“In Vancouver, the province’s largest city, museum meisters
will assure you that the Museum of Anthropology’s collection of native art and
culture is no less stellar… Housed in an
award-winning building by Arthur Erickson, it’s best known for the cedar
sculpture The Raven and the First Men by Haida artist Bill Reid.”
I visited the museum on a really cold and rainy day. They have a small parking lot directly in
front and a larger campus parking garage across the street. Did I drive around the lot until a space in
the small lot opened? Yes, yes I
did. I was tired and cranky and cold. I really
had to push myself to leave the house in the first place.
But was it worth it? Also
yes. The museum is undergoing a seismic stability project on their Great Hall,
so all the totem poles have been moved to storage area. The storage gallery is public, but the totem
poles are lying down.
I expected the museum exhibits to showcase the local indigenous
populations, but they had items from all over the world. Lucky for me, this
Tree of Life from Mexico also had a very comfortable chair near it. So, I sat and stared and listened to it
breathe.
At one point, a security guard was walking by and we started
chatting. He’d worked at the museum for
several years and said he often gets asked how long it takes to “do” the
museum.
“I never know what to say,” he said at the same time I was saying, “thousands of years.” He kind of looked at me and I explained that art isn’t about just seeing it.
You find something
you love, something you hate, something that moves you and makes you feel something and
you watch and wait and eventually it speaks to you. It breathes. It lives. It
connects. He was nodding in agreement.
Then, the previously empty gallery (it had been just us) started to fill
up – at least 15-20 people walked in within about 15 seconds.
He said, “I see this happen all the time here. People having intense conversations about the
art and the energy that conversation creates draws people toward it.”
Yeah, it’s worth the visit, even on a cranky, cold, rainy Saturday.
