - Metropolis Now is sort of the opposite of the calligraphy exhibit yesterday. That was as old as it gets in China and you can't get much newer than this stuff. That was one overlay for MAD. Add on MAD's trip to China in November 2008, the venue of the almost private White-Meyer House and the formality and thoughtfulness with which this show was hung and I had an extraordinary unexpected experience. Since I am not particularly interested in contemporary Chinese art.

At least I didn't used to be.

Across from the portico of the renovated house you are greeted by Chen Zhiguang's three gigantic stainless steel Ants - whose picture is the exhibit's logo. - so magical, even playful, in person with their size and many colors. Volunteer Amy Tomlinson told me that she thinks of them as a reminder of the contrast between the traditionally collective nature of Chinese society and a new emphasis on the individual. Wei Qingji's Spiderman 2 evoked the same connection to me.

Did what I saw yesterday heighten my response today? Over and over I was struck by the juxtaposition and connection between traditional Chinese art and the new in subject matter, materials and energy. Once inside your eyes are filled with a wall covered by Cao Jingping's enormous multi-panelled acrylic Summer, reminiscent of several of the spots MAD saw in China as well as of traditional paintings but wow! the scale and intensity of colors were brand new.

MAD also visited the Temple of Heaven -Liu Ren's Sleepwalker looked like the Temple inside a dream. Visits to both an embroidery and a silk factory were evoked by Liu Liyun's silk and cotton composition A Volume of Landscape depicting ordinary household objects in embroidery and silk sculpture. New Pictures, old materials and techniques.

Wang Xia ohui's self-portrait photos in a succession of clothes from the beginning of the 20th century through now - printed on rice paper .

Tu Shaohui's quiet ink wash on silk Red Wall Numbers 1,2 and 3 using traditional elements of landscape, birds and a person in new styles and configurations to show the current uncertainties of the young in today's China.

Liu Qinghe's Untitled scroll showing a diversity of faces in ink using a material as spiritual tool that both adheres to tradition and fosters innovation.

I better shut up - but I was so astonished by the many elements I encountered and the setting in which they were presented.

Just one more, OK?

Lv Shanchuan uses newstories to create scenes not only for their content but also for their location's power to move and inspire. With Chinese writing on the left hand side, focused on the U.S Capitol and the Mall, January 21, 2009 (wouldn't it have been the next day in China?) does just that.

On display right now in the metropolis of the District of Columbia.

In Other Words

2009-04-25T19:04:00.018-04:00

Hot day in the district. Escalators and elevator outage at the U Street Metro Station . At the bottom of that inactive escalator, spotting a hugely pregnant woman walking up, MAD offered to carry up her two hugely heavy bags of groceries. She didn't speak English and MAD doesn't speak whatever she speaks, but somehow the offer was communicated and accepted. At the top, she offered her thanks with a bottle of iced tea and her hand. Sometimes worlds can be communicated without words.

I was on my way to the Freer Gallery's Writing, Carving and Rubbing: China's Calligraphic Arts. A peaceful quiet gallery providing a cool refuge from the heat and crowds outdoors contained examples of Chinese calligraphy. Inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells made for purposes of divination morphed into lines of communication and became one of the four arts .

The exhibit traces the development of the six major types of script which began with oracle-bones between the 14th and 11th centuries B.C.E. Having read Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones I was delighted to be able to see an example of a turtle shell with the carvings - only to read the description which identified the carvings as a good fake. At least I got to see what it was supposed to look like!

The scripts - which continued sequentially with Se al, Clerical, Cursive, Running and Standard are presented in the form of rubbings, scrolls and carvings. Even though I may have seen them all before separately, seeing them together made me aware of the lovely differences between these types. I learned about the eight different brush-strokes called radicals that make up standard calligraphy, the version that every child learns in school and saw the Four Treasures of the Scholar's Studio.

But get this: because none of the rubbings, paintings or carvings are translated as part of the exhibit, I was forced to look at them purely as visual art and ignore their original content. The lines on the paper took on meanings to me through the feelings I experienced while looking. No words or thoughts got in the way.

Twice in one day.

School's Out for Sumner

2009-04-24T21:55:00.009-04:00

MAD is so out of practice that I almost forgot to write this post.

Today was supposed to be the Textile Museum with Judy but turned into the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archive. The official repository of the Washington DC Board of Education's history, the Sumner School is a beautifully restored 1873 building that was the first permanent school for African-American children in DC. Shiny brass railings, high ceilings and wide stairways make this place feel and even smell like a school. I wonder if this schools was as well taken care of when children were running up and down those stairs.

The first floor displays artifacts and memorabilia from DC schools that have closed as well as a special exhibit of art "Local Color" by Martha J. Smith whose paintings quietly explore relationships between people, many between women and especially between women of color. Some of these paintings are hung in a lecture hall that feels like the students and lecturer have just walked out.

Another room contains an exhibit dedicated to the life and work of Adolph Cluss designer of both the Sumner School itself and the Franklin School. One of the reasons these were a big deal was because they contained multiple classrooms and teachers could divide the students by age level instead of teaching them all together in the same room (They were also divided by race with Sumner being for "colored" and Franklin for "white"). Cluss had enormous influence on the look of the District and we see his work everywhere we go.

Of special note is a hand made timeline of the history of DC schools that is hanging on the wall. In 1870 the DC government began to provide free public education to children of color and only when Brown v Board of Education was decided in 1954 was an end put to racial segregation in the DC Public Schools.

oh - the other decoration in the Sumner School today is bright and engaging art created by the diverse and talented population of current students in the DC Public Schools.

Whole Wide Everyting Else in the World

2009-04-15T15:53:00.018-04:00

The time has come to tell you about Grover - you know, cute and furry from Sesame Street.

When my children were young, one of them had a book called Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wild World Museum (We all loved it so much - I have it saved somewhere). Each time we read it we watched Grover visit the rooms in the museum to view the different collections of items:

Things You See in the Sky Room
Things You See on the Wall Room
Things You See Under the Water Room
Long Thin Things You Write With Room
Carrot Room
All the Vegetables in the Whole Wide World Besides Carrots Room
Things That Make So Much Noise You Can't Think Room
Small Hall
Tall Hall
Things That Can Make You Fall Hall
Hall of Very, Very Light Things
Hall of Very, Very Heavy Things
Things That Can Tickle You Room
Things That are Cute and Furry - guess who decides he should be displayed in this one?

