National Museum of African Art

Tyson and I are always looking to go to museums and other free things on Saturdays. We have been to almost every one now! I can almost check that off my imaginary list :) Well, one museum we had not visited was the National Museum of African Art. I don't think Tyson was super excited about this, but I was very interested to see what they had.

We could not take pictures inside the museum, so this outside shot will have to do, but the museum was actually cooler than we both thought it would be and a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. Almost the whole museum is underground (I thought that was awesome!) so you had to take stairs/elevators to get there. There were lots of rooms and it got kind of confusing at one point as to which way we were going, but we did make it through the maze (a lot of art museums do that - at least I think they do).

They had a bunch of different sculptures, sketches, short films, and even a couple of water fountains! I was intrigued by a number things. First, they had a section that had an Asian exhibit with sculptures from mostly Cambodia (random). Tyson almost thought it was Thai, but then looked closer. There were lots of elephants, buddhas, and Buddhist images.

Secondly, they had a whole display of Walt Disney's personal African Art collection. This had lots of animals (he loved animals....) and some amazing pieces. I don't remember if my favorite piece was found here or elsewhere, but I think it was here. My favorite piece was this ivory bracelet. It was so gorgeous! It was very intricately carved and just amazing to me. (No pictures, sorry!)

Thirdly, they had some random things, for example, water fountains! We all love water, but I think Reed loves water the most in our house. We found a few different fountains of water and Reed was in heaven! They also had this huge sculpture from the top of the the 1st floor to the bottom of the museum (I believe it was 3 floors underground). It was the word "monkey" is a bunch of different languages (I think 21?). Thai was on there, so that was exciting. I was also excited that German was on there.

Lastly, they had a huge exhibit of baskets! There are lots of people in North Carolina that practice basket weaving and make some amazing stuff! They use the techniques that have been passed down from their forefathers and are able to sell and use these baskets. It made me want to take a basket weaving class - they were beautiful!

So, I give a thumbs up to this museum! I didn't know if it would be a family pleaser, but everyone seemed to like it. :)

Looks small, right? Not so.