NEWS RELEASE Media contact:
Colleen Schafroth, Executive Director
(509) 773-3733, colleen@maryhillmuseum.org
More Than 900
Regional Third and
Fourth Graders To
Explore Native Arts and Culture
at Maryhill Museum of Art's Museum Week
(GOLDENDALE, Wash., September 30,
2009) -
Between October 13-15 and
October 20-22, Maryhill Museum of Art will be bustling with more than
900
regional
third- and fourth-graders, who will be on-site for Museum Week field trips featuring in-depth exploration of the arts
and hands-on fun.
According to Reach Advisors, a
strategy and research
firm serving museums, school field trips are incredibly important not only to
learning in the short-term, but also for the long-term sustainability of
museums.
"With many districts facing
budget shortfalls, schools are cutting field trips, not because they aren't
interested, but because they can't afford transportation. Thankfully we have
sponsors who provide funds to bus children to Maryhill," says Carrie Clark,
Maryhill's Curator of Education. "These funds are critical to the success of Museum Week, and to providing meaningful
arts experiences to local students. For many of the kids, this is their first
time at a museum."
The theme of the 2009 Museum Week
is A
Sense of Place: Living the Good
Life Along the Columbia River. Students will use art as a lens to
explore the traditional life ways of Native Americans who made their ancestral
home along the mid-Columbia River.
Maryhill's partner in
presenting Museum Week is the Wanapum
Heritage Center, which will have its mobile Wanapum Native American Discovery
Unit (WNADU) on-site. The WNADU is a
custom motor home that illuminates the Wanapum, the foods they eat, their way
of life and how they maintain their culture. Inside the WNADU, children will
view a diorama of the old Priest Rapids Wanapum Village and more. The Wanapum
Hertiage Center also will present an assembly program about the cultural
life of the Wanapum, including music and dancing.
Participaing educators
include Vonda Chandler, who will lead students in creating a Native parfleche
container, Mary Nygaard, exploring salmon and its significance to Columbia
River Indians, and storyteller Linda Anderson, who will tell stories and
legends of region, illustrated by art from the museum's traveling school
exhibit Making Beauty.
Maryhill offers its Museum Week
program at a nominal
cost of
$3 per student. Funding for the program is made possible by the following sponsors: Wal-Mart
Hood River, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Foundation, Art Dodd and Diane
Plumridge, and Gorge Kids Explorer Fund by Soundrider.com.
Schools from The Dalles,
Hood River, Mosier, Grass Valley, Pendleton and Echo in Oregon, and Goldendale,
Centerville, Cook, White Salmon and Trout Lake, in Washington are scheduled to
participate in Museum Week during
2009.
For more information, or to
inquire about reservations for next year, call (509) 773-3733 or email education@maryhillmuseum.org.
###
ABOUT MARYHILL MUSEUM OF
ART:
Housed in a glorious Beaux Arts mansion on 5,300 acres high
above the Columbia River, Maryhill Museum of Art is one of the Pacific Northwest's most enchanting cultural destinations. Founded by
Northwest entrepreneur and visionary Sam Hill, Maryhill opened to the public in 1940; today the museum boasts a world-class permanent collection,
rotating exhibitions of the highest caliber, and dynamic educational programs that
provide
opportunities for further exploration by visitors of all ages.
The museum's collection includes more than 80 works by
Auguste Rodin, European and American paintings, objects d'art from the palaces of the Queen of Romania, Orthodox icons, unique chess sets, and the
renowned Théâtre de la Mode, featuring small-scale mannequins attired in
designer fashions of post-World War II France. Baskets of the indigenous people of North America were a collecting interest of Sam Hill;
today the museum's Native American collection represents nearly every tradition and style in North America, with works of art from
prehistoric through contemporary.
Maryhill's Outdoor Sculpture Garden features work
from the permanent collection by Tom Herrera, Mel Katz, Heath Krieger, Alisa Looney, Jill Torberson, Julian Voss-Andreae, Jeff Weitzel and Leon
White.
Each year the museum also hosts an Outdoor Sculpture Invitational showcasing artists of the Northwest. The Maryhill Overlook is a site-specific
sculpture by noted Portland architect Brad Cloepfil; nearby are Lewis and Clark interpretive panels. Four miles east of Maryhill is a life-sized
replica of Stonehenge, Stonehenge Memorial, which Sam Hill built to memorialize local men who perished in World War I. Nearby, the Klickitat County
War Memorial honors those who have died in service of their country since World War I.
The museum was placed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1974. In 2001 the museum was listed as an official site of the National Historic Lewis and Clark Trail and in 2002 was accredited
by the American Association of Museums.
VISITOR
INFORMATION:
Maryhill Museum of Art is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
March 15 to November 15. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $2 for children age 6-16. Admission to the Stonehenge Memorial is free; it is
open from 7:00 a.m. to dusk daily.
Sandwiches, salads, espresso drinks, cold beverages, and freshly
baked desserts and pastries are available at Café Maryhill; the Museum Store features art and history books, jewelry, Native American crafts and
other mementos.
Maryhill is located off Highway 97, 12 miles south of
Goldendale, Washington. Drive times to the museum are 2 hours from Portland/Vancouver, 3.5 hours from Bend, 4 hours from Seattle, and 1.5 hours from
Yakima. For further information, visit www.maryhillmuseum.org.