So why am I telling you about this book (did I tell you we all just loved it?) today? To finish the book, Grover pushes on a door labeled "Everything Else" and it opens to the outside.

Here's the connection :

Today it's been raining. MAD got soaked when she went out this morning and again when she went three doors down to Starbucks for her fix this afternoon.

Mr. MAD had thrown out his back and MAD thought it prudent to stay home and keep him from doing more damage. But my walk on my rain-soaked block near U Street reminded me so much of Grover's emergence. Each time I walk down the street I get to see the status of the Spring flowers. There is a yard of red tulips across the street that are getting ready to pop and I can't wait to see them in action*. There is a triangle at the corner filled with ground covers and Daffodils (almost finished blooming) that I hadn't seen before. One yard has Bleeding Heart in bloom. It's the Whole Wide Everything Else in the World Museum, right on my block.

Bet there's one on your block, too.

*I went out less than 2 hours later to take pictures to show you and the tulips are just about open. April showers, eh?

Forever Free

2009-04-14T17:36:00.016-04:00

In memory of Abraham Lincoln, assassinated this day in 1865, I visited the self-contained exhibit Forever Free - Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation on view at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, main building of the DC Public Library.

Created by the Huntington Library and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History this traveling exhibit uses free-standing panels divided into six thematic sections to describe in his own words what we know of Lincoln's attitude towards to slavery and how he politically worked to end it. You walk around it and read the story which is densely illustrated with autograph writings, photographs, political cartoons and maps (yay maps!) as well as background art showing the context of the time in which the events took place. With a timeline running horizontally across quite a bit of information is packed onto its panels. It does, however, gloss over the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the states then in rebellion; reading closely you are reminded that it took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to abolish slavery throughout the rest of the Union.

Sponsored by the American Library Association Public Programs Office, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission this exhibit and its duplicates are traveling around the country this year of Lincoln's bicentennial, being displayed in libraries throughout the country. MAD thought it was appropriate to see it at a place named for Dr. King who many years later took up the challenge left by the legacy of slavery.

Rest in peace, Abraham and Martin.

Take Me Out

2009-04-13T20:52:00.011-04:00

If I can tour it, I can blog it. Notice I didn't say I did tour it, but Nationals Park offers tours and so do museums, so Nationals Park can count as a museum (?) Remember, MAD makes the rules.
Opening Day 2009 at Nationals Park. MAD's OS took her for her birthday present. How fun to be able to get to a baseball game with a 10 minute subway ride. Having arranged to meet near the exit for the ballpark, my son got on my train and came right into my car.

How fun to climb to our seats and see the Capitol from the concourse - and the Washington Monument over the other side.

The park is somewhat utilitarian in its green design and very patriotic in the red, white and blue of its colors. MAD loves navy blue so was very happy looking at the seats. And the big Ws reminded her of Wegmans.

OS bought a program and a pencil as part of my birthday present and we kept score together. Gotta keep my Nationals pencil - it cost a buck - for scoring more games this season.

And for a repeat performance Opening Day 2010. Play ball!

Living Museum

2009-04-12T19:13:00.007-04:00

For sure, the Lincoln Memorial counts for MAD - and since MAD makes the rules, a concert on the steps of the Memorial counts too.

The concert, part of the Lincoln Bicentennial Rededication Series was really a living museum. Today's Marian Anderson Tribute Concert was held in honor of the 70th anniversary of the concert performed by Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939 after she had been denied permission to since at DAR Constitution Hall and D.C.'s Central High School. Along with performances by the U.S. Marine Band, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Chicago Children's Choir, Denyce Graves sang the first three songs that Marian Anderson sang that day. She began with America, a simple song that U.S. schoolchildren sing semi-automatically, and ripped my heart right open. Under startlingly blue skies, with the Daniel French Chester statue of Lincoln looking on, her voice filled me and for a few minutes left me with room for nothing else.

Following the music Lincoln also got to see and hear as over 200 immigrants from 52 countries were sworn in as the U.S.'s newest citizens right there at the Lincoln Memorial. Colin Powell welcomed them. So did the rest of us.

Going Dutch

2009-04-11T17:39:00.007-04:00

It's been a while and MAD is back. Despite fear of holiday weekend crowds on the Mall, MAD visited the National Gallery of Art to see Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age. This exhibit is closing May 3 and MAD didn't want to run the risk of missing it having heard from YD (younger daughter) that (1) it was good and (2) it has manuscripts and most of all (3) it has old maps - a MAD favorite.

OS (older son) joined me for lunch at Sala Thai on U Street and the Gallery and added a dimension to the visit both by his good company, his intelligence and brief reminiscences of a few days spent in Amsterdam several years ago. Was this exhibit evocative to him? "No" he said, but I got to use the word "evocative" - another favorite of mine - in this post

Neither of us were disappointed. The exhibit used visually lovely and detailed paintings to illustrate the history of the Netherlands - particularly urban history - in the 17th Century. Most of this art emerged from the economic prosperity which was driven by international commerce and celebrated the achievements of this prosperity. How interesting to look at paintings that were created to be viewed as examples of contemporary achievement and now to be able to study history from them as a group.

The corresponding maps and manuscripts from that time period also contain the perspective of the time period. The two media were combined in Micker's Bird's-Eye View of Amsterdam from 1652 that was depicted through clouds, showing patches of sunlight over the heart of the city and the medieval town hall on Dam Square, the view of which even then was over 100 years old.

A timeline of Dutch history of that period was near the entrance to the exhibit. MAD doesn't know much about that period except for what she learned in school relating to the Pilgrims - most of the people in the paintings looked like Pilgrims - and what was the deal with those big white collars? The overlap between art and history today made me eager to learn more. Now I need to (1) get a copy of Simon Schama's The Embarrassment of Riches and (2) read it.

State Occasion

2009-03-31T15:01:00.007-04:00

The Maryland State House in Annapolis is the longest running show in US state capitol history. Begun in 1772 it is located on the site of the first Maryland state house built in 1695 ( burned down in 1704 ) and the second from 1709 (outgrown by 1769 and razed) This one started its run in 1779 and hasn't looked back since, even serving as the location of the Nation's Capital as the home of the Continental Congress from November 1783 to August 1784 .Today MAD visited her son-in-law who is a Member of the Maryland House of Delegates and she and Mr. MAD were introduced from the visitor's gallery at the end of the session.

