Jacque Janssen, arts/features editor
University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 15, 1988
11
Arts & Entertainment
Weird and wonderful KU museums
An attention grabber
Natural history tour fascinates kids
Bv Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
Jamie Coombs stared at a King snake that lay motionless, basking under a heat lamp.
The first-grader had been whizzing through the reptile exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, glancing through each pane of glass just long enough to determine what creature dwell inside. But the King snake had charmed Jamie into its lair.
Jamie looked away just long enough to call to his teacher. "Look, Mr. Green, it's the longest one."
Green's first-grade class from Santa Fe Trail Elementary School in Overland Park is one of about 360 groups that visit the museum each year, said Ruth Gennrich, the museum's public education director.
Gennrich said that school groups visiting the museum were most prevalent this time of the year. "We get a great number of groups in April," she said. "About 100 of them come."
Green said that his visit was the seventh or eightth he'd made with his students. "We always do a big unit on dinosaurs every year around February or March which we end with a visit to the museum." he said.
After several successful visits, Green said, he could guess what exhibits would be a hit with his kids. "We used to enjoy the beehive a great deal," he said. "But the snakes and the dinosaurs prove to be the most popular."
His prediction appeared true. The children buzzed with excitement as Green led them into a classroom for their morning program.
Thor Holmes, Lawrence graduate student and curator assistant for the museum, spoke to the children about dinosaurs and fossils while showing them slides during the age of the giant beasts.
After the program, the children milled about, waiting for a cue from their teacher. Green said, "OK, kids, we're going downstairs to look at the bones." His final instructions were drowned out when his students charged down a stairwell
Jamie Coombs ran through the dinosaur exhibit just as he had the snake exhibit. He became mired in a tar pit exhibit. Jamie craned his head to get every angle of the diorama. He even took aside his friend John Paul Bohom, hoping to get him interested.
"This is an example of what a tar pit can do to you," Jamie explained. "You step in, and you can't get your foot out. Then you get tar all over you and you get sucked in."
But John Paul wasn't sucked in. He escaped the tar pit and soon after, so did Jamie.
Jamie said he learned some new things from his visit to the museum. For instance, he said he now had a better appreciation for the size of a Triceratops head. The museum also helped him affirm something he said he'd known for four years.
"I am gonna be a paleontologist,
I just know it," the 7-year-old said.
"We wanted to see I was three."
After a few more minutes of examining dinosaur bones, Jamie left the museum and sat on a small stone wall beside the building. Maybe he was thinking about something Thor Holmes said to him as he rose to leave the slide show.
"Never let guys like me trick you into thinking that we've got it all figured out," Holmes said. "If you're interested in science, stay in school and stay after it. We could use you here at KU."
The KU museums of Anthropology and Natural History, Spencer Museum of Art, Snow Entomological Museum and the KU Astronomy Associates will present Museum Day from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Exhibits and activities are scheduled
at each museum, all of which are free to the public.
These stories show how some visitors and employees of three campus museums are able to find magic and entertainment within the picture frames, glass display cases and dioramas.
Anthropology's charm Graduate educates public for museum
Graduate educates public for museum
By Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
"I began as an anthropology major," she said. "When my instructor said that this was the terminal course in my sequence, I knew I had to know more. I got my first taste of it, and I couldn't get enough."
Daniels, public education coordinator for the Museum of Anthropology, said that she came to the realization after talking with her first museum instructor.
Celia Daniels knew the minute her first exhibit research class was finished that she wanted to work in a museum.
Daniels received her undergraduate degree from Washburn University and became one of the first students to enroll in KU's museum studies master degree program. Daniels said the program was interdepartmental and combined classes offered in the departments of American Studies, anthropology, history and natural history.
Daniels joined the museum's roster of about 25 volunteers while she studied. When she graduated in 1987, she was offered the job as coordinator.
"As I was finishing up, the
position was opening," she said. "The timing was really good for me."
And so were the duties. Daniels said she wanted to find a job that was in a museum and that focused on education.
"Tenjoy education, research and working with artifacts themselves," she said. "I'm not as interested in exhibits because I'm not much of an artist. But I always liked education because of the chance to work with people."
Daniels will get her big chance this year to work with people when Museum Day takes place Sunday. The theme for the day, selected by all museums on campus, will be "Weird and Wonderful." Daniels will teach programs about tattoos, masks and good luck amulets.
Daniels said the exhibits would be hands-on in nature and would contain items not normally displayed.
"It's a nice way of letting people see what is usually behind closed doors," she said.
At the good luck amulets display, Daniels said, people will be allowed to make their own personal charm. The charms will consist of small bags worn around the neck and will be filled with "power words" written on slips of paper.
To demonstrate tattoos and body decoration, visitors can paint tribal designs on their faces.
"We considered tattoos for a moment, but we decided that parents might not appreciate it." Daniels said.
Professor's love for art aids Spencer, children
By Kevin Dilmore
Kansan staff writer
Bill Hambleton hopes that his love for the arts, rekindled after his retirement, will spark children's interest in the Spencer Museum of Art.
Hambleton, a professor emeritus of geology and former director of the Kansas Geological Survey, is spending some of his free time as a docent through the Friends of the Art Museum.
Hambleton said that as a docter, he went to area schools and taught workshops on art. Then, he conducted a tour of the museum for the children to present examples of painting techniques.
SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART
"We try to teach them some basics about art, the basics about lines, color, light and shading, and perspective," he said. "Then, we use the works on display at Spencer to illustrate what we mean."
Hambleton said he liked the chance to work with children and even took a few courses at the University to hone his skills.
“It's a lot of fun to pick this up again because I've always been interested in art and music,” he said.
But the dozent program is not the only benefit of being a Friend of the Art Museum. Linda Bailey, development coordinator for the art museum, said members received information about upcoming events, discounts on book shop purchases and invitations to the 10 special events held
each year at the art museum.
One such event was a Halloween party for the children of members. The children gathered in the main gallery and talked about scary paintings, listened to ghost stories and applied their own artistic talents to the decoration of cookies.
Hambleton said the group had scheduled a tour of homes in Kansas City later in the year.
"The tour is designed to let us look at private art collections in the area," he said.
Bailey said that being a Friend of the Art Museum allowed someone to get more than just gratification by providing money to the art museum.
The Friends of the Art Museum was started in 1965 by Barbara Wescoe, the wife of former Incornell Clark Wescoe, Bailey said.
"She held a yearly benefit ball for the museum in the days when it was still in Spooner Hall," Bailey said.
The group evolved from Wescoe's ball committee into one that now contains more than 800 members. Bailey said that about 75 percent of the Friends came from the area.
"But we do have quite a contingency from Kansas City and Topeka," she said.
All proceeds raised by the organization are set aside to purchase works for the art museum's permanent collection. Bailey said that money collected during the last 10 years had been used to purchase 60 prints, paintings, photographs and sculptures for the art museum.
Hambleton said he enjoyed being a Friend of the Art Museum and appreciated the ways he was able to be involved in the arts.
"Retirement is a beautiful opportunity to do things you didn't have time to do before," he said. "The University gives a great variety of options, and Spencer is a fine and excellent museum."
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