The past two weeks at the DMFAH has seen a change in pace in our duties as interns. As we near the installation for Wanderlove, we have been diligently preparing both for the pop-up gallery’s sneak-peek preview of Wanderlove materials and for the installation itself on the Riverwalk. However, before we get to those happenings, the week prior saw us take on duties which I am more familiar with considering my time as a lifeguard. A theatre and arts camp for elementary school children was ongoing when I came in Tuesday past and immediately I was thrown to the fore of being someone that they wanted to be open and playful with, since we spent a good portion of our time playing board games, and ensuring that they were kept in line. One group of boys took a particular liking to me and I wound up playing Exploding Kittens and Life with them on the first day and the other two floated around to get a wider breadth of interaction with the kids. The latter part of our busy days was art time and we used our time to create wrapped-sticks using yarn, then building things with the sticks (one group built a dragon), also making God’s eyes (pictured, from DMFAH’s Facebook), as well as playing with yarn to create cat’s cradles. The yarn theme played into Wanderlove, with some of their crafts being displayed in the pop-up gallery, as well as an historical approach that informed them about Danville’s history as an important textile manufacturing city. Another fun craft was self-portraits using features of themselves from photographs after learning about and viewing works in the museum by a portraitist from Danville who became a founding member of the Abingdon Square Painters, Harriet Fitzgerald.
This past week saw a return to pace, although towards the end we have ramped up our efforts to prepare for Wanderlove. This past Friday was the opening of the pop-up gallery in a members-only event which saw myself manning the Craghead Street Gallery, which is conveniently located right next to the pop-up gallery (and thankfully is the one with AC). Thursday was a major preparation day and Aidan T. and myself (pictured) helped with the installation in the pop-up gallery for Friday’s event. Other noteworthy activities this past week included a gratifying, though tedious, effort on my part to find old museum listings of the items in the Stratford Collection and make copies of them for study. At first I dismissed this as busy work, but the next day a new lead led me to a trove of documents, albeit unintelligible, that makes me appreciate the new system of accessioning that streamlines an otherwise antiquated and confusing nomenclature. Next week begins the Riverwalk installation of Wanderlove, so I will be assisting Wednesday and Friday with that in time for its July 4 reveal. Many disparate groups are helping bring this together and none of it would be possible without their time, effort, and many, many sewn strands of old sweaters.
