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September 28, 2009
Egypt has always fascinated us. From our first brushes with it as a child at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, we were hooked. And now it seems to have come full circle, as World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Egypt Revealed comes to Little Rock.
The Arkansas Arts Center has mounted an enormous and impressive collection of Egyptian artifacts from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And we’ve been fortunate enough to see it twice now – and the exhibit has only been open to the public for less than a week!
After seeing the exhibit during a preview party, our ministaffers were insistent that we return and bring them. Well, how could we refuse that? These are the same ministaffers that want to learn and research, remember? So after church yesterday, we decided to roll the dice and head over to the AAC and see if we could get into the exhibit on a moment’s notice.
We timed it beautifully. The afternoon crowds had not yet appeared, and we had time to have a wonderful lunch at Best Impressions before going into the exhibit. Seeing it with our ministaffers made our experience all the more rich.
We hadn’t had the opportunity during the preview to just stand and watch the introduction video. But our ministaffers watched with intent interest. Then entering the exhibit, they were thrilled with the reproduction of the Nile and the wooden boat that greeted them.
What we came to realize on our second trip through the exhibit, was that this is not an exhibit about one king – like the exhibit about Tut that was recently at the Dallas Museum of Art. So there are not lots of fancy trinkets and gold galore. No, this is an exhibit that explores the everyday life of the everyday Egyptian.
So transform your mentality and expect to see the ordinary – but it’s extraordinary. There is a bracelet made of shells that look like we could have collected them yesterday. But the bracelet is almost 6,000 years old. There are 2,000 and 3,000 year old wooden sculptures with the original paint still intact and colorful. There is a dress that a woman wore in ancient Egypt. Yes, this is an exhibit about Egyptian life – not royal life. And it’s fascinating. We enjoyed watching the ministaffers try to decipher the hieroglyphics as well as the expressions on their faces when we saw the mummies.
Yes, they have mummies! Mummification wasn’t only for the kings and queens, you know. We saw tools used in the process of mummification, as well as two mummies. We inspected them and their dressings for quite some time.
After the exhibit, we exited through the gift shop. Oh what fun! Our ministaffers enjoyed looking at all of the Egypt related paraphernalia. If your little one is stumped on what to be for Halloween – look no further than here! Our budding Egyptologists settled on hieroglyphic decoders and excavation toys. Yes, this was a great day – and an exhibit that everyone should see before it leaves town.
World of the Pharaohs:
Treasures of Egypt Revealed
Arkansas Arts Center
Now through July 5, 2010
Visit www.arkarts.com for more information and tickets. |
