Acquiring Culture: Random Thoughts after Visiting LACMA

January 26th, 2009. Published under family fun. 4 Comments.

• I’m tired. Didn’t know LACMA (Los Angeles Museum of Art) could tire you out that much. 
• What a relief to lie down and glide your feet down smooth, cool sheets.
• Big mistake. An art museum is not the best place to take a two-year-old for a stroll.
• We were reprimanded three times by the guards. Not at all the relaxing experience I had thought it would be.
• I wonder how much those Greek amphoras would cost if Athena had broken them.
• Those people at LACMA need a seminar on customer service.  From the cashier to the guards – they all looked unfriendly.
• Don’t go back there again. 
• What a shame ! We’ve only checked out a small part of their collection.
• Maybe when the little terror gets bigger and less restless….
• Not the best place for kids. Dark, musty, and silent.  Grave-like.  No giggling, jumping, and running around. And definitely no tantrum-throwing. Mausoleum museum. Hey, that rhymes!
• Look, but don’t touch.  Not very conducive to hands-on type of kids.
• We’re not really the artsy-fartsy kind of folks. Just making use of the free admission that comes with my kids’ free museum membership.
• LACMA is doing a good job by reaching out to the community through free membership for kids and free art classes.
• Wouldn’t it be nice if Museo Iloilo had a similar program?

My KIDS – mesmerized by the movement of a water-propelled mobile sculpture. Is it possible that art has touched the core of their beings??!!!Dream on, mama!!

• I dragged them both to the museum and, while we were  at the Hearst collection of ancient and medieval antiques, they also dragged me toward the exit. My son was disappointed to learn that there were no dinosaur bones. 
• Wish I had something interesting and intelligent to tell my whining eight-year-old. I kept repeating, “Langga, these are beautiful and expensive things.  Try to look around. You just might get to like something.” Never felt more stupid in my life.
• Prof. Zenaida French, Ph.D. would have no trouble pointing out the “lines in space” if she had been there. So obvious I haven’t learned anything much from my Humanities II course.
• The only time my kids showed any significant art-related interest was when we were at the Picasso room.  Athena saw a statue of a nude woman. She studied it intently for a few seconds, backed away, pointed to it, giggled and said in a loud voice, “Mami, yook! Is a booleh (buttocks)!” Then she went around it, pointed to the vagina, “Das a Meemew!” Rupert and I burst out laughing. “That’s you, Athena. That’s a girl” ,  I told her. “No, das mami”, she answered.
• Rupert’s reaction was, “That’s nasty!”
• Barbarians!
• I’ve been thinking of taking them to the Getty museum after this.  Gotta take advantage of their free entrance.  Although, judging from the way things went  at LACMA, it might not be such a good idea.
• Maybe we’ll just admire the Getty architecture and the LA veiw from the top of the building.  Walk through their lovely gardens.  Just skip the art.  We might get reprimanded again. Get disapproving stares from other people who are ever-so-seriously absorbing all that beauty into their souls.
• Folks like us don’t belong in an art museum. We’re the theme park types, I guesss.   They’re  so much easier for me and my uncultured brood to understand.