This building is like a museum where stuff is still happening. The walls are soaked in history. The famous painting of Washington resigning his commission keeps you company as you go up the stairs. The original senate chamber has been restored - the spot on the floor where Washington stood to make his resignation speech is marked with a bronze plaque. We poked our heads into the Old Delagates Chamber where restoration to the original of the 19th Century is about to begin. Even the dome and the lightning rod on top of it have historical significance.

Other art has both historical value and content. Imagine being surrounded by all these centuries of significance while debating, considering and legislating - and reading e-mail , texting and surfing.

And don't forget the art of politics which happens in committee, in legislators' offices, in the hallway and in legislative session.

Lush Life

2009-03-30T17:41:00.005-04:00

So many museums and galleries here - it's hard to choose. For this beautiful beautiful spring day MAD got a taste of tropical flowers at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The description of Orchids through Darwin's Eyes invited me to explore "... the alluring world of orchids from the perspective of Charles Darwin and those he influenced. This orchid display is a collaboration of the United States Botanic Garden and the Smithsonian Horticulture Services Division. And it is a knockout.

With over 25,000 species, orchids are the most complex, advanced and successful family of flowers on earth. And orchids have captured the hearts and imaginations of people over many years. Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief tells a story of this obsession.

Amid the lushness of these living flowers and foliage was an extinct bee caught in amber with the earliest orchid fossil.

Only problem for MAD was that the text of the exhibit referred to the adaptations made by certain varieties and those varieties were nowhere in sight. Visualizing the specimens that played a role in Darwin's work would have helped in my limited understanding.

Guess I'll have to spend some more time with orchids.

Czeching It Out

2009-03-28T17:20:00.007-04:00

Gloomy skies in the District today prompted MAD to seek some light. Glass sculpture seemed like it might satisfy that need so I took myself to the Geoffrey Diner Gallery near DuPont Circle to see the exhibit Touch of Bohemian Glass.

Here's what I love: eleven (11) glass sculptures on one floor of a townhouse - enough to be able to spend some time with, but not enough to overwhelm.

Amanda, the assistant who opened the door for me, is a graduate student at the Smithsonian. While her area of interest lies in 18th and 19th Century objects, she told me that these contemporary glass sculptures look different all day long, depending on the light at any given time. Because of the nature of glass, the effect of light becomes part of the sculptures themselves.

Because of the interplay of light with the glass Gates, by Richard Cermak and Lenka Cermakova, appeared as two distinct colors depending on whether you looked at it from the side (black) or front (azure). Looking closely at the whispers of bubbles and wisps in Insomnia by Rony Plesel, reminded me of two loudspeakers, broadcasting its two-sided massage in golden green which I was told is uranium glass. Now I would have not picked these pieces out to be interested in, but stopping to pay attention and bothering to observe the details shed a new kind of light on my appreciation of the combination of elements.

These Bohemian glass artists are only part of CZ in DC a celebration of Czech culture presented by the Czech Embassy through this June.

Guardians

2009-03-22T16:05:00.012-04:00

Spotted some photographs so stopped serendipitously into Blue Sky - the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts and was blown away by Andy Freeberg's Guardians, photos of the women who sit in Russian art museums superintending works of art. The photos were tacked unframed to the walls which added to their appeal for MAD. It sort of felt as if each of these women was opening her personal space to me.

Downtown Portland was packed on Saturday morning. Nowhere to eat breakfast without a big long line - something for which MAD has no patience. Firebird Cafe's food trailer was open at the Saturday Market. Breakfast was available there with wonderful coffee - a special blend created and roasted for them. The market stalls were a combination of Berkeley and Adams -Morgan with a little Buffalo thrown in.

Back in the Rose Garden Arena, Purdue beat Washington much to the disappointment of one of the best crowds MAD and MR. MAD have experienced at the NCAA first weekend games. Then Gonzaga beat Western Kentucky with a great ending.

More games tonight. MAD has to go watch.

Following the Tournament with MAD

2009-03-20T20:28:00.021-04:00

No museum today or this week. Well maybe not any museums at all. Sorry about that.

But lots of good stuff.

In Portland, Oregon for the Round One and Two of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Since we've never been in Portland before we got here a few days early to see the sights.

Arrived on Monday and headed straight to Powell's City of Books which was in the nature of a pilgrimage for MAD. I would have liked to stay there overnight, but a room was waiting at the Hotel Monaco and Powell's doesn't take overnight guests.

Tuesday we rented a car to drive east to the Columbia River Gorge. Got to see Multnomah Falls and 70 year old Herman the Sturgeon who lives at the 100 year old Bonneville Fish Hatchery. Saw a lot of rain too.

Kept the car on Wednesday and drove west to the coast where we visited Allie Evans and her children. Allie is the daughter of MAD's dear friend Dede and it was a thrill for MAD to meet Dede's grandchildren. We walked to the Pacific Ocean from Allie's house and enjoyed the freshness of the air and calmness of the beach on a weekday in March.

Thursday the games started.
Pudue beat Northern Iowa.
Washington beat Mississippi State
Gonzaga beat Akron
Western Kentucky beat Illinois.

The Illinois team and hangers-on were staying at our hotel, so we saw a lot of sad faces when we got back after a detour to Voodoo Doughnuts.

Maybe a museum tomorrow but in the meantime I gotta go watch basketball.

Fill out your own brackets.

The More Things Change...

2009-03-14T17:49:00.013-04:00

In the dead of the Great Depression winter of 1933, FDR was inspired by his friend George Biddle who saw the need for artists to have work. As part of his New Deal he created the Public Works of Art Project - the artists benefited. So do we.

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum's 1934: A New Deal for Artists we get to relive the year of 1934 through the expression of over 3000 artists who were part of this project. Destined for public spaces, some of these works have hung in the White House and have been residing in the archive of the Luce Foundation for American Art.

The project lasted the 6 months from mid-December 1933 to June 1934 ; it resulted in over 15,000 works of art. The selected artists were instructed to depict "the American Scene" but it was okay if this theme was sometimes loosely interpreted. This exhibit is divided into several categories along the lines of Country, City, Industry, People, Leisure, and I forget the rest. A Flickr slide show gives us the chance to see all of the paintings online but the colors and the magnitude aren't nearly as good as what you see in person.

Which is too bad since the bright colors in many of them convey a feeling of optimism despite the difficult circumstances that existed at that time. MAD's personal favorite is Baseball at Night by Morris Kantor - it seems to beckon us to take a seat in the stands at what can only be a minor league or semi-professional game. Several years ago, Mr. MAD gave her a print of this painting; it's on the living room wall at the MAD cabin at Rushford Lake. This is the first time I've seen it full size and it's great.

