SPECTRUM
38
Monday, January 4, 2010
Lifestyle
In with the new, recycle the old tuff, stuff, and, more stuff! Now that St. Nick has eaten the cookies and gone, kids are playing with all their new toys and wearing their new shoes and clothing. So, what should you do with their old (but still good) stuff? Don’t dump it! Donate it! Do Your Part and give your used toys, clothing and shoes a second life. Begin by tackling the toy situation. Many of the toys children outgrow are still perfectly good. You can donate working toys, certain video game units and plush animals to your local homeless shelter, battered women’s shelter or Salvation Army. It’s always a good idea to check with the organization before donating toys. Each toy must pass Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines and recalls before it can be donated or sold. Due to massive toy recalls in recent years, some groups no longer accept used toys and many
S
another person’s life around. By taking your items to Goodwill you are funding employment and training programs that benefit over a million people every year. Donations taken
children’s hospitals and care facilities only accept brand new toys. Did St Nick deliver a new bicycle this year? You must remember the joy you felt when you got your first bike. Now, imagine giving that same feeling to a child in need. You can donate your family’s old bikes to many different organizations that will deliver them to those who need them the most. BikesForTykes.org and IBike.org are good places to find out what’s available in your community. Goodwill and Salvation Army will also accept bicycles and bicycle parts. If grandma did your child in with new outfits, it’s probably time to part with some of the items that no longer fit or that your child no longer wears. Goodwill and Salvation Army are both seeking additional gently used clothing items this year because donations have also suffered from the recession. Your child’s hand-medowns could quite simply help turn
Do your part and give your used toys, clothing and shoes a second life. —MCT
to Salvation Army are recycled or sold through Family Stores with all proceeds funding operations at 119 Adult Rehabilitation Centers in the United States.
Nelson-Atkins museum offers a new look at America’s oldest art D
irector Marc Wilson of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art summed up the new American Indian galleries in a simple sentence: “We’ve made a bold statement in terms of real estate and in terms of money.” Real estate, as in gallery space, is precious in a museum. The Nelson added its Bloch Building in 2007, moving its modern and contemporary collection into the new location and freeing space in the original 1933 building. The old Native American collection had been housed in 1,500 square feet of space, tucked into a corner of the third floor. Initial plans were to relocate the collection to a gallery about twice that size. That was ultimately expanded to a suite of three galleries with 6,100 square feet, which opened in November. The galleries are on the same floor as the reinstalled Galleries of American Art, not in the basement or some out-of-the-way corner. The statement was, indeed, bold: American Indian art no longer is consigned to the “primitive” or “tribal” galleries, with dusty dioramas of mannequins dressed in headdresses and beadwork that may, or may not, have been from the correct tribe. The art of the first peoples is on the same level, literally, as the great art of America. “It’s about the aesthetic sensibilities and how each culture developed a method to express it,” Wilson said. “When you examine it, you’ll see this art is exceedingly hot.” The new American Indian galleries thrust the Nelson into the forefront of all museums that exhibit such art, not only because of the prime real estate and $8 million spent on architectural
If you go: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: 45th and Oak streets; 1816-751-1278 and nelsonatkins.org. Hours are 10 am4 pm. Wednesday, 10 am-9 pm. Thursday and Friday, 10 am-5 pm. Saturday and noon5 pm. Sunday. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Admission is free. The museum has a restaurant, cafe and shop. Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association: 1800-767-7700 and visitkc.com. —MCT
A glowing micaceous jar by New Mexico artist Lonnie Vigil is among the contemporary pottery on display. design, dramatic lighting and Italian casework. The galleries also are exceptional for the quality of the 205 works on display, several of them masterpieces of their genres. For the job of finding and selecting each treasure, Wilson turned to Gaylord Torrence, who was a professor at Drake University when he was hired in 2002, first as a consultant and then as founding curator of the Department of American Indian Art. An author and respected authority in the field, Torrence’s job was to sort through, and build, the museum’s uneven collection. “If I couldn’t find
an object that I felt was great in stature, I simply didn’t acquire anything,” he said. “I wasn’t out trying to buy types of objects, I was trying to acquire the greatest objects of their kinds. “Any Native American object has historical, cultural and aesthetic qualities that have to be considered. But in an art museum, aesthetics is the most important aspect of those three.” Since its opening in 1933, the Nelson has bought a stake in Native American art. The museum made purchases from the Fred Harvey Co, which had buyers searching the Southwest for great pottery, baskets and weavings, and from George Gustav Heye, whose collection became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. Ralph Coe, a director of the Nelson, organized the “Sacred Circles” exhibition that opened in London in 1976, then moved to the museum in Kansas City the next year. Coe had combed through the great collections of the world to
tion into the museum’s collection with an eye on filling in the remaining weak spots. Many of the purchases for the new galleries were made from the Donald J Jones Fund for American Indian Art. This fall, a final task in Torrence’s mission to round out the collection ended with a gift from Morton and Estelle Sosland. Long-time museum patrons, the couple gave 34 works of art from the Pacific Northwest Coast, including several of the masterpieces now on display in the new galleries. The gift transformed the collection’s weakest area into one of its strongest. In explaining the gift, Morton Sosland pointed out the secondary status many museums give to Native American art. “At the Nelson-Atkins, American Indian art is given prominence in greatly expanded space and by striking presentations that leave no question as to its eminence,” Sosland wrote in an article for the museum’s magazine. Of the 205 pieces in the new galleries, about 50 are from the original collection, 15 are from the Donald
existence, a fine first phase goes for about $500,000 in today’s auctions. “I was looking at these old Polaroid photos and-bang! — there one was,” he recalled. “I went out to storage that same day and unrolled this incredible first phase in perfect condition.” The first phase had been among the Fred Harvey purchases, as were several monumental pots and baskets. Also already in the collection, but yet to be displayed, was a fetish necklace by Zuni master carver Leekya Deyuse with 600 birds and animals fashioned from coral, shell,
The impressive basket on display include one by the Tlingit of the Pacific Northwest in the new American Indian galleries.
