The Perfect Blend of Art and Science

 

This video showcases a tiny sample of the things you'll see at the Explorarorium.

I've been a fan of the San Francisco Exploratorium for years. What a brilliant idea! Give artists an opportunity to illustrate principles of science - and do it in the form of play. I was able to get a look at the newest set of exhibits, GLOW, running through January of 2022 - light, color, and learning. Of course, all my favorites in the Tinkering section were there, especially Diesel Punk Pegasus.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the Exploratorium is just for kids and families. There are After Dark memberships for adults that are date night favorites. All the exhibits have an element of hand-on play, and there are dozens of them from the ephemeral to the biological. Don't miss it!

Off to the Sun: a Day of Art in Scottsdale

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art  (SMOCA) Moon viewing installation

 Thank goodness for friends in far-flung places. When the dampness in Northern California results in a fine layer of mold on things that should never see spores (and it has been one rainy winter!), my thoughts stray to sunnier climes and my good friends who are smart enough to live there. And who are willing to put up with me for a few days...

First stop on this trip: Michele, who lives just outside Florence, AZ, midway between Greater Phoenix and Tucson. Florence is one of the oldest towns in Arizona, a typical dusty desert town, I always thought it didn't have a lot to recommend it; but on this trip I learned how wrong I was (more on that in a later blog).

Michele picked me up at PHX (also known as Sky Harbor), and we hit the ground running. Or rather riding. Scottsdale is one of several smaller cities that has been encompassed by Greater Phoenix, but retains a distinctive identity, and one of the coolest things about Scottsdale is the free trolley that buzzes around Old Town, where a lot of the museums, galleries and shopping extravaganzas mix with dozens of restaurants and cafes. It runs every 15 minutes, and yes folks, it's free. So we parked and picked it up, taking in the big art pieces that dot the landscape


Our appetites whetted for more visual candy, we hopped off the trolley  and walked a couple blocks to Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (better known as SMOCA), currently celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of world-class videos.






 
The museum is a success story in every way. Resurrected from an abandoned, run-down warehouse, the space is gorgeous. Sleek modern architecture surrounded by sensitive desert plantings abound in Scottsdale, and this is another fine example. The high ceilings make for vast installations that wouldn't look right anywhere else.

I've never been to a museum where the docents (who look nothing like the typical idea of a docent, by the way) are so enthusiastic about the art, they can't help but share their excitement about the artworks and the artists behind them - definitely an education in contemporary art.

The objects in this picture may look like giant pushpins, but they're actually chairs that rock from side to side - a little disorienting at first, but then, it's a party!

After our contemporary art tour, we drove down to the Desert Botanical Garden in Scottsdale for a truly magical experience.

All images by Joanne Orion Miller unless otherwise noted.