It's good to know that the recently enacted stimulus bill contains $50 million in emergency funding for the National Endowment for the Arts . Hope some of it results in art like this for all of us to see.

"My Heart is Glad"

2009-03-13T15:28:00.011-04:00

Each of the quilts on display at the Historical Society of Washington's Quilts for Obama exhibit was striking in its own right. Put them together and they filled up my heart. Looking at the combination of colors and textures in quilts is always engaging for MAD. This exhibit, curated by Roland L. Freeman, added the component of emotion. Judy, a quilter herself, had told me about the exhibit. Having her with me helped me notice and understand more of the work than I would have on my own. Thanks, Judy.

Freeman, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and CulturalHeritage , created this exhibit in celebration of the election of Barack Obama. The HSW and Women of Color Quilters Network partnered with The Group for Cultural Documentation to get this exhibit ready in 7 weeks, instead of the typical 6 months. And think of how fast the quilters themselves were!

A call for quilts went out and responses came back from all over the US as well as Ghana, Liberia, two parts of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Each quilt responded to the election in a different way. Geraldine Nash, of Port Gibson, MS, calls her quilt "The hands that picked the cotton, now help pick presidents". Nash says "...how far we have come in my life time - from the cotton fields to the White House. It was dark when we came to the fields and dark when we came back home. With Obama as president, I see light ahead."

A quilter from South Africa called her quilt "My Heart is Glad". So is mine.

Art/History

2009-03-07T20:22:00.008-05:00

Whew! A busy week. Good thing MAD will be out of the District long enough to catch her breath.

Which is a good thing since my breath caught in my throat looking at the Road to Freedom exhibit presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the International Gallery in the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian. A mouthful, eh? And a lotta links.

I got to see these Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968, with just one or two
people around me. Frequently at an exhibit you need to see the labels to know who and what are in pix; these resonate with my memories of the times and my gratitude for what the people in them did to help create the country I hope we are becoming. Among them are Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Floyd McKissick and Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. From the burning of a Greyhound bus in Anniston, Alabama to the culmination of the Selma-Montgomery March as well as the March on Washington and the Poor People's Campaign, they are indelibly imprinted in our history. The images are iconic and arrestingly (npi) lovely.

After 1968 - Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy is a smaller exhibit of photographs, digital video, prints and site-specific installations in the next gallery. Interesting to see these works by artists whose sensibilities were engendered by the work done by the people who led us on the Road to Freedom - in some cases years before the younger artists were even born. Nadine Robinson's sound sculpture Coronation Theme: Organon is composed of audio speakers arranged (in what appeared to me) in the form of an altar playing many kinds of sounds: choral, organ, shouting, water - you could hear it throughout the exhibit of photographs, adding a totally appropriate dimension that intensified the experience of both exhibits.

And so did a totally unanticipated interaction on the way out of the little gazebo-like ground level entrance to the Ripley Center. Well, maybe not so unanticipated; you know - MAD loves to talk to everyone. Saying good-bye to the security guard, I asked if she had seen the photos. Nodding yes she said, "And I lived them." A middle-schooler in Meridian, Mississippi during the Freedom Rider years she remembers the fear and the burning of the buses in the early 60s."What does it feel like to see those pictures now?" "Well", she said, "It's sad, but it doesn't do any good to look back - we just need to look ahead and do the best we can for each other. God loves me and if God can love the people who do evil in this world, I can love them too."

Thank you, Sarah Ashely. Thank you, everone who walked the Road to Freedom.

Join the Navy

2009-03-05T17:09:00.014-05:00

Good thing today was warm and sunny. It was kind of a hike from the Eastern Market Metro Station to the Washington Navy Yard where Alexandre Sheldon- Duplaix was speaking at the U.S. Navy Museum about his book Hide and Seek - The Untold Story of Cold War Naval Espionage.

Not being part of the military, MAD did not have the necessary military ID to get in the gate but managed to be approved and given a temporary pass. Being a military groupie, and reader of military fiction MAD thought that was pretty cool.

There are 14 Navy Museums located around the US. The one in DC is the only one to show the full history of the US Navy during war and peace times. It shows it with artifacts, photos, art and recreations and tells a story that you can approach in great detail or for an overview. That means big planes, big guns and lots of other stuff. MAD got to sit in an anti-aircraft gun and was accompanied by sound effects (I bet there is a way to add audio to this post but I have no idea of how to do it. I don't even know how to spell them. Use your imaginations).

The Navy Museum is part of the Naval Historical Center which includes a library, archives, photographs and other areas for research. It's located in the Washington Navy Yard which has been around since 1791 and feels like a museum itself. And it is as good as any of the Smithsonians.

Slow Art

2009-03-04T15:57:00.011-05:00

Even before I got to DC I became a member of the Phillips Collection. For me, it's the perfect size; not so big that I get lost and overwhelmed by the art - not so small that I can't feel the range of stuff in a particular exhibit. Also it costs $ to go but is free to members. Today was my first visit as a member and I knew right away that I belonged.

Today being a Wednesday I stayed away from the permanent collection and went in search of the Morandi exhibit which runs through May 24. I'm glad that didn't wait until it was almost done because I intend to go back again and again.

The brochure for the show calls Giorgio Morandi The Master of Modern Still Life. How interesting could that be? But think about both of those words. His work is certainly still and it is also certainly informed by life. Besides the visual loveliness of the colors and shapes that created the framework of the experience there is a whole way of looking that is at the heart of Morandi's work.

A tour of the exhibit was scheduled for a little while after I arrived and I had no interest in it. But when I walked through the room where it was taking place I guess I was sufficiently opened up by the paintings and etchings - I decided to listen as well as look. Amanda Jiron-Murphy, In-Gallery Interpretation and Public Programs Coordinator, took me one step further into Morandi with the work required by her tour. Stopping in front of two very similar looking paintings (Morandi painted the same objects in differing combinations, over and over again, for many years) she gently demanded that the group go directly into the art by looking real hard at the differences bewteen them. The specific categories she outlined helped us with this personal exploration.

Morandi spent a lifetime looking hard, seeing deep and using his art to express what he saw; the viewer can appreciate his work and our added perception of it becomes part of what's been created.

Was that last part in English? I sense some rolling eyes. Sometimes MAD does get carried away.

