Tag: Delaware Art Museum

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If It Hurts To Go Anywhere, Go Everywhere

There’s no place we go that doesn’t maintain a connection with Mary. The four of us travelled up and down Delaware and tried on every type of event. She’s in the parks, gardens, concert halls, and campgrounds. In places that she had never been, we talk about what her reactions would have been or how she wouldn’t have forgotten the hummus for the carrot sticks.

It doesn’t always hurt, most of the time we’re smiling and remembering how she heightened every experience with her warmth, her smile, and her ability to be present. Sometimes it hurts like hell, especially when there’s something she would particularly enjoy.

Today didn’t hurt. We had fun with family and friends from Lewes to Hockessin and we’re going to bed fully spent.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

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Not Alone

I got to introduce a new friend to a place that is covered in Mary’s memory today. We met at Delaware Art Museum and I learned that he had never seen the Labyrinth. We chatted and I got to share my favorite place to gather my worries and release them. Besides Mary, he’s the only person I’ve walked the Labyrinth with as a pair. We remained uninterrupted for a full hour, a rarity on a beautiful summer day.

The acoustics kept turning our conversation back to the present and I discovered how much the space resembled a temple in my heart. Sounds are made so crisply clear that I can more easily turn my mind to God and perceive what He wants me to hear. Even through our chatting and the crunching of the gravel under our feet, I could hear that I was in the right place at the right time.

All is well in my world.

God bless and thank you for reading,

Jason

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An Unlikely, Art-Filled Life

These pictures were taken three years apart and neither one by me.

Delaware Art Museum, 2016. Reprinted for the DE Creative Kids Passport, 2019.
Peninsula Gallery, 2019

Unschooling has been the most rewarding journey of my life. I still don’t like the word “unschool” and didn’t know it when I started exposing my sons to art before the youngest could walk. I had no history or education with art, I was sent by my wife as she knew there was no way I would be a “stay-at-home” dad. Story times and family-friendly tours and activities got us into museums on a regular basis and I quickly saw the magic that was happening in my sons’ lives.

Delaware Art Museum, 2016
Brandywine River Museum of Art, 2012
Biggs Museum of American Art, 2015
Biggs Museum of American Art, 2015
Meeting the Twin Poets at Delaware Contemporary, 2018
Shakespeare at Winterthur Garden, Museum, and Library, 2013
Terrific Tuesday at Winterthur Garden, Museum, and Library, 2014

An intentional learning lifestyle has taken us back again and again to our favorite galleries, where there is always something new to discover.

As we return to all these places in 2019 to complete our DE Creative Kids Passport, I will try not to be overwhelmed by the memories that we have made.

God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason

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Back to the Labyrinth

I think about Mary every day. It’s hard to wake up in a king size bed she bought and not look across the emptiness of it. It’s hard to collapse into that bed before sundown and remember how much easier it was to simply get dinner on the table with her help. It is hard to look at my sons and wonder why they had to lose a mother who loved them completely.

As I push ourselves to new places and heightened experiences, I get these moments in the ashes. The phoenix cycle: mental, physical, and spiritual destruction followed by a bursting forth of power. It gets easier to recognize, but more painful to experience. I wonder if it will ever stop. I wonder if I want it to stop.

The primary course of the hero’s journey is within. To enact that process through ritual in the physical world helps make sense of it. I’ve walked the Labyrinth at Delaware Art Museum dozens of times. I’ve received knowledge and comfort each time. I need those on this Summer Solstice. I’ll have my boys as well as friends of theirs who have lost their father. I’ll have a dear friend on my mind who lost her husband a year ago. I’ll have so much weight when I step to the entrance of the Labyrinth today. I’ll shed it on the path in, I’ll strip myself down to what is good and right and beautiful in Creation. I’ll sit at the center and thank God for His love and this treacherous road that has let me love myself more.

I may be there for a while today.

I’m always lighter on the way out. Maybe I’ll be on my toes. Maybe I’ll skip with my younger son. Maybe I’ll get a devilish smile and dream up some glorious quest to launch. Maybe I’m already on my way there.

