Treasure! at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Visited Sunday, February 7th 2016

It is February in Spokane and there aren’t too many tourists but the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, (or MAC as it is known locally,) is open year round and there were quite a few people visiting this Sunday. The MAC has undergone several changes within the last few years. There has been a shuffling of museum management with a messy firing and rehiring and a great deal of resentment and blame. The Inlander posted a few stories questioning the credentials of the most recent Executive Director and there were also public debates on next steps including online polls to both fire and re-hire him.

Despite this, the MAC is still very much part of the Spokane art and history scene with a Vision Statement reflecting this, “The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture will be the preeminent cultural showplace in the Pacific Northwest for the arts, history, and lifelong learning.” It offers highly sought after internship opportunities with local universities and graduate students. Restoration efforts include the Charles Libby photograph collection as well as other previously hidden gems that are now available in the Digital Archives Collection. There is also a new effort to modernize the museum, letting go of typical attic artifacts and bringing in much more vibrant and interactive collections including local tribe collaborations.

For now the MAC appears to be focusing very much on rebuilding its community involvement with school participation and family visits. All perfectly reasonable. Unlike Seattle, Spokane has fewer out of town visitors year round and most attendees likely live in the area and have visited more than once. The focus on schools and family attendance can be seen in its most recent exhibits, Art with LEGO® bricks and Treasure!

I visited the Treasure exhibit with my six year old and she was not disappointed. On display were a small selection of artifacts including a canon that had been recovered from a ship during the American revolution. It had actually been used by both the British and the Americans since the ship itself had been captured and then reclaimed. Most of the exhibit however was an interactive and tactile assortment of activities which included an underwater robotic camera that kids could manipulate and a set of cannon games where children could fire cannonballs onto a video screen of pirate ships. There were also stations where children could create their own pirate flag, make a coin rubbing or sniff the contents of several ‘pirate’ treasure chests and guess the odor. This was cute although I had no idea ‘sea air’ smelled exactly like Old Spice!

We also had the opportunity to pan for gold or use a metal detector in another kid-friendly area. There wasn’t too much on offer for older children and this wouldn’t be of much interest to many adults but my first grader loved it.

Visitors to the main museum also have the opportunity to tour the Campbell House just across the way. Sadly the 3pm tour had been cancelled and the previous tour was full so I didn’t get to see it this time. I did however visit the Carriage House on the property of the Campbell House and, while there, visitors can use the touch screen information centers to view the interior of the house itself as well as related images.

The Carriage House is an addition to the main house and it doesn’t hold much more than the carriage and car it was designed for but there are a few other items on display and some photographs with a little history behind them.

Many of those photographs and information guides were written by graduate history students and they are both visually appealing and informative. I had a few minor quibbles such as the use of obviously fake plastic vegetables, (corn, cabbage etc.) set out in a basket to convey the idea of what the Campbells might be eating. It would be nice to see dried corn husks instead or simply better fake replicas? There were examples of real items behind glass such as tins of original foods, (seen here,) so it was a shame to see the plastic examples.

I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the Campbell House proper but as I mentioned before, this was a Sunday afternoon in February and there will be plenty of other opportunities. In fact, Saturday afternoons offer a free tour of the home, without the need to purchase a museum ticket. Updates to follow.

References

Mike Bookey, “MAC Shake-Up: The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture suddenly fires its executive director” The Inlander, May 02, 2012. http://www.inlander.com/spokane/mac-shake-up/Content?oid=2138063

Daniel Walters, “Museum of Discontent: Rehiring Forrest Rodgers didn’t end chaos and frustration at the MAC” The Inlander, September 13, 2013. http://www.inlander.com/spokane/museum-of-discontent/Content?oid=2189834

The Digital Archives of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. https://ferrisarchives.northwestmuseum.org/