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The Minneapolis Institute of Arts provides free
admission, and has always had one Sunday a month designated to providing free family
activities. The Ford Motor Company has recently made a generous contribution to The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts that has allowed them to provide Twin Cities families with
enhanced programming every Sunday.
The new “Ford Free Sundays” provide hands-on art activities, with all the needed
materials and instruction available. Also provided are free live music concerts which vary
from African rhythms to classical piano. There is an interactive “Art Cart”
featuring art from various cultures laden with objects you can actually touch, imperative
for children. There are masks and costumes visitors can try on, and special artifacts to
examine and learn from. Also funded are family art tours that are interpreted for the
hearing impaired. There are family workshops, treasure hunts throughout the musuem, free
audio guides of the museum’s collection, special kid’s menus in the restaurant,
and staff to accomodate and help families find everything they need. Each Sunday there is
also a different theme planned which corresponds to art in the museum.
Recent events
One theme recently was “Stormy Weather.” The activities on this family day began
with a gallery tour of hunting for weather patterns in art. In the classrooms in the back
of the museum there was a hands-on watercolor class with instruction for painting stormy
weather landscapes. There were demonstrations on winter ice sculpture, and a snowflake
paper cutting workshop. Throughout the galleries you could hear live piano music. Playing
in the auditorium were videos of Dr. Seuss’ “My Many Colored Days,” and
“On The Day You Were Born.” There were many family tours ongoing throughout the
day such as “Learning to look” at art, a tour of “Living Arts of
Africa,” a tour of “Anishinabe to Zapotec: Native Arts of the Americas,” a
tour of “Jack Lenor Larsen” and the “Sumptous and Sublime: Arts of
Japan.”
Available throughout the day was the beautifully designed, kid-friendly family center,
brimming with gorgeous, interesting toys, fantastic books and interactive computer
programs.
The museum
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts ranks among the top ten encyclopedic art museums in
North America. The collection encompasses more than 100,000 works of art from every age
and continent and tells the story of humankind’s greatest achievments throughout
history and across all cultures. In addition to the quality and breadth of the collection,
the museum is internationally known for its commitment to making this collection available
to the broadest possible audience. For twelve years, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has
been the area’s only major cultural institution to provide free access to all
visitors.
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is located at 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis,
55404. Phone: 612-870-3131, Web site: www.artsmia.org. Ford Free Sundays activities are
from noon to 4 p.m. pulse |
“Image of
Afghanistan” and “Addressing the Flag”
@ pARTS Gallery
by J. P. Johnson
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Well timed, pARTS announces
the opening of a dual exhibition focusing on patriotism, the
U. S. flag and the Afghan landscape. In these exhibitions, pARTS acquiesces to the
public’s demand for photographs that take a wide-angle perspective of the
international environment and at the same time aids a need for introspection. Three
photographers worked to create a comprehensive exhibition in “Image of
Afghanistan.” Simon Norfolk’s pictures focus in on the war-trodden landscape of
the ancient middle eastern country. When asked about his work Norfolk voices an
archeological, almost mythological, opinion. He states that while photographing the area
he was “reminded of the story of Schliemann’s discovery of the remains of the
classical city of Troy in the 1870s; digging down he found nine cities layered upon each
other, each one in its turn rebuilt and destroyed.” Norfolk mentions that the scenery
of Afghanistan is the cardinal classical landscape. The images in his exhibition are the
same that lay behind David and Goliath during their legendary clash and Joshua at the
battle of Jericho. Taken in 2001, Norfolk’s images display Kabul and the rest of a
ravaged country after its bout with 23 years of destruction. Stuart Klipper’s 1987
photos of Afghan refugees put a face on the people who were ravaged by conflicts since the
‘70s. It’s scary to think that those seen in Klipper’s photos are hoping
they are near the end of their country’s time of crisis. Fazal Sheikh’s
portraits of refugee Afghan women add an even more in-depth and heart-wrenching look at
the people’s situation. Sheikh has taken on the cause to help female refugees. His
photos show how women have suffered the brunt of the turmoil in the many unstable areas of
the world. In the other exhibit, “The Flag: Patriotism/Peace/Protest,” Mark
Jensen and Collette Gaiter consider the massive effect that recent events have had on our
feelings of patriotism. Local photographer Mark Jensen has created portraits involving the
U. S. flag in all of its usual and odd spots. Gaiter created a CD-ROM on which visitors
can “reconstruct the flag in sections from various portions photographed around the
country.” These two exhibitions work well together to illustrate some of the effects
of the war both at home and abroad. Opens Feb 2. Through Mar. 10. pARTS Photographic Arts,
711, W. Lake St., Minneapolis, 612-824-5500. |
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The U Film Society is attempting to make a
significant contribution to our meager cultural understanding of the Middle East with its
mini-series “The War,” beginning this week with the Iranian film
“Djomeh.” The film is interesting because it is the story of a young Afghan man
who is in Iran. There are almost 2 million Afghan refugees in Iran. Iran is a Shiite
Muslim state, and Afghanistan under the Taliban was a strict Sunni Muslim state. There is
considerable antagonism between the two sects. Current headlines suggest Iran is
continuing to try to influence politics in Southern Afghanistan by supporting Shiite
guerrilla warlords. There is a large concentration of Shiites on the Afghanistan side of
the southern border with Iran. Movement between the two areas was (and probably still is)
easy and frequent.
“Djomeh” tells the story of a young man who left Afghanistan because he was in
love with an older woman. Their families disapproved of the marriage, so he had to leave
so she could find another man to marry. While in Iran he wants to meet a young
shopkeeper’s daughter and he tries to get his employer to introduce him. The film has
the break-neck pace of a retreating glacier in January, but the Iranian countryside is
lovely (looks a lot like Colorado), and you do get a sense of how people live in rural
Iran.
“Djomeh” runs Feb. 1-7 at 7:15 p.m.
“The Day I Became a Woman,” another Iranian film that won numerous international
awards, will screen Saturdays and Sundays, Feb. 16-17 and 23-24 at 3 and 5 p.m.
Later in February, the U Film Society hopes to show “Love Letter From Somalia,”
possibly as an antidote to “Black Hawk Down.” Date and times to be announced.
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