Fowler Museum
UCLA Westwood
October 10, 2015
We took Margaret to the Fowler Museum to see two new Native American exhibitions. We first saw Zuni World, a series of paintings displayed around the atrium. They were created by contemporary Zuni artists and feature traditional places, symbols, and subjects. We enjoyed the balance and colors and the fine details. Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon were each depicted in several paintings, reminding Margaret of visits she had made to those sites. This exhibit will run through January 10, 2016.
We then went into a gallery featuring textile art of the Southwest, mostly made in the period 1860-1880. This exhibit, Treasured Textiles from the American Southwest: the Durango Collection, was written up by Jessica Galt in the Los Angeles Times the same day we went, although we did not see the article until after we had been there. The majority of those pieces were blankets woven by Hopis and Navajos. Different designs were represented, and the display showed the evolution of designs over time. We were impressed with how vibrant the red pieces still are. The final pieces in the gallery were woven by Hispanic artists. Interspersed with the textile pieces were some historic photographs providing context, and there were good explanatory notes with each piece. This exhibit likewise runs through January 10, 2016.
Our final stop at the Fowler was a room displaying ancient Colombian pieces from the Magdalena Valley, both ceramic and metal, from about 900 to 1600 A.D. These pieces will be on exhibit through January 3, 2016. We did not spend much time in the permanent collection on this visit. It contains some excellent anthropological pieces from around the world, and also the splendid Francis E. Fowler, Jr. silver collection.
We had lunch before the museum visit, at an Italian café in the Anderson business school, Il Tramezzino, just a few buildings over from the museum. We each had a panini and enjoyed our meal. There were very few people in the restaurant when we arrived at noon, but as we finished a number of students crowded in. The restaurant is up a level from the museum, so we had to go into a classroom building and take an elevator up. We blundered into what turned out to be a service elevator letting us out in a kitchen, but the staff were quite nice and showed us the way through the kitchen out onto the Anderson plaza. After we ate we found the passenger elevator for our return trip, and a fellow passenger made sure we were oriented in the right direction to head back toward the Fowler.
Admission to the Fowler is free. There is a donation box at the entrance for those who wish to contribute. We parked in a nearby underground garage and paid $5 to park. There was ample parking for our Saturday visit; we do not know what the weekday parking situation may be.
Margaret was fairly talkative and alert at the beginning of our outing, and chatted with us about family over lunch. We reminded her that her oldest grandchild had a birthday coming up the following week, and helped her pick out a card in the museum gift shop. Margaret grew tired as the afternoon went on and was struggling a bit for words at the museum, but she did enjoy the videos there. The Zuni exhibit included a video explaining the origin of the art project, and showing several of the artists at work. She also watched two short videos in the permanent collection, one about potlatch ceremonies in British Columbia and the other about Hopi culture in the Southwest. She perked up a bit and joined in the conversation when we met up with Meredith’s sister Kathleen for coffee at the end of the day. The transfers from wheelchair to car and back remain hard for her, and we are now planning our outings so we can eat at or near whatever museum we visit, and not have to make an additional transfer. For smaller places that do not have a café on site, we may bring a picnic or get sandwiches to go.