Homeschool Day at the IMA

At least, that's what it used to be called before the Indianapolis Museum of Art changed its name to Newfields, but it takes me something like a decade before I can resign myself to a building changing its name (I've just this year begun to think about referring to the local university's main library by its "new" name, bestowed in 2005, and I still don't think I'll ever call the IU Art Museum by its proper new name), and anyway, the IMA's new name doesn't rhyme with "Homeschool Day," so there you go.

Now that the kids are older, we don't do nearly as many of these "what the hell, might as well go check this place out" field trips as we used to. Mostly, of course, I think that's because we've already done them all, and we're still plenty busy with topic-oriented field trips, places like the local news station when we're studying meteorology, or backpacking hikes so the kids can earn their Girl Scout Outdoor Journey, or even someplace that we study because we know that we're going there, like, you know, Hawaii.

But, you know, sometimes I'm checking my email during the super boring Girl Scout volunteer meeting (yay for free wifi!), get an email from the IMA about their upcoming Homeschool Day, and because the guest speaker is still going on about something or other of primary interest to Daisies and Brownies I check my planner, see that we're free that day, and impulse buy us tickets. Online shopping is a great distraction from a Powerpoint presentation!

I even snookered Matt into coming with us, although I doubt he'll get suckered in again after having to live with my Yes We're Packing Lunch Because Food There Is Expensive rule. You'd think he would have learned after the Art Institute of Chicago Hot Dog Fiasco of Ridiculousness, but his optimism remains unshaken and adorable.

Or he might stay away because of the other thing that always happens, entitled Other People Try to Talk to Us and We Don't Like Them. But if that didn't always happen, miserable as it is, our official lunchtime conversation topic of Name the Most Annoying Person You Encountered This Morning would just go nowhere, and then what would we have to talk about? The art?!?

Don't worry. We didn't talk about the art at lunch on this day, because the docents who checked us in that morning basically made fun of me for not having the same last name as the rest of my family, and there were a bunch of people standing in front of the bathroom door, not doing anything bathroom related, when Will was trying to go, and some woman tried to tell Matt that the whole drawing table she was sitting at was reserved and the docent had to come up and tell her that we could sit there, and then that SAME RANDOM WOMAN told Syd that we weren't supposed to draw with the watercolor pencils, and so then of course Will had to start drawing with them, too, in solidarity.

Yeah, Matt is for sure never coming out with us on another homeschool field trip...

You can also tell that homeschool field trips are old news by the fact that I didn't even bring my nice camera (okay, it's also because once I did bring my nice camera here and I got in trouble and now I'm scared)! My cell phone camera is crap, but I nevertheless couldn't help taking at least a few pictures:

Here, Syd is supposed to be sketching the art, but on this week she was ALL fired up about the ensemble designs she wants for next year's Trashion/Refashion Show, and all of her sketches are of outfits made of trash and related to the seasons. At least it's creative, I guess...

This is always the kids' favorite piece.

 They also like, and are forever baffled, by this one:





The blocks below were in an exhibit on interior design, but look how brilliant they are! They're clear, hollow L-shaped blocks, partially filled with different materials, and someone needs to make them commercially and sell them to me a decade ago for my kids:

No, I apparently don't have any actual pictures of the actual art, although I know that we looked at most of it. I finally understand the point of pointillism now, too, so that's pretty cool.

Great art museums on every corner are where I really feel a lack in our community--sure, we can trek to Indy to check out Homeschool Day at the IMA, or visit the one sculpture trail further south, or keep hanging on until our local university's art museum opens back up after its current remodeling, but I like to think that if we lived somewhere like Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, or, you know, London, we'd be out and about at art museums and installations and exhibits all the time. Is that true, do you think? Do you guys who live in all the awesome places do all the awesome things? Or are there annoying people there who might talk to you, too, so you stay home and sit on your couch where it's safe?