Travel Tuesday: Cincinnati Museum Center

I used to have two sisters who lived in Cincinnati, but now only one of them does. We try to go to Cincinnati at least once a year. This post is about one of our favorite places to visit.

 Cincinnati Museum Center

Cincinnati Museum Center is housed in the old Union Terminal and it is simply gorgeous! The architecture and style of the building are fantastic. It was built in the art deco style and opened in 1933.  Inside the main lobby, are these brilliant murals depicting the history of the Cincinnati area.

There are a few different museums housed in this building. They have a great rotating collection of interesting art and artistic ideas. But by far, our favorite place to go is the Duke Energy Children's Museum. Located in the basement of the building, this section is packed with interactive and interesting displays for kids to explore.

My kids usually play in the ball area first where they test the laws of physics and play hard.

Then they move onto the water play area where they explore water to their hearts' content. Then they run to the forest where they go up and down ladders, stairs, crawl through tunnels, play in a secret pirate ship, and jump on a spider's web. Seriously non-stop playing!

I love the miniature town as well. Kids engage in creative and constructive play for hours. They can shop at the grocery store, work at an ice cream parlor, take care of sick pets at the vet center, play house, dance, build houses, operate a play bulldozer, gas up their cars, etc.

Babies and toddlers can  explore and play in a special area that is safely contained from the active, older children.

After playing until everyone is exhausted, you can enjoy delicious ice cream from Graeters. They are the Rockwood Ice Cream Parlor, which has retained all the Art Deco 1930s charm you can imagine. Tiled booths are a visual treat to enjoy as you eat ice cream.

If I lived in Cincinnati, I would visit every week.

© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Wondering Wednesday: Home in Transition

Since leaving my childhood home-the home I was brought to as a baby and lived in for eighteen years, I have lived in fourteen different apartments and homes, I never imagined that the reality of "home" would be in a state of constant flux. This has caused me to ponder often on the meaning of home and how that concept influences my life. Because of the fluidity of places I have experienced, I have fixated on the concept of home as being an inner place based on familial relationships, rather than a constant actual location. Home is where I am with family-my husband, children, parents, and siblings. I have worked hard to create stable, healthy relationships with loved ones. I often dream  of homes, always in a state of transition: I am always moving in and out and exploring the possibilities and flaws of different homes. I have thought of this a lot of over the years but have never encountered art which visualized many of my thoughts and feelings about the transitory nature and experience of physical homes, until now.

Today I visited the Contempary Art Center in downtown Cincinnati. I didn't have a purpose other than wanting to check out the building. Currently, the CAC is housing an interesting exhibit called, Passages, by Do Ho Suh, a Korean-American artist. My first impression of Do Ho Suh's pieces was how playful they were. The first thing I saw were these huge pieces made of out thin, transparent fabric, beautifully representing stairwells, stair-railings, and the inner walls of homes. All the details were elegantly and precisely articulated within the pieces. The flexibility, fragility, and transitory nature of the materials used to portray very solid and concrete structures gave me pause. The traditional concept of a home, at least in the American psyche, is that it is a place where one grows roots and grows upward and outward. Do Ho Suh's pieces challenge that idea-showing that perhaps the idea of home is more illusory than real-and that our feelings and experiences in the home provide the real development, rather than the structure itself. 

Do Ho Suh also created solid house frames but they were bland, neutral, and unfinished, suggesting to me that it is the owner or tenant who creates the character and feeling of the home. A home is really just a blank canvas that is dependent on an artist (or occupant) to bring it to life and imbue the space with meaning. 

I laughed with delight at the interesting appliance art Do Ho Suh created with more transparent fabric, thin pieces of wire, and pen. The toilet, sink, oven, tub, microwave, bathroom vanity, and refrigerator were beautifully imitated. Again, the medium he chose was playful, interesting and suggestive of the temporary nature of seemingly permanent and important household objects. 

I also spent a lot of time examining the wall art. Do Hoh Soh used thread on white cotton paper to examine what life is like in a constant state of transition from homes, cultures, cities, and places. The variety and depth of those transitions impact a person in significant ways and cannot be expressed or conveyed in a single sentence, or one artistic piece, but beg to be examined from different angles, in different mediums, and from different perspectives. 

I truly appreciated Do Ho Suh's exhibit because he seemed to express visually what life is like when one is always in transition. I think he captures the depth and breadth of that state. I also felt like he approaches his art with joy and curiosity, making his art energizing and compelling to his audience. 

It is a curious thing to live in a home, knowing how temporary one's sojourn will be. Sometimes I revel in the experience and pretend I will be there forever. Other times, I barely settle in, ready to pack my boxes at a moment's notice. It's a psychological game I play with myself often-trying to settle in without rooting myself so deeply that I am permanently damaged from the uprooting. Do Ho Suh's exhibit, Passages, reminds me that I am not alone in this experience, but that I can find meaning, experience, and even joy in my life.


© 2007-2016 TIFFANY WACASER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED