Field Trip

Last weekend my husband and I decided to go on a little walkabout.  Our destination: The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA.  You may know Salem for its Witch Museum fame, a kitschy bit of history that is mostly true but has been turned into a summer tourist destination for all fans of the occult.  However, the Peabody Essex is a fantastic little museum and there was so much to see that I will have to blog about it in two separate posts.

 

The first exhibit we saw was really quite wonderful, The Yin Yu Tang House, a reconstructed Chinese home dating back to the early 1800s.  Directly translated, Yin Yu Tang means Hall of Plentiful Shelter.  The home belonged to the Huang family for over eight generations and was purchased by the PEM, disassembled piece by piece, and rebuilt at the museum in Salem in 2003.

The traditional structure with open roof and central courtyard gives one a true look at the experience of everyday life in rural China, where the home was the center of family life and the domain of women and children.  As the fortunes of the Huang family (they were merchants) rose and fell, the home went through periods where it was richly furnished, to times when entire sections were taken over by family creditors or seized by the communist government.  An audio guide gave a clear narrative as we wandered from room to room; it was  remarkable to feel transported to another time and place!

In addition to the home, there were also displays of clothing, photographs, furniture and implements that were used by the Huang family.  A small room with video screen showed several films, one of which depicted the recent wedding day of a typical rural couple, whose marriage was arranged and had never even met until the day of the wedding.  A second film showed the dismantling and reassembly of the house structure...neat stuff for a history buff like me.

No picture taking was allowed so I had to grab these from the internet (yes, I am probably violating some copyrights, but hopefully not).  The PEM has a great interactive website if you can't make it to the museum yourself, but it was so worth the trip. 

Workshops

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to let you know I've updated my workshop schedule for 2010.  I'll be teaching at a variety of locations in Massachusetts.

The first workshop of the season will be at The Fuller Craft Museum on April 10 and 11th.  The topic will be Cloisonné Enameling, which will be a blast, especially if you are hoping to take your enameling skills to the next level.  Plus, since the workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you will also have an extra hour to browse through the museum which closes at 5.  There will be several ongoing exhibitions at that time including quilts by Nancy Crow, and a furniture exhibition from the museum's collection.  Pass it on!

A surprise in the mail

Wow!  I am so excited!  Today I received a letter of acceptance for a grant, one of three that I have recently written.  I will be receiving funds from the Fall River Cultural Council to work on a project tentatively titled Traces and Remnants: Jewels Tell a Story.
This project is one of the foremost I will be writing about in the upcoming months.  I first thought of it as a way to learn more about my adopted city, Fall River.  At one time Fall River was a textile manufacturing powerhouse (my studio is in a converted mill building), part of the New England Industrial Revolution.  Most of the labor fueling that industry was supplied by women and young girls who were just beginning to define the role of the working female amidst great hardship. 
As a working female myself (though immensely empowered due to the labor of those first women), I thought it would be intriguing to research the unsung heroines, as well as some notable Victorian era Fall River Ladies (other than Lizzie Borden), and to interpret their experiences in a new body of work.  Besides the women who worked in the mills, Fall River was home to well known artists, architects, labor organizers, abolitionists and more.
My research will take place primarily at Fall River Historical Society, a few blocks away from my home in the Historic Highlands Neighborhood.  The entire project will also be exhibited there at the end of 2010.  So keep checking in as I'll reveal the project bit by bit!