Throughout the gallery I had been thinking about the mindfulness generated in me by the calm direct experience of these paintings and etchings. I had seen an announcement of the upcoming A Mediation on Morandi at the Phillips to be led by Jim Goodwin and Erin Wilhelm. On paper the connection made me wonder; in person it made utter sense. MAD has been (intentionally) slowly reading Jon Kabat-Zinn's Coming to Our Senses. Looking at Morandi has given me another opportunity to get closer.

After all that

2009-03-04T15:55:00.001-05:00

Pat Hamou has moved; MAD has the new link and wants you to have it too - no good clicking and being disappointed.
Does this make up for no museum yesterday?

Devil in the Details; Is it good for the Jews?

2009-03-02T19:49:00.023-05:00

Snow Day - or what passes for one in DC. Being from Buffalo, MAD wasn't impressed. Still it was cold and MAD didn't feel like walking very far. Coming out of exercise a few days ago at the DC JCC I had stopped in at the Real Machers exhibit in the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery while I was waiting. Not very interested in Jewish Gangsters, I found myself drawn in to the detailed textures in Pat Hamou's pen and ink drawings of these gangsters of the first half of the 20th Century. I still didn't think I was interested in Jewish gangsters - I just couldn't take my eyes off the art.

Pat Hamou is an illustrator and graphic artist from Montreal who is working on an ongoing blog and project Six For Five - an Illustrated History of New York's Jewish Criminal Community 1900-1945 which will tell the story of a whole bunch of these guys. Heeb Magazine included a feature article along with a selection of the drawings. At the start of the exhibit you can read his own words describing his interest in this subject.

But there's more ( I know, I told you I wasn't interested, but it just sort of grabbed me) - each drawing is accompanied by text - in a lovely font- telling about the criminal's family background, life in crime and his (yes, his) punishment and demise. How did Hamou find out the stuff to write these notes?

Many of the crooks are represented by both a full front and a side view portrait. Were these based on mug shots? What about the clothes they are wearing? There are also some photographs in the notes, often of the gangster's funeral or arrest.

Buzzing around has been some recent interest in Jewish gangsters - the Jews of Sing Sing was published by Ron Arons in 2008. Two years ago I heard Steven Silverstein, a Buffalo, NY lawyer with an evident passion for the subject speak in mesmerizing detail about Louis "Lepke" Buchalter.

That was interesting, but this was different.

Between the beauty created by the details of the portraits and the vivid information created by the detail of the text, I couldn't get enough of this stuff. I'll be attending Rapid Repsonsa at the JCC next Thursday evening when a panel consisting of Abbe Lowell, Susan Fishman Orlins and Gerry Kauvar will discuss the topic From Meyer Lansky to Bernie Madoff; Talking about Jewish Criminals.

In the meantime, excuse me while I go see if Hamou posted on his blog today.

Permanent Women

2009-03-01T20:46:00.016-05:00

Maybe the permanent collections are the way to go - to avoid the crowds that seem to accumulate at special exhibitions. Found out on What's On City that the first Sunday of each month is a freebie at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and I just couldn't pass it up.

I met my son at the Museum; we stopped at Caribou Coffee for a bite and at Macy's to visit a winter coat that he's had his eye on. Unlike the Museum's, the coat's price wasn't right, so we moved on back to our intended destination.

A show of Mary Cassatt was finished and Isabel Bishop hadn't started yet so that left the permanent collection. Almost privately. What a way to look at art. The rooms were so quiet that we found ourselves whispering.

The permanent collection is arranged chronologically. Years back the question was asked where are there not more women artists? I have a different question: In the face of such obstacles, how were there any at all?

Fortunately for us, we get to see what those earlier heroes created. Now, while there may still be barriers, more and more artists are women and we get to see their stuff too.

The colors of Alma Woodsey Thomas' Iris, Tulips, Jonquils and Crocuses and Orion and the textures of Emily Kngwarreye's Yam Story went right through me to grab at my insides. I found two pieces of art, Louise Nevelson's Reflections of a Waterfall II and Pat Steir's Waterfall of a Misty Dawn, facing the same way on walls in adjacent rooms, juxtaposing the artists' responses to and depictions of the same stimulus in their appearance and materials.

How powerful the urge to create is and was in the early and more recent artists! How lucky are we to get to see what this urge has produced - and in the hush of the permanent collection on a grey and rainy Sunday afternoon.

Elementary, dear Scurlock

2009-02-28T22:00:00.009-05:00

Remind me not to go to anything on the Mall on a weekend. I guess I've been pretty spoiled by the smaller museums I've visited and also by the low volume of weekday visitors. Having taken a sick day yesterday, today MAD went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Maybe not one of its busier days, but it was way too crowded for me.

Whatever. The exhibit I saw The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington - Picturing the Promise - was just terrific. The Scurlocks were THE photographers of black Washington DC from the time Addison set up his studio in 1911 until the last son in the business closed it down in 1994. This exhibit is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the National African-American Museum of History and Culture - which will open its own building on the Mall in 2015. You can be sure that MAD will visit there.

Scurlock was known for portraits of middle- and upper middle-class families as well as luminaries. Also the official photographer of Howard University for many years. And son Robert was also a photojournalist, shooting with a camera from his studio at U and 9th during the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., when much of the shooting was being done with guns.

My DC home is very near the corner of New Hampshire and U; many of the street photographs were taken quite nearby and seeing them reminded me of the not very long-ago history of the neighborhood. Who was living in my house during those years?

The husband of MAD joined me today and after the Smithsonian we went to Politics and Prose to hear Lonnie Bunch - director of the NMAAHC, Michelle Delaney, Paul Gardullo and Jacquelyn D. Serwer talk about the meaning of Preserving the Promise and sign copies of the book. Gardullo told the story of meeting Dorothy Height and her recollections of the events shown in a particular picture. Serwer spoke of a day she spent in Highland Beach (instead of in school) when visiting her cousins - a memory evoked by the photograph of a group of young girls at the Beach. The are hoping to be able to identify many of the anonymous subjects of the photographs and to hear their stories as well. Fortunately for us and the community, the Scarlock collection was acquired in 1997 by the Archives Center in the American History Museum. So take a look at some of these 4000 photos that can be viewed online. Maybe you'll see some one you know.

Lions & ......

2009-02-22T15:44:00.010-05:00

Not in the mood for art today- still filled with Looking In: Robert Franks' The Americans; not in the mood for history today- still thinking about the African-American Civil War stuff. Not in the mood for the Mall on a Sunday. What then? Nature!

Walked over to the National Geographic Museum to an exhibit on Lions & Leopards - The work of Dereck & Beverly Joubert. I wasn't particularly interested in big cats (or little cats either) but I was immediately engrossed in this exhibit. A sign warned that some of the photographs and films showed violence. The Jouberts believe that "...the idea that predation is harsh and somehow wrong makes a mockery of our ecosystems, evolving since time and life began on earth" and their work reflects all aspects of their subjects' lives, even those the viewer may find unpleasant.

"Equal partners in the adventure of a lifetime", 30 years ago they decided on the life they wanted and then found a way to make it work, living in a tent or out of a survey vehicle. Their passion for human stewardship of threatened species was apparent in the visual depiction that documents their painstaking following and observing of leopards and lions.

Even more fascinating to me is how they found, share and live out this passion. Together they have co-produced 20 remarkable films, 6 books and many articles. I can't wait to see what they will do next.

MAD in St. Louis

2009-02-21T17:32:00.013-05:00

Spent a few days in St. Louis visiting my younger son who goes to Washington University in St. Louis (It's in St. Louis) and thought I would have a break from MAD. But the Anheuser-Busch Tour had a room full of exhibits and memorabilia so then I thought if I told you about it I would maybe have a day off when I got back to the District. And since I am the creator of MAD, I get to make the rules.

The A-B tour was very packaged; you were moved around from place to place but left feeling like you didn't see anything real. The memorabilia was interesting - if you like beer; the beechwood aging tanks were enormous and the view of the packaging plant made me well aware of how few people actually are involved in the work of getting the beer out.

I started the tour hoping to see the Clydesdales and wasn't disappointed. In person they are impressive and beautiful ; they also live in conditions that prompted my husband to compare them to the living conditions of people both nearby and around the world. No offense to the Clydesdales.

Tim was our guide and he responded to my questions after the tour concerning the workforce and the economy. A-B was recently purchased by Inbev and the plant employs several thousand fewer workers since the acquisition.

How did a company that produced beer manage to survive so many dry years? Prohibition was mentioned in both the museum section and on the tour. Apparently A-B was able to prepare for it by manufacturing other items and stayed in business for the 13 years it took to get back to beer. How was Prohibition enacted politically? There must have been enormous economic and social consequences.

The tour ended with a free beer - I tried Shocktop - and a free bag of pretzels. I overheard "if you want real pretzels, go over to Gus'" so we did. A few blocks away we found the real thing, hand-twisted since 1920. Cash only .

A good day to be MAD.

205,145

2009-02-17T21:25:00.009-05:00

If you drive by, or even walk by, the African American Civil War Memorial, you'll see Spirit of Freedom, Ed Hamilton's monumental bronze statue of three soldiers and one sailor on one of its sides and a scene of a soldier's leavetaking of home on the other. Behind the sculpture you'll see rows of horizontal steel bands. You have to stop when you walk by to see that the bands are engraved with the 205,145 names of the African American soldiers, white officers and Hispanic surnamed members of the US Colored Troops and sailors who fought in the Civil War.

To get background in preparation for viewing the monument I had stopped at the African American Civil War Museum on the way down U Street to the Memorial. Curator Hari Jones shared his knowledge and passion to bring the history alive for me. A descendant of one of the men whose name is on the Wall of Honor at the Memorial, he first learned about his forebear's contributions as a young child in Oklahoma.

The museum uses primary materials - frequently in the form of photographs and newspaper reprints. Interesting to look at, and even more compelling when Hari tells the stories behind them. Garland White was born in slavery in Richmond and escaped to become a preacher in Indiana. He joined the Colored Troops as a private and was discharged so that he could be commissioned as a chaplain. Grant appointed him to lead the US army into Richmond and while at the head of the troops he was recognized by his mother.

Why is this such a surprise to me? Hari says it's not only to me; that this information has been suppressed and mentions W.E.B. DuBois' essay "The Propaganda of History" by way of explanation. In the meantime, this museum and memorial highlight an essential contribution that we all should know more about.

Not What I Had in Mind to Do

2009-02-17T14:31:00.012-05:00

President's Day and I thought it would be stirring to see the original Emancipation Proclamation on display for just a few days at the the National Archives. Apparently so did a lot of other people, including the school kids who were off from school and the government workers and the tourists. When I got to the Archives a sign stated that "The Rotunda has reached its capacity and the line will be moving soon. From this point on you have an approximately 45 minute wait" The line wasn't moving and that sign was only about halfway back. MAD was very happy that so many Americans (and visitors) were interested in seeing the real documents but not interested in waiting all that time.

Good thing MAD is so flexible. I went across the street to the National Gallery of Art. I got to see Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans . This was another way to explore America on President's Day and it was stirring in its own way.

In 1955 and 1956 Frank obtained a Guggenheim fellowship and spent 10,000 miles travelling across and back the US taking 27,000 images along the way. The exhibit showed a whole wall of his raw work. He narrowed them down to 83 and published a book that was innovative and provocative. It's 50 years old and is still innovative and provocative. You can buy it in the National Gallery of Art gift shop and you can also buy a catalogue of the exhibit . It contains all of the pix and lots of information about their context. Hint, hint.

This exhibit shows all 83 images in the order they appeared in the book. Curated by Sarah Greenough, it was packed with information both interesting and sometimes distracting. Frank quotes Antoine De Saint Exupery "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". So while Art is created by the artist the viewer sees it with her own heart and it can mean something other than what the artist intended. Photos #20 and 21 are both pictures of elderly men - one in a run-down Berkeley apartment building, one on a bench at a Yale graduation. The notes talk about the differences between these people; MAD saw the similarities. It was easy to see it both ways and a lot of other ways as well. I would love to know what information the curator's notes were based on - whether they came form the artist or her own observation and interpretation.

Frank's photos are fascinating visually, emotionally and create their own archive of America. I left his Americans but they didn't leave me. How pleased I was that lots of people got to see the Archives and even more pleased that I wasn't one of them.

Bait and Switch

2009-02-16T23:20:00.005-05:00

You can check: right on the Kennedy Center website it says "interactive exhibit on the life and presidency of John F. Kennedy". Doesn't that count as a museum?

These interactive exhibits are videos with audio that you can theoretically listen to but that I couldn't get to work. Am I technologically challenged? Maybe - or maybe they were broken. WHO CARES. At the Kennedy Center the building itself is the show, even if the impressive scale is not to your taste.

In the huge Hall of Nations - flags of all the countries recognized by the US - and Hall of States the flags float like clouds high above the concert- and theatre-goers who will miss them if they don't look up. There was, however, the famous bust of Kennedy which is special to see in person.

