Friday we took Kat and her friend with us to the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill and saw the special Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan exhibit. We made good use of Tim’s new disability parking tag — a game changer. Once inside I quickly realized I forgot to leave my handbag in the car and was relieved when Kat offered to carry it for me.
enameled and glazed porcelain
In Her Shoes, 2007
“This comically large foot, complete with long, painted toenails and a banana shaped heel, alludes to the fetishization of dainty feet.”
It was interesting seeing what interested the girls — they lingered and had lengthy discussions at a lot of the sculptures but zipped past all the paintings. It was nice listening to Tim asking them the kinds of teaching questions he’s so good at with kids. When he got tired there was a couch in the lobby where he rested.
I was distracted by the history of the museum itself, founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland, a Tennessee native. On the museum’s website, the Biography of William Hayes Ackland notes:
“The Ackland is in the process of reckoning with its history and rethinking how we tell the story of William Hayes Ackland. Stay tuned for changes to these pages.”
Ackland’s body lies in a stone coffin in a little room off of the museum’s lobby. The exhibit label traces where his inherited money came from. He not only wanted the people of his native south to know and love the fine arts, but it seems to me he also wanted to make sure they remembered him!
I can’t help wondering if the enlightening exhibit label will be changed if the current administration finds it out of alignment with its agenda. It will be nice when autumn comes and this cursed heat and humidity disappear. Getting back outside and enjoying the natural world; escaping from the reminders of tyranny that seem to be around every corner.
I always find it interesting to learn where wealthy people got their money, Barbara. You’re definitely in the part of the U.S. where slave trade was prominent. Stepping back from the obvious distaste of owning people, it’s fairly easy to see where the owners were coming from. I mean, if you owned a store that was your only livelihood and somebody tried to take it away from you, I guess you’d holler, too. Still, that’s such an awful lot of money to bequeath an infant!
We’ve been suffering heat and humidity for much of the spring and summer this year … and it’s been dreadful. Thank heaven for air conditioning!!
It’s not just the south! The family that established Brown University in Rhode Island invested in the transatlantic slave trade and that institution has been confronting its history, too. The north was economically intertwined with the south and benefited from slavery. There’s plenty of reckoning to be done all around.
Yesterday we had a heat index of 107°F! I did not go outside or even open a door so I couldn’t say what it was like. Yes, thank goodness for air conditioning!
Interesting info about Ackland. My undergraduate degree from UNC-CH was art history so I was in Ackland Museum frequently. I don’t remember seeing this plaque or even his effigy. I probably skipped right by it to get to the art. Maybe that explanation wasn’t posted then. I graduated in 1976 before many in the south were willing to reckon with the past in a public way. I’m glad it’s there now but I also wonder if they’ll be pressured to remove it. At any rate, it is a nice little museum. (Also, wanting a marble sarcophagus with a recumbent effigy seems so medieval and arrogant.) Thanks, Barb, for the memories.
You’re welcome, Anna. The sarcophagus was tucked away in a tiny room to the left of the main entrance. Tim and the kids walked right past it without noticing it so I’m not sure why it got my attention. Then again, I’m always drawn to nooks and crannies in architecture. 😉 It will be interesting to see if the exhibit label changes with the flow of sweeping political events coming at us. It is a nice museum, it reminds me of the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut, in my hometown. I’m looking forward to going back without the kids and getting a better look at the paintings!
We can’t rewrite history, but we can aim to improve upon it.
Yes, we’re not very objective creatures but we can keep trying to tell our stories more accurately!
Interesting stipulations that Ackland made in conjunction with this museum … I guess when you are rich, you can make requests that we “normal people” find outlandish or ostentatious. Well, he got his wish and forevermore will be there for all to see. That’s nice the girls enjoyed the sculptures and it was a nice learning event for them, a steppingstone to the beginning of school, those days still waiting in the wings as Summer vacation dwindles down.
I often wonder if wealthy people make endowments to ease their consciences. At least some of them must feel some guilt about how their riches were made or inherited. And how many of their gifts have some pretty tight strings attached. Now that you mention it, I have no idea when the school year begins again. Time seems to be flying by so quickly in one way, and dragging on when it comes to the long hot summer.
That does make sense Barbara. More than likely a guilty conscience is the root of a hefty endowment, unless it is a wing in a hospital which will honor someone. A fellow blogger who home schools her two kids mentioned they start in mid-August. Growing up we were always the day after Labor Day. Here in Michigan this has been debated for a long time as many people go up to northern Michigan to their cottages for the final long weekend and so it hurts the state’s tourism if the kids start early. (But wait a minute – kids can study in the car enroute, right?) I will not be sad to see the first day of Fall. We had another brutally hot day today and a big storm. At Metro Airport, they had five inches of rain in 40 minutes. But Fall is promised to be warmer than usual in the Midwest, by meteorologists. “The Farmer’s Almanac” however says a cooler Fall for the Midwest. Last year we had Summer-like conditions all the way to November. It has to be 40 degrees for the ticks to disappear.
