Museum Experience

The best way to experience the museum is from the top floor down. One emerges from the elevators into a spacious hallway. At some hours, museum staff members are giving small hands-on demonstrations of techniques such as quillwork. These activities take place near wall cases filled with objects. These small surveys of the museum's vast holdings are called "Windows on the Collection." Appearing on every floor in the halls that overlook the rotunda, these display cases serve as a kind of visible storage, presenting a panoply of objects and materials. Their arrangements are artistic, and their contents perhaps intentionally designed to jar the visitor. For example, the largest case on the fourth floor displays animal imagery of all sorts. Older sculptures of birds, mammals, and sea creatures appear alongside witty contemporary works such as Larry Beck's version of a Yup' lk mask made of rubber tire treads and metal tools, and Jim Schoppert's "Walrus Loves Baby Clams" mask. Recently-made ivory carvings challenge the common distinction between so-called "authentic fine art" and commodity (a distinction which may be passed in the academic world, but which still holds strong among much of the general public).