And I had something else to enjoy (the real reason I had selected the Kennedy Center for MAD): One of the free concerts presented on the Millennium Stage 365 Days a Year. The Paschall Brothers are an a capella gospel group from the Virginia Tidewater and they filled the space with their sound and spirit.

Who says I can't expand the definition of "Museum"?

My Father's Calendar

2009-02-04T21:22:00.011-05:00

Two Septembers ago we spent three weeks in a rented brownstone on T Street. My parents, who live in Calabasas, California, joined us for one of those weeks. During that time they visited the National Museum of American Jewish Military History . Visiting my parents over the weekend, I saw the calendar from the museum hanging on the wall. Since I now live in walking distance I decided to go there for today for an interesting and compelling MAD.

This museum is part of the Dupont-Kalorama Museums Consortium and as an off-the-mall spot doesn't get a tremendous amount of traffic. What a shame. The exhibits are clear and detailed. I was told that the lobby - light-filled with glass walls open to the first floor exhibits - is new. The museum has plans for additional $750 million of renovations and they know that in this economic time it will be difficult.

A few of the other exhibited are devoted to military Women, the Jewish War Veterans' Protest March Against Nazi Germany - 75th Anniversary,and the role of Jewish members of the armed forces in helping post-war Displaced Persons find new homes. A lovely small chapel honors the memory of Joshua L. Goldberg and and exhibit is devoted to the life of Major General Julius Klein, former national commander of the Jewish War Veterans . The Hall of Heroes displays a portrait of each of the Jewish Congressional Medal of Honor recipients and their citations.

The idea of a museum devoted to Jews in the military may seem kind of narrow but the stories of the men and women who served are affecting whether you are Jewish-American or simply American.

A Mother's Grief tells the story of Sanford L. Kahn of Kearny, New Jersey. Objects and photographs show him to us - from photographs of his early childhood - to his high school diploma - to his handwritten letter stating that his 18th birthday was the best day of his life because he was able to enlist - to the letter from the Army to his parents confirming his death in action on July 11, 1944. Through this exhibit, Sanford has become history, but the reality of his 19 years is brought to vivid life though the items on display and serves as one particular emblem that must be multiplied by all those who were lost.

My father, talking about a friend of his killed in the War, says softly, "He missed a whole life". This Military History Museum made me remember how many others did as well.

What We Owe

2009-01-30T17:31:00.009-05:00

Today I was over on Barracks Row in Capitol Hill . My husband and I ate lunch at the Ugly Mug and he set off for the Public Library. I stopped in at Stitch DC and after feeling much of the lovely yarn, asked for a museum suggestion. Astrid mentioned the Sewall-Belmont House, Lauren looked it up online for me (thanks so very much) and off I went down 8th Street!

Having never heard of the S-B House I was visually engaged and emotionally overwhelmed by what I found there. The House, where Alice Paul, founder of the National Woman's Party, lived and worked is the 4th headquarters of the Party and has been for 80 years. Part of the generation following Susan B.Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt, Paul began as a crusader for women's suffrage in 1907 and her aggressive strategies were crucial to the adoption of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote in 1920.

Less than 100 years ago and we don't even know the names of the women whose portraits line the stairs at Sewall-Belmont. The National Woman's Party is now a 501 (c)( 3) educational organization. Katie Campbell, their docent who showed me the world of those women and their legacy, told me that the portraits are all of women who went to prison in order to focus attention on their crusade. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their strength and vision from which I and my daughters and the entire community benefit. Maybe the other side of the "taking for granted " coin is that the generations who have come after see women's suffrage simply as "normal".

Alice Paul died in 1977. She had drafted the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and lived long enough to see it adopted by Congress but not long enough to see its failure to be ratified by enough states. Katie Campbell hopes that maybe Paul died assuming that the hard part was over. We looked at a large map on the wall showing which states have ratified and which states haven't. The amendment has been reintroduced every year since 1982 and needs only three (3) more states to ratify it. Maybe its time has now arrived.

MAD about Masons

2009-01-29T22:12:00.010-05:00

Back in the District after three days in Buffalo, I wanted somewhere close and free so I walked over a few blocks to the House of the Temple, the Headquarters Building of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern District, U.S.A.. This building, itself of historic and architectural significance, also contains a museum and library. And my grandfather Papa Sam was a Mason so I had lots of reasons to pick this spot today.

Full disclosure: I had been here before several years ago (Note: The rules of MAD allow return visits) and went today in order to be in the only museum I knew of that contained a room devoted to Burl Ives right next to a room devoted to J. Edgar Hoover. I was disappointed to learn that the Hoover collection had unfortunately (for me) been relocated to the Newseum. Burl's stuff was still there.

Also there was Colin Bornmann, a GWU student from Colorado who is a guide at the Temple. I was lucky enough to have him give me a personal tour of the rooms that I wanted to see. His knowledge, articulateness and enthusiam made me forget my disappointment about J. Edgar.

The Library happens to be the oldest library open to the public in the District and includes the oldest Masonic book published in America (Anderson's Constitutions, printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1734) along with Freemasons for Dummies. Besides Burl Ives', there are museum exhibits devoted to Americanism, to Albert Pike - Grand Commander from 1859 - 1891, to the collection of gifts the Grand Commander has received world wide and to the Masons' philanthropic efforts and more.

Construction of the building started in 1911 and was completed in 1915, despite that fact that no steel, concrete or then-modern construction techniques were used. The Temple Room has 9 foot thick walls and looking up 100 feet into a dome-like skylight I couldn't see any apparent means holding it up. Materials used in the Executive Chamber include gold leaf and carved Russian walnut The beauty and richness of this building, which is open to the public free of charge, is something that would be interesting to almost anyone. I think it's out of the way for tourists but I am surprised by the number of people who pass by frequently, comment on its unusual appearance, but haven't bothered to go inside.

The Masons raise about $1 million a day and give much to the community in the way of philanthropy. They also give anyone the opportunity to visit a unique and fascinating structure. So go.

On the Road With Lincoln

2009-01-25T08:35:00.005-05:00

Yesterday's MAD was the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. No, I didn't travel to Springfield, Illinois. The Library came to the District.

Met my son for lunch and figured this being DC I'd spot at least several museums between home and him. Right across from his office was a nondescript trailer with an "Open" sign and a banner proclaiming A. Lincoln Self-Made in America . I had just seen Lincoln's handwritten victory speech on Friday so this was a perfect invitation. Especially since I don't have any plans for Springfield soon.