God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason

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A Special Tree in a Special Place

Delaware Art Museum was an integral part of my life with Mary. She introduced me to the Museum and I spent many hours there with my sons, with Mary, or all of us together. Since losing her I have often taken solace in the galleries, Labyrinth, Kids’ Corner, and Sculpture Garden. I’ve been there with my boys, with friends, and on my own.

The Museum has decided to dedicate one of their magnolias to Mary’s memory. This tree sits in the Copeland Sculpture Garden where we’ve danced to live music; watched movies; picnicked; played soccer, football, and Frisbee; enjoyed tacos, falafel, and tons of food truck fare; and strolled countless miles taking in sculptures new and familiar.

After a year of dramatic changes, we’re getting to remember Mary in a place that transcends the life that was and the life that is. Mary and I often walked the Labyrinth at the change of each season and there could be no more fitting time to dedicate her tree than on the day of the Vernal Equinox. In recent years, there has been snowfall in Delaware on the first day of spring. Mary always loved that. “Bring it on!” was her response to the winter weary.

I have welcomed many people into my life who didn’t know Mary. I’ve connected most deeply with people who have also experienced loss, but not exclusively. I’ve tried to share my memories of her here and in person. I look forward to introducing family and friends, old and new, to give them an opportunity to share more of what Mary has meant to us.

God bless,
Jason

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Never Just Another Walk

When I’m quiet and outside is when I most often feel the Holy Spirit. That’s when I can hear the Lord and let Him guide me. A breeze can pass right through me and carry off what isn’t needed. The myriad of concerns and voices tugging at my attention are quieted, leaving a moment of peace void of thought. Somehow, the Lord only lets in good after that moment. Whether I’m alone or with friends, strangers, or family, hope and love fill me up and I can more clearly see the world around me.

These moments can’t be forced or scheduled, sometimes they’re partial, sometimes I ruin them. They most often come when invited. I’m best at inviting among the trees and the tall grasses.

Coverdale Farm Preserve

Delaware holds many special places for me and my memories. In the autumn I see God in all the colors. On a recent hike at Coverdale Farm Preserve, I got to remember Mary and our special adventures there, including fishing at the pond and a trick-or-treat hike in 2013.

Classic costumes, unique attitudes.

This weekend I also had the opportunity to walk the labyrinth at Delaware Art Museum. A Día de los Muertos event was cancelled due to poor weather, but I wanted to take the time to travel into and out of my favorite labyrinth before sundown.

I started the walk alone and relished the literal quiet before the storm. I was at peace immediately and lost myself in the rustling leaves obscuring much of the path. Two boys, a little older than my own, came running in with their mom. My peace swirled with their energy and a broad smile carried me to the the center. I’m discovering that being a dad and being alone aren’t at odds. I can have and enjoy both.

I came out of the labyrinth stronger, calmer, and more ready for what is next.

God bless,
Jason

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Autumn’s Art: Fall Events at Local Museums

Delaware rests interminably on the division between snow storms and rain storms, flooding hurricanes and quiet spectating. We also have a tenuous relationship with fall. We could have weeks of a changing palette against the sky or 48 hours before a storm whips through and makes it look more like winter.

Fortunately, we are blessed with museums in and around our state that provide many ways to enjoy the season.

At Delaware Art Museum there are the final Thursday evening Summer Happy Hours leading up to the Peace Week Delaware and Fall Equinox Labyrinth Walk on Saturday, September 22nd, at 6:00 pm. Celebrating the change of seasons with a meditative stroll into and out of the Labyrinth will help you refresh for the fall. Level of meditation available will depend on how many children you have in tow.

On Thursday, September 27th, at 8:00 am, Brandywine River Museum of Art will host the Harvey Run Trail Walk: Finding Natural Wonders. This walk, inspired by the current Natural Wonders exhibit, will be led by Susan Charkes, author of AMC’s Best Day Hikes Near Philadelphia(free for members/$12 non-members). Other highlights from the Museum’s calendar include their First Sundays for Families with free admission on the first Sunday of each month, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. November’s first Sunday offers the thrill of Pirate Adventure Day.