The Chilkat robe on display is unusual in its use of green, red and pink, in addition to the traditional colors of white, black and yellow.
assemble an encyclopedic display of Native American art, with an accompanying catalog, that remains a defining statement in the field. Coe also gave the Nelson another gift, his friendship with Donald D “Casey” Jones, a Kansas City newspaper editor who left his Indian collection and his wealth to the museum. The bequest moved Wilson, the museum director, to hand Torrence the task of incorporating the dona-
Jones collection, 25 are on loan from regional institutions and collections, and the rest were acquired by Torrence through purchases and gifts. One of Torrence’s premier finds came as he perused old catalogs of the museum’s collection. He was in the process of attempting to acquire a first-phase chief’s blanket, among the earliest of Navajo weavings. Simply, yet superbly, striped and believed to number about 50 in
Field of dreams:
Pop the question, museum style eelam Patel couldn’t believe it when she saw her boyfriend, Neal Patel, reach his hand into a case at The Field Museum in Chicago and grab the diamond ring sitting inside. “I thought, ‘What is he doing? He’s breaking into this case at the Field Museum! He’s going to get arrested,’” she said. A second later Neal, 24, got down on one knee and asked Neelam, 25, to marry him. The case, identical to the others in the newly refurbished Grainger Hall of Gems and specifically lit to hold a diamond ring, is part of a new offer by the museum to pop the question there. The $350 fee includes a champagne toast, with optional add-ons like flowers, music and limo service.
N
turquoise and jet. “It will drop you to the floor,” Torrence predicted. Among his purchases, Torrence was most pleased with an Arikara buffalo rawhide shield from about 1850, with a buffalo bull staring out. “It’s a masterpiece of Plains Indian visionary painting,” Torrence said. “It has beautiful brushwork.” The museum has yet to put out a catalog of its new, improved collection. Torrence said that would be premature. “The collection needs to grow before we do any major publication; this is really a foundation to build on,” he said. “My wish list would include a classic Navajo serape. We’re really weak on Eskimo ivory carvings. I’m looking for a great piece of pictographic beadwork. And there’s a particular Pueblo pot that I have my eye on.” —MCT
The simple striped blanket from 1850s is a chief’s blanket among the Navajo weavings.
An Arikara buffalo rawhide shield from 1850 is a masterpiece of Plains Indian visionary painting.
And, don’t forget about the shoes. We all know how fast kids will outgrow their shoes and that means that their old ones probably still have some life left in them. Thirty million children around the globe don’t have shoes to put on their feet this year. So, instead of trashing your families shoes, donate them! Soles4Soles.org collects shoes of all kinds and distributes them to children who desperately need them. And, don’t toss out those athletic shoes that are too worn out to wear again. Nike’s Reuse A Shoe program will take them, grind them up, and create all sorts of things with them-everything from running tracks to tennis courts. This season, as new items come into your home take the time to reduce, reuse or recycle the old ones. You’ll Do Your Part to keep those items out of the landfill while providing a brighter year ahead for someone less fortunate. —MCT
A large tray by the Chumash of Southern California dates to 1820 and dominates the basketry. —MCT photos
Thinking of getting engaged? For $350, you could use this display case at Chicago’s Field Museum to pop the question. —MCT “We’re kind of floored by the response,” said Megan Williams Beckert, who is in charge of special events at the Field. They’ve had seven proposals since they installed the case in mid-October, and several inquiries a week. The museum previously offered a similar, lower-key service. About half a dozen men a year would rent a Plexiglas case that was rolled into the hall for the proposal, Beckert said. Neal Patel knew one of those men, who mentioned it when Neal was brainstorming creative proposals. “I’m a romantic,” he said. “I wanted to give her a story she would never forget.” The two are both fourth year medical students, he at Rosalind Franklin University and she in Ohio, though she’s doing her rotations in Chicago this year. On a date last month, Neal told Neelam he had a surprise for her, which she said was not unusual. “She starts freaking out,” Neal said. “About 45 minutes after it happened, she asked me, ‘I said yes, right?’”— MCT