The trailer housed a small yet perfect exhibit about Lincoln's life. There were artifacts - always appealing to me - real and replica - of books he read, invitations, Mary Lincoln's music box and maps (the best!). My favorite part was the animated map (turns out to be a DVD) showing the Civil War In Four Minutes or "one week in one second". The borders of the Confederacy expand and contract, the sites of battles explode in puffs and a running casualty tally appears at the lower right hand corner. As they say "One picture....."

Found out that there were many funerals for Lincoln as the train carrying his body made its way from DC to Springfield. One was held in Buffalo on April 27, 1865 and I'd like to find out more about it.

This exhibit is travelling around the country for two (2) years and is a vivid introduction to Lincoln and his times. It made me particularly aware of how much more I would like to know about American History in general and Lincoln in particular. Team of Rivals and April 1865 are now on my to-read list.

2009 is the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth and there will be many events and exhibits devoted to him and his role in shaping the US. Get ready.

Truth to Power

2009-01-24T09:37:00.006-05:00

Imagine that you get to see the manuscript of Abraham Lincoln's 1864 Victory Speech which just happens to be on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art for one day. The words that Lincoln wrote with his own hands echo (or maybe pre-echo - is this a word?) the words that our new President spoke a few days earlier when he took his oath of office and hopefully ushered in a new era of US government for ALL of us.

Then - imagine that you visit Richard Avedon's Portraits of Power, a compilation of his stunning photos of the famous and the unknown which ends with a close up of none other than Barack Obama, Illinois State senator and keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, taken in 2004.

Just imagine the connection between life and art that settles in your heart!

Other than the fact of the Avedon exhibit, and that I needed to get to it quickly since it was closing on Sunday January 25, all of this was unexpected.

I've been at my DC house since last Friday, having arrived in time to experience Inauguration Weekend, MLK day and the Inauguration itself. But until yesterday, no Internet had arrived. That lack was my excuse to delay the start of MAD. The cable guys showed up yesterday morning and I was on my way after lunch.

The exhibit displayed Avedon's straightforward portraits of political activists, politicians, government officials, and labor leaders, artists, using their selection and juxtaposition to explore their relationships and influence with the community.

Particularly affecting to me was the group portrait of the Chicago 7 and especially of the Civil Rights workers (shown above), which triggered memories of the active hopefulness of those times and our wearing down by the most recent 8 years. And looking at the faces of power from especially the earlier decades during which Avedon worked made me realize how male, white and middle-aged those faces were.

What an appropriate way to start museum going in DC in 2009!

Opportunities for MAD

2009-01-14T07:29:00.005-05:00

Since the real MAD will be starting soon you should know that there are - so far - three (3) ways to be a part of it

Suggestions - always welcome. Perhaps there is a special museum that is dear to your heart - just let MAD know about it and consider it done.
Guest MADDER - join a MAD excursion. You select the museum and the date. Subject to availability.
Guest blogger - this is really an add-on to opportunity 2. Choose to be a Guest MADDER then write about it here. No extra charge.

Keep watching this space for specials from time to time. You too can be a part of MAD!

Coming next: the Rules of MAD.

Not Really MAD yet

2009-01-03T21:46:00.004-05:00

Maybe I am a little bit ahead of MAD - after all, I'm still in Buffalo- but today I went to the brand new Burchfield Penney Art Center here and it was a wow! My younger son is home (so to speak) on Winter Break; he joined me and we were both overwhelmed by the structure and the art it contains. BP is the first free standing art museum constructed in Buffalo in over a hundred years so it's sort of momentous. Yet today was the Saturday of a holiday weekend and while there were people around it was not crowded. We could get close to the paintings and take our time.

The emotional intensity of Charles Burchfield's unique mix of fantasy and urban landscapes were pretty much all we could take in. We did wander through the room that showed art works depicting Buffalo at earlier times in its history and talked about a city, which we usually think of a solid and unchanging, as being an evolving organism that changes almost without our notice. How I would love to go back in time and visit Buffalo at the height of its prosperity at the turn of the 20th Century! Can't wait to go back to BP again. Milton Rogovin's Appalachia Revisited
is next.

What was next this afternoon was lunch at Globe Market. Curried pumpkin soup seemed just right after the museum and a horseradish potato egg roll tasted even better than it sounds. And lots of good conversation. We asked for containers to take home the leftover soup, and then gave them back before we left; we had finished everything.

MAD day one coming soon

2009-01-01T17:11:00.000-05:00

Day One MAD is now scheduled for Saturday January 17. I am driving from Buffalo to DC on that Friday so by Saturday morning or thereabouts I should be all set for my first MAD.

What's on the agenda? Just read a review of a Miro show at MOMA in the November 10th issue of The New Yorker. Peter Schjeldahl referred to "The Farm" which he called "... a treasure in the National Gallery in Washington". Sounds good to me!

Now Buffalo has the Albright-Knox - a world class art musuem -and another good one the Burchfield-Penney just opened in November; there's lots of good stuff - but when have I ever been able to walk out my front door and grab public transportation to see a work of art that I read about in a magazine?

Too much stimulation overwhelms me in museums. I'd rather see a few things really intensely than race from item to item. So while I'm sure I'll get distracted on my way to and from The Farm , I'll try to focus on that one painting and anything closely related and close by. And since I am making my own MAD rules, I can go back another day.

Getting ready for MAD

2008-12-28T21:25:00.001-05:00

What's the story: am I moving to DC? It depends on who asks. Right now half of my stuff is riding on a truck with my husband and younger son on its way to a 19th century row house at the convergence of DuPont Circle, Adams Morgan and U Street . After a family vacation someplace warm, we will be arriving in person mid-January, just in time for the Inauguration. Am I moving there? Yes and no. I'll be there at least half the time, and the other part I'll spend working in Buffalo.

This move has been in the works for almost a year. When I first thought of moving to DC I wondered what I would do there, removed from the community I have lived and worked in for 35 years. I also wondered how long it would take to see all of the area's museums at the rate of one a day. So here is Museum A Day (MAD) in the District. The days will only be those when I am in residence.

There are the usual suspects to visit: Smithsonians, National Gallery of Art, the Newseum and the Phillips . And then there are the less well known: Jewish Military, Textile, Cryptology. I'll try to get to them all and let you know what I like, what I don't and why. Join me for these excursions and see how many days the museums last. Don't forget, there are new ones opening all the time.

Museum suggestions please!