Day Journey Discoveries: Space museums supply artwork, tradition, historical past – and quirky

When autumn rains start, duck indoors to see the newest displays at a favourite museum or try one that you just’ve by no means visited. This space presents a wealth of museums, massive and small, outstanding and lesser recognized. Reveals vary from severe artwork, native historical past and cultural heritage to downright quirky, similar to:

The Rubber Rooster Museum is a hilarious ode to plastic poultry, that traditional comedy prop. It opened in 2018 within the novelty retailer Archie McPhee in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. Right here you’ll be able to see about 200 yellow rubber chickens on show, together with a glow-in-the-dark rubber hen, the world’s greatest rubber hen, and the world’s smallest rubber hen (by way of a magnifying glass).

Take your photograph with that 7-foot-tall rubber hen. There’s no admission, and also you’ll even have a hoot shopping by way of Archie McPhee’s wacky toys, devices, costumes and, after all, rubber chickens on the market. archiemcpheeseattle.com/rubber-chicken-museum/

“In your personal yard,” Edmonds’ Cascadia Artwork Museum shows Northwest visible artwork and design from 1860 to 1970. By means of Nov. 20, it presents 4 displays, together with Northwest Arts & Crafts Motion, The Artwork of Studying, Northwest Residing: A Heritage of Mid-Century Design, and The Artwork of Howard Duell. cascadiaartmuseum.org

The Edmonds Historic Museum shows the historical past of the Metropolis of Edmonds and South Snohomish County within the restored 1910 Carnegie Library constructing downtown. Small however nonetheless actively accumulating, it has greater than 26,000 objects, paperwork and images representing this historical past and heritage. historicedmonds.org

Going north, the Tulalip Tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Heart doesn’t name itself a museum, nevertheless it showcases and interprets the standard way of life of the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish and different Coast Salish tribes. It’s designed to coach guests about Coast Salish tradition and native youth about their previous. hibulbculturalcenter.org

Heading south, the Nationwide Nordic Museum in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood options Nordic Journeys as its everlasting exhibition. Shows span 11,000 years of historical past to the current, together with 4,000-year-old stone axes and instruments, Viking-era rune stones, swords and jewellery and 17th-century spiritual objects. The rotating particular exhibit presently options Throughout the West and Towards the North: Norwegian and American Panorama Imagesby way of Nov. 27. nordicmuseum.org

The Burke Museum on the College of Washington campus is a brand new variety of pure historical past museum. Right here you might even see lively analysis in progress; for instance, paleontologists working in glass-walled labs to look at a 60-million-year-old, T-Rex dinosaur cranium. The museum homes greater than 16 million objects, together with spectacular dinosaur skeletons and intensive collections of fossils, natural world. Its Northwest Native Artwork Gallery options greater than 1,900 Northwest Coast/Southeast Alaska artifacts and 20,000 Columbia River Basin artifacts. burkemuseum.org

Volunteer Park’s Seattle Asian Artwork Museum (SAAM) showcases choose Asian artifacts from its intensive assortment in a historic 1933 Artwork Deco constructing. Initially dwelling of the Seattle Artwork Museum (earlier than its 1991 transfer downtown), SAAM highlights artwork and objects grouped by their relationship to themes central to Asia’s arts and societies. These themes embrace spirituality, worship, celebration, visible arts, literature, clothes, nature and the ability of delivery and demise. seattleartmuseum.org/go to/asian-art-museum

Because the area’s main artwork establishment, the Seattle Artwork Museum (SAM) options many everlasting collections together with Northwest Coast Native American, American, European, African, Oceanic, trendy and modern. Roughly 25,000 objects on show illustrate an incredible range of media, cultures and time intervals. Don’t miss the Native American galleries and distinctive assortment of Australian Aboriginal artwork. Particular rotating displays are additionally featured. www.seattleartmuseum.org

The Museum of Historical past and Business (MOHAI) is a treasure trove of the Puget Sound area’s historical past. Right here you’ll be able to see Boeing’s first business aircraft, the 1919 Boeing B-1, suspended overhead. Then chuckle at native lore similar to a classic Ivar’s clam costume from seafood chain. Reveals vary from Coast Salish Indians’ heritage and early Spanish, American, British and Russian explorers to the 1911-1916 development of the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks to present-day, high-tech improvements shaping the Puget Sound area. mohai.org

The wildly colourful, eccentric constructing of the Museum of Pop Tradition (MoPOP) is designed to convey the vitality and fluidity of music – which you  expertise inside through immersive displays and artifact shows. Expertise the worlds of Nirvana, Jimmy Hendrix and Pearl Jam. Try the Guitar Gallery, Sound Lab and Science Fiction + Fantasy Corridor of Fame. www.mopop.org

The Frye Artwork Museum is Seattle’s solely free artwork museum. Its Founding Assortment of primarily late 19th and early 20th century European artwork was gifted to the town in 1952 by Charles and Emma Frye, outstanding enterprise leaders and artwork collectors. The museum has since bought or been gifted intensive collections of different artworks. It additionally showcases native and international artists who discover the problems of our occasions. fryemuseum.org

The Wing Luke Museum is the one pan-Asian tradition, arts and heritage museum in North America. Situated in Seattle’s Chinatown-Worldwide District, it serves because the cultural anchor for Asian-American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. Study the tales of early Asian immigrants to current-day contributors by way of immersive displays, artwork exhibitions and academic packages. View A Dragon Lives Right here concerning the lifetime of famed martial artist Bruce Lee and his native connection. wingluke.org

Additionally specializing in neighborhood connection is the Northwest African American Museum, located in Seattle’s Central District. Its exhibitions and packages characteristic the visible arts, music, crafts, literature and historical past of African Individuals within the Northwest – from previous slavery roots to latest immigrants from Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia. Packages similar to month-to-month Interactive Story Time, E book Discuss and Descendent Collection complement the displays. naamnw.org

Go to museum web sites for places, admission charges, open hours, excursions, instructions and parking.

— By Julie Gangler

Julie Gangler is a contract author who has labored as a media relations advisor for the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. She started her profession as a workers author at Sundown Journal and later was the Alaska/Northwest correspondent for Journey Agent Journal.

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