Until yesterday, I had never been to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I have absolutely no excuse, since it's free, open six days a week, and is in the same building as the CTC. But yesterday I found myself with an hour to kill between camp and a Tao smoothie date with a fellow intern (in case you're wondering, this time I got the Minty Green Tea smoothie: banana, mint green tea, mint leaves, syrup, vanilla, and almond milk) and to escape from the heat, I wandered into the MIA.
The museum feels more like a history or anthropology museum than an art museum (though I guess if I had paid to see the Rembrandt exhibit I might have thought differently). Each room houses art from a different part of the world, from African tribal masks to a Tantric Buddhist mandala to classic Greek sculptures. It's a fascinating place, and the hour I spent there before it closed went much too quickly.
That's why I was glad when Laurie and Marya surprised the kids with a trip to the MIA this afternoon, to visit the Chinese sarcophagus and Egyptian coffins (though there's much more to see, we had to keep it short, so we stuck with our Spooky Town theme). To keep them quiet and focused during rehearsal, we sort of bribed them with this surprise, and of course when we revealed that the surprise they had behaved so well for was a trip to the art museum, there were cries of "the art museum?!" and "that's not fair!" A few of the kids were excited, but the boys mostly felt they had been tricked. Once we made our way into the museum, though, they dropped their "too cool" act became really animated, especially when I took a group of them to see the Samurai armor and weapons I thought were so fascinating on my trip yesterday.
It was fun to explore the museum through their eyes; to them, the pieces weren't sacred objects from hundreds of years ago, they were awesome new things to look at and explore. The looks on people's faces when the kids got a little too close to the sarcophagus were hilarious. How did we all get to the point where we feel the need to stand an arm's length away from things that were created to be appreciated? I loved being at the museum with people on whom the pretension and stuffiness of the place was lost, and I think they did too.
After the museum and a quick reflection, camp ended and I biked over to the Seward Coop to pick up some ingredients for these healthy blueberry nectarine muffins I've been dying to make. It was all I could do not to just eat the fruit after I cut it up, but wow am I glad I didn't. These are hands down the best muffins I've ever made. I'm amazed at how light they are despite the amount of wheat flour and wheat germ. I couldn't possibly be more excited for breakfast tomorrow!
It was tough to get myself to yoga tonight, but I promised myself I would go, since I have tickets to see The Sunshine Boys at the Guthrie tomorrow night. I had never taken class with this particular teacher, and she taught a very different flow than usual. I found myself having to think a lot more, which I'm not sure whether I liked. On one hand, it kept me more alert and aware of what my body was doing, but on the other hand, I feel like yoga loses something when it's too heady. It was still good to be there, though, and my balances are getting much easier.
It's way past my bedtime, and we've got lots of work to do in Spooky Town tomorrow, so that's all for now. I'm making lots of observations that will make their way into a post at the end of the week. We're officially over the hump!
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