First Saturdays at Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover are home to the free Biggs Kids programs. On Saturday, October 6th, at 11:00 am, Delaware Nature Society will be there for a special program on birding for children. Then the Museum will partner with Delaware State Fair at Delaware State Fairgrounds for The Great Delaware Pumpkin Carve Festival on Friday, October 26th from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm and Saturday, October 27th from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Fall Family FUNdays at The Delaware Contemporary on select Sundays, 1:00 to 3:00, are open to all ages and offer a variety of engaging activities and art-making opportunities. Attend all four and receive a FREE family portrait taken by a professional portrait photographer during the December 16th Free Family FUNday.

Keep checking back here to read more about local events to enjoy with your family this fall.

God bless,
Jason

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Artful Campers

Letter writing, museums, and camping have something in common. They take time. This summer, we took time to enjoy many moments away from the seemingly immediate demands of modern life. We got away from devices and noise and experienced the subtleties of life we so often fail to perceive.

We took time.

Delaware Art Museum is inviting families to take time together in the Copeland Sculpture Garden for twilight art making, moonlit sculpture tours, and bedtime stories during their very first campout on August 18th! Tent camping will happen in the Garden and limited space will be available inside for sleeping bags.

The Labyrinth at dusk, the sunset light falling on Crying Giant, the colored lights of the Museum at dark…this promises to be a special evening.

It will be extra special for me and my sons as the Museum has dedicated a magnolia tree to my late wife, Mary Kathryn Zerbey. It has yet to have a plaque, or made official with a ceremony, but it is a touching gesture to have a permanent place for Mary at the Museum she introduced us to seven years ago.

I had left my job as a proofreader and editor to care for our sons. Mary knew me to be restless and sent me to the Museum. After a stroller tour and a Glory of Stories, we were hooked. Not just to Delaware Art Museum, but all museums. We’ve delighted in countless hours in collections of varied stripes. They’ve become a focal point of our educational lifestyle. Places where knowledge isn’t just discovered, but applied, challenged, connected, explored, and brought into full color and dimension.

An opportunity to spend 13 (or more) hours in a corner of our world that has brought us so much value? Oh yeah, we’ll be there August 18th.

God bless,
Jason

 

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The Learning is Out There

When we started on this educational journey, we only knew the words “home school.” We got desks set up and slowly began to transform part of our house into a school room. We didn’t recognize it right away, but major problems were there from the start. We weren’t being rigid, but we were looking at education as a mere “part” of our lives. Even worse, narrowing it to a physical area of our home. “School” was the other problem. We were trying to replicate an environment of learning that hadn’t been satisfactory for ourselves. Every time we left the house to go to a museum, park, arboretum, music venue, or even the store, our children’s curiosity led us down unexpected paths of enrichment. We were slow to learn from these experiences that the excitement of life and knowledge was out in the community. Engaging with new ideas and experts in their own environments.

Photo credit unknown

Photo credit unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

These engagements often produce much more than expected. They cascade into different disciplines and new places of wonder. From the first time I spotted our older boy’s “birthday painting” (Howard Pyle’s The Fight on Lexington Common taught us when the American War for Independence began), Delaware Art Museum has been a frequent source of these moments. After having the pleasure of meeting Brian Selznick at the opening of the From Houdini to Hugo exhibit, we had a chance conversation with a security guard who had become familiar with the boys. He introduced us to the work of filmmaker Georges Méliès, the inspiration behind Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. As we sought out his films at the library, we learned about early film, World War I, and how onscreen special effects were born from Méliès’s live stage act. I also learned about who was behind some of the fantastical science fiction film clips that had charged my imagination as a child. Our boys grew a love for silent films and we returned many times to that gallery to explore early paleontology, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the art of historical storytelling.

A few years later we would read Selznick’s Wonderstruck, about a boy who just lost his mother, and that same security guard would attend Mary’s memorial service. Delaware Art Museum has been central to our educational life, a life that doesn’t keep attendance Monday through Friday, but a life that is with us always and everywhere. It’s a life where learning and community are interlocked and essential to one another.

[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/G1fb75f2WN8?rel=0″ title=”Mister Rogers – Human beings learn best and most from other human beings” description=”Mister Rogers – Human beings learn best and most from other human beings” /]

God bless,
Jason