The Skirball is a Jewish cultural museum. In L.A. we got so many museums, we can have one dedicated to conveying Jewish traditions and history. The museum's mission, "is to explore the connections between four thousand years of Jewish heritage and the vitality of American democratic ideals. It seeks to welcome and inspire people of every ethnic and cultural identity in American life." They have had visiting exhibitions to spotlight different famous & accomplished Jews; including Harry Houdini, Maurice Sendak, and Bob Dylan.
Currently they have one highlighting the work of Ezra Jack Keats. He is known for his artwork in and authorship of various children's books. I remember my mom reading many of these books to us when I was little, like The Snowy Day and Whistle for Willie.
I highlighted the bit I like at the end. Just a few months ago I had a conversation with my friend about how frustrated she was (and this is in 2014) about the difficulty to find books about African American children, or even biracial children.
Above it talks about how important it is that children of color in books are not simply white children colored brown. My sister is the Assistant Managing Editor for a worldwide children's magazine and she finds that illustrators still tend to do this, interesting.
The exhibit was really fascinating, and it had a wonderful hands-on element for children! I noticed that they intentionally placed some of the art pieces lower so kids could see them at eye level. They also have fun questions to ask kids about the artwork, and interactive props. At the end they have a room with fun furniture that matches the themes of Keats's books, and a wall of books to read. There is also a magnetic wall with "paper dolls" of shapes and sizes and colors. Everything from the clothes to the hair to the windows and stoplights were magnetic. We all had fun moving them around and switching things up.
Next we moved on the permanent "Noah's Ark" exhibit. It was awesome! The docents at the museum are the friendliest people ever. When I was chatting with one of them, he was telling me that the animals in the exhibit are made out of recycled materials and reflect the animal's temperament or local habitat. For example, the kiwis in the bottom left are very territorial so they are made out of a boxing glove. Clever!
I think the museum recently added this family of chimps, they are made out of inner tubes, socks, and gloves.
In this part of the exhibit you can move the giraffe's head back and forth, and put little foam animals on a conveyor belt to go up in the ark. I opted to let the turtles stay.
All three of us really had a blast playing around, I can't imagine how much greater it would be if I could actually fit into half of the exhibit. Haha.
The last exhibit we went to was, "Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America." It was really interesting and beautifully done. The exhibit features, "changing displays of works from the Skirball’s permanent collection of Judaica—the third largest in the world—this historically illuminating exhibition chronicles the struggles and achievements of the Jewish people over a span of 4,000 years."
There was this huge Statute of Liberty hand.
It was a surprising and amazing visit. I sometimes get a little bored at museums but not here. I can't wait to go back with my favorite lil' Asher. I think he will love it.
On our way home we stopped at Cupid's. You know you are going to eat good food if you have to tie up your hair before eating.
Oh America, you do it to me every time.
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