Before “Oshkosh” (EAA AirVenture), we spent a night in Racine, Wisconsin. The town is notable as the birthplace of J.I. Case, which pioneered backhoe loaders, and S.C. Johnson. The downtown square was once filled with shade trees, we learned:
There are some arty/fun shops:
There’s a big marina:
Do we think that the owner of Knot Woke is going to vote for President Kamala Harris?
The local art museum specializes in crafts.
Here’s an idea from Linda Dolack for a fun kitchen table project with kids:
Right next to this art, the museum explains that it is tracking “self-indentifying women” and “artists of color”:
The museum was featuring what I think is a great idea for kid room decor: a 2.5-dimensional glass wall mural.
The above mural is by Frances Higgins (1912-2004) and she can’t be commissioned to make more. However, it looks as though her studio is still in operation and individual pieces can be purchased and, perhaps, commissioned. Imagine a custom mural with each element being an aircraft seen at EAA AirVenture! Maybe with the fireworks at the end of the night airshow as well. That would be great for a kid’s room.
What about the gift shop? Exactly one category of books was featured in a window visible from the street:
Once inside, they also had several books on the subject of career advancement via having sex with a married man who was already famous within the field:
A few more items from the shop…
Overall, it is tough to disagree that this is Racine County’s best art gallery!
They say that Europe (at least Western Europe) is more woke than the US – you didn’t get that impression?
Joe: It seems to depend a lot on the country within Europe. Overall, though, I’d say that American art museums have more of a focus on personal characteristics of artists, especially when an artist can be said to belong to a victimhood group (2SLGBTQQIA+, female (despite the IOC not being able to define or recognize femaleness), Black, immigrant, etc.).
@Philip,
> Overall, though, I’d say that American art museums have more of a focus on personal characteristics of artists
You are correct about this. In a formal life, I used to be an artist, a graduate of SMFA [1]. From day 1, every instructor I had, I was told to express myself in my work, otherwise my artwork will not stand out.
Today, you see this not just in artworks, but in other artistic creation, such as music to name one. You see the same in the media such as TV shows, movies and even the news. Not only that, our kids in school are also told the same: express yourself in everything you do. This is why there is no discipline and respect any more.
The only thing we are told to not express ourselves on is when we disagree with #Science.
[1] https://smfa.tufts.edu/