The Curator Is In

These photos were taken at the CCM Parent Program called "The Curator Is In." Now and then, Michael, the curator is at the museum to greet visitors, conduct personal tours of Michael's Museum, answer questions, tell stories about the collections, listen to visitor's stories about their collections, to lead the "Coffee Table Treasure Hunt" game, and more. Michael will be "In" on Mondays during November and December from 10:30 am - 12:30 pm. Come visit.

The pictures were taken from the back to insure privacy and with the permission of those and the caregivers of those photographed.

Michael's Museum Corner at the CCM Gift Shop

Michael's Museum has its own gift shop, or at least a corner of the Chicago Children's Museum's Gift Shop. Besides gifts and collectibles inspired by Michael's Museum being for sale, there are three of Michael's collections on view (Noah's Ark, Feathers, & Cola Bottles) and an invitation to "see more upstairs."

Tiny Pencil Carvings

Every now and then an e-mail comes across my desk with a website link dealing with tiny treasures. Here is one dealing with carved pencil points:

Focus on art: Dalton Ghetti

PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 17TH, 2011 

The intricate magic of pencil lead sculptor Dalton Ghetti. He’s been featured on a lot of blogs and website, as I found out with a quick Google search, but having just seen his work for the first time today, I thought it worth sharing.

“At school I would carve a friend’s name into the wood of a pencil and then give it to them as a present. Later, when I got into sculpture, I would make these huge pieces from things like wood, but decided I wanted to challenge myself by trying to make things as small as possible.”
— DALTON GHETTI

More of an insight on Vimeo: Pencil artist Dalton Ghetti (embedded below).

In 2002 Dalton Ghetti began working on a memorial project for 9/11 where each person who died is represented by a tiny graphite teardrop about the size of a grain of rice. The Connecticut-based sculptor has been carving one teardrop per day, and when he finishes he’ll glue the drops to a white background to form a larger teardrop.

Dalton Ghetti, on Facebook
Finding the Art in a Pencil Tip, on NYTimes.com

If you liked this, you might also like these artists: Sipho Mabona, Peter Callesen,Julian Beever.

Via @myttonwilliams.

Affirmations

Michael's Museum is not just a museum or an exhibit ... but in many ways my alter-ego. It is me! It is a collection of collections which I have created over the last 30 years although collecting is something that has been part of me since I can remember. Sharing it with so many people in so many different ways, each person taking away what they will from the experience; has been amazing, amusing, and astounding for me. It has caused me to do a lot of personal reflection, retrospection, and introspection.

I so love being in the museum interacting with babies, toddlers, children, teens, adults, parents, grandparents, great grandparents. It is very reinforcing to see them involved with what I have created made better with the help of the Chicago Children's Museum's fifteen person Michael's Museum Team.

The older visitors are free and quick to share stories including cute ones as well as deep reflective memorable ones. Watching the younger visitors discover the magic and joy of the collections and how they express their discoveries is intriguing. Seeing people identify with one item or collection in particular as an affirmation of their life experiences, memories, culture, or self-worth is gratifying.

The accumulation of these hundreds of thousands of tiny treasures has become a folk art piece which seems to take on an energy of its own freely shared. Michael's Museum allows intergenerational interaction, sharing, and learning which releases the past, confirms the present, and insures the future. 


A Magnificent Magnitude of Magic exists in Michael's Museum, A Curious Collection of Tiny Treasures. The Museum Muse and the Museum Mouse are in residence, their names are Joy. Come visit.

Not Just for Kids Continued

Today we joined our friends Chuck and John and their nephews - Cormack, Chris, & Ben and niece - Clarice, for a tour of Michael's Museum. These high schoolers and college kids "played" in the museum as seriously as any five or seven year old. Loved watching them, answering their multitude of questions, and listening to their stories.

We were at the museum early so the exhibit was pretty empty. Slowly more visitors arrived and before we knew it there was a crowd joining our discussion.

PART TWO:

Left to Right: Gregory, Chuck, John, Ben, Clarice, Chris, Michael, Ben