That’s true, some people do make endowments to honor someone other than themselves. Turns out school starts August 25th here this year. My memories are the same as yours, school always started in September! Today will be our fourth day in a row having an excessive heat warning. One day the heat index here reached 107°F. This is so depressing, and although I am looking forward to fall I fear the days will be warmer than they should be. Tim’s been asking for a Yankee Pot Roast and I kept saying I don’t make that in the summer! But now I’ve decided to make it for an autumn dinner ahead of time. His brother and sister-in-law are coming. I’m calling it “Autumn in August” and we’re going to turn the air conditioning down a few degrees, put on sweaters, make some apple pie for dessert, and pull out the placemats with autumn leaves all over them. May sound crazy but we need something to look forward to…
This afternoon we had 90 with a real feel of 100 and I thought that was bad, but you have it much worse. That sounds like fun Barbara – anything to take your mind off the ever-present heat and make it feel like Autumn – I like the thought of “Autumn in August”. Many years ago, a neighbor had a “Christmas in July” party – it was an annual event for him, his wife and friends. None of the neighbors were invited, but he decorated outside just as he did for the holidays, had Christmas music blaring – no artificial snow though. The first year he did that, everyone saw the holiday decor going up on the front lawn and wondered what the heck was going on.
Wow! Your neighbor really went all out for a Christmas party in July! I wonder what they did inside, if they exchanged presents and had traditional food, too. I’m so tired after Christmas is over I can’t imagine gearing up for doing it twice a year. I like celebrating Midsummer instead, in June, near the summer solstice. We made flower crowns this year, decorated with lots of flowers, dragonflies, and fairy lights — think “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — and served picnic foods on biodegradable paper plates. It was just as magical as Christmas, without all the extra work. 🙂
Yes and they kept to themselves, had no kids and we didn’t even know their names, so the first year the Christmas decor went up, people were talking amongst themselves about it. I think that’s nice that you have the Midsummer event. It is something to look forward to, just as your Autumn feast will be as well.
Interesting about the man for whom the museum is named. Gave away part of his wealth to assuage a guilty conscience? The Japanese shoe sculpture is quietly funny. And the colors are beautiful.
I do wonder about his conscience. Or maybe he lived in a time when affluent people never gave a second thought to where inherited money came from and accepted the status quo. The Japanese sculptures were very unique. It was difficult getting a picture without people or multiple reflections in it. They were all behind glass.
As other people have commented, my thoughts were wow, this Ackland guy really thinks a lot of himself! Then I thought, gee the orange clown in office would probably also like that type of a final resting place!
I was reading through your discussion with Linda about the start of school with interest. I was surprised when I read that your local schools don’t start until August 25th – I thought southern schools started earlier as they seem to get out earlier, usually by the end of May. I go back to work “officially” on the 25th for two teacher only work days, with students returning the 27th. When I was a kid, it was always the day after Labor Day. I can offer some insight into Massachusetts starting earlier. It began when they changed the teacher licensing process; schools are required to provide professional development days throughout the school year, but students still need to attend 180 days, so the start of school became earlier to avoid going so much later into summer in June, plus there’s always the strong possibilities of snow days – also needing to be made up in June.
I do wonder if the orange clown has thought that far ahead — he acts as if he believes that even death cannot touch him. And we mortals keep suffering because of his grandiose delusions.
I think it was a similar school schedule situation in Connecticut. I had always assumed that at least one reason school wouldn’t start in August was because the buildings didn’t have air conditioning. But I imagine the newer schools are getting that now. The elementary school my kids used to walk to was built in 1902 and closed in 2008. The building was demolished and replaced with a very attractive contemporary-looking one for the Marine Science Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut. The elementary school districts were rearranged and new schools built. The new elementary school they would be going to is far enough away so they would need to take a bus now to get there. It does feel like the pace of change is picking up in general, making me feel like quite the old-timer.
When they have professional development days down here we get to spend the day with our grandchildren. In the past we called those “teacher workshop” days!
To my knowledge, most schools here in New England at least, do not have air conditioning in classrooms. Key places like the nurse’s office, computer labs or libraries, and of course the principal’s office have AC, but classrooms having it is pretty rare. We swelter in the August/ early September heat and again in June. Maybe it is different in the south where the heat persists longer through the school year.
They do have air conditioning in the school buildings down here. In fact, whenever it breaks down they either cancel school or send the kids home early. I know this because it’s frequently on the news! One school system in particular last spring kept making the news because the HVAC system kept breaking down. Whatever they were doing to fix wasn’t working. Finally they decided it needed to be replaced over the summer vacation.