Archive for the Education Category

Metropolitan Museum of Art Launches ‘Cloud City’ Exhibit

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 | Permalink

Cloud City

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is launching a new 6-month exhibit today called “Cloud City.” Mixing art, architecture and science, the ‘city’ provides a new perspective on the New York from the museum’s rooftop garden.

The exhibit is 54 feet long and 28 feet high, made from large, seemingly unorganized units of various reflective materials, such as glass and mirrors. Central Park and New York’s skyline provide the backdrop for the unique installation. Tomas Saraceno, the Argentine artist who created the experience, explains that the spheres create a dimension that removes you from where you really are.

“Upside down, Central Park is a flying garden embedded in a cumulus cloud, mirrored buildings and skies appear under your feet, gravity seems to reorient itself, and people are multiplied in patchworks of cloudscape, forming unexpected interconnected networks,” Saraceno said.

The museum and artist have been working on the exhibit for two years. According to Anne Strauss of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, the creation was “a bold and exhilarating endeavor.”

She continued, “Thomas Saraceno is an artist who opens our eyes to ideas and possibilities and his site-specific structure is so successfully in dialogue with the setting. It is a microcosm against the microcosm that is Manhattan.”

Saraceno added, “Cloud City is an invitation to perceive simultaneously a multiplicity of realities, making overlapping and multi-reflective connections between things, affecting and challenging our perceptions.

“Cloud City is a vehicle for our imagination, ready to transport us beyond social, political and geographical states of mind.”

 

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Remembering Those Lost in the Titanic Tragedy

Monday, May 14th, 2012 | Permalink

Last month, thousands of people across the globe gathered to commemorate the lives of those lost on the Titanic a century ago. Services, memorial cruises and hundreds of other events were held in memory of the victims and their families.

“This is a day of deep memories for a lot of us, memories of all who perished in a human tragedy beyond all comprehension,” Rev. Fred Snyder said at a multi-faith ceremony at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. “Memories of loved ones who were left behind, left behind to deal with their overwhelming grief and their pain, and to try, if possible, to make some sense of something beyond belief.”

Fairview Lawn Cemetery is located in Halifax, the city that sheltered Titanic victims’ relatives as the bodies were brought ashore and buried. The city has appropriately been labeled the City of Sorrow, and family members frequent its graves to this day.

Josyann Abisaab, inspired by the memories of her relatives, traveled from New York to attend a ceremony and see a grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery this year. She was the first of her family to visit the resting place of Gerios Youssef Abi-Saab, her great grandfather, and was very grateful for the experience.

She explained that Gerios had left his wife and six children in Lebanon, with hopes of providing them with a better life once he found work in America. Though he never lived to see his dream, Josyann believes he would find comfort in his family now.

She wrote a personal blog commemorating Gerios and describing his journey, ending it with the words:

“Rest in peace, Gerios Youssef Abi-Saab, your wings have crossed the Atlantic and your descendants made it to America.”

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Reading Just Might Change Your Behavior

Thursday, May 10th, 2012 | Permalink

Most of us agree that our children should read more, and that reading is good for them for many reasons. Now, there might just be a new reason to encourage them to pick up that book.  Researchers at Ohio State University, including co-author Lisa Libby, have found that people who get involved in their books may change their behavior to match the behavior of a favorite character. Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

While the effects haven’t been tested in all areas as of yet, they have been tested on voting habits.  The researchers have coined the term “experience-taking” in relation to readers who take on the emotions, thoughts and beliefs of characters. In one experiment, for instance, they found that readers who strongly identified with a character who managed to vote despite many obstacles went on to vote in a real election just a few days later at a higher frequency than the regular average. 82 undergraduates were asked to read a one of four versions of a story about someone who overcame the odds to vote. They read it just a few days before the 2008 November presidential election.

The results showed that the students who read the story in first-person and about a student from their own university were more likely to have experience-taking. 65% of these participants then voted on Election Day. In contrast, only 29% of those who read the first-person story about someone from a different university went out to vote.

As co-author Libby explained,

“Experience-taking can be a powerful way to change our behavior and thoughts in meaningful and beneficial ways.”

Graduate student Geoff Kaufman, who led the study, explained that, “Experience-taking changes us by allowing us to merge our own lives with those of the characters we read about, which can lead to good outcomes.”

 

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Natural History Museum of Utah Launches Exhibit of 16,000 Butterflies

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 | Permalink

16,000 butterflies were recently donated to a one-day exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah. The specimens were provided by family members of the late Dr. James Pearce. Pearce, a scientist and resident of Utah, spent 50 years of his life studying and collecting them across the globe.

“He loved to be outside, he loved nature, he was a scientist,” said Virginia, his wife. “So from the time when he was a little boy, he was collecting and classifying and spreading and developing this wonderful hobby.”

“It is truly an honor that the Pearce family trusts us with his remarkable collection,” said the museum’s Christy Bills. “Documentation of the butterflies along the Wasatch Front is not that extensive. So, the breadth and depth of the collection, in terms of time and specimens, helps us tell the story of our ecosystem here in the valley.”

The museum explained that Pearce’s studies expose the local butterfly population and its significant transformation over the past 30 years, as a result of reduced plant life and increased construction.

The exhibit will be held on Wednesday, May 9th, from 4 till 9 p.m.

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San Diego Maritime Museum Builds Spanish Galleon

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 | Permalink

The San Diego Maritime Museum is building a real-life replica of a Spanish galleon from the 16th century. The goal is to create a ship similar to the San Salvador,  the flagship of explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s small fleet, which was the first to brave the waters of North America’s  west coast.

During the Keel Laying Ceremony last year, Chairman of the Board of Port Commissioners, explained: “One of the missions of the port is to activate the waterfront, to give people a chance to come out and enjoy this great real estate that we have here in San Diego. The port’s really happy to host and be a landlord  for two of the great waterbourn museums in the world. We have the Midway, which tells the story of the Navy, and we have this great Maritime Museum that tells the story of Maritime here at the West Coast and America.”

Juan Rodriguex Cabrillo sailed into what is now the San Diego port. “It is historically one of the great sea ports in all of history, and keeping with that heritage is very important,” said Maritime Museum Executive Director Ray Ashley. He added that to create the galleon, the designers studied old drawings, contracts and even shipwrecks.

The port has other historical value besides its impact on the region’s economy. It was the first place of contact between Europeans and the native Kumeyaay.

Anthony Pico, tribal chairman of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay, spoke at the event as well. He said: “We all understand that the first meetings throughout this country between your ancestors and mine was a tragic one. But those are times that have gone by, and with this century is a new time. This is a new time for partnerships, it’s a new time to integrate and to learn from one another.”

The building of the Spanish Galleon is a way to celebrate the development of the region and its peoples, as well as to expose the new generation to the areas rich history and educate them about their past.

 

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Morrill Hall Launches “Meteorites and Minerals” Exhibit

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 | Permalink

Amethyst Cathedral Pair

This past weekend, a new “Meteorites and Minerals” exhibit was launched at Morrill Hall on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City campus.

The event curator, Professor Robert Joeckel of the School of Natural Resources, explained that the exhibit was inspired by Roger Pabian, a geologist of the Conservation and Survey Division of the school.

Pabian, a dedicated rock, gem and fossil collector, passed away two years ago at the age of 75, and the new exhibit was established in part to commemorate him.

Joeckel said: “When Roger passed away, I felt somewhat obligated to take over.” He added that some of the minerals from the collection have a direct relation to everyday life. “The one that is most prevalent is the mineral fillers that make products what they are,” he explained. “Synthetic rubbers and plastics have a lot of mineral material in them.”

Joeckel continued, explaining his hopes that the exhibit would lead people to consider materials and their effect on daily life. “Our national security and our everyday lives depend on a flow of raw materials from the solid earth.”

Some of the minerals, however, are expensive and rare. One of the exhibit’s new purchases is the “Amethyst Cathedral Pair,’ a meteorite containing a big amethyst crystal.

According to University Museum Associate Director Mark Harris, Morrill Hall has never hosted an exhibit as impressive as this. It took over a year to organize, and the items on display were collected through various means. Some were loaned by private collectors, while others were purchased with the help of a Lancaster Country Visitors Improvement Fund grant.

Harris added that he was ecstatic about the new display. “The sheer beauty will blow people’s minds!” he said.

 

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