MUMMY vs. MUMMY

On Friday we will kick-off our 2010 Summer Films on the Lawn with the 1999 version of "The Mummy" starring Brendan Fraser. Some people love this films, some pledge allegiance to the old black and white version with Boris Karloff. Luckily we will be showing both over the course of the series.

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

EDIBLE ESTATES

Our guest for the July 3rd Thursday event is FRITZ HAEG.

He takes a guerilla-style approach to transforming your front lawn into a garden.

See more here...

Join us on Thursday, July 15th at 5:30 pm for this great event!

Q&A with Dr. Kara Cooney

We recently had a Q&A session with noted archaeologist, Dr. Kara Cooney. Aside from hosting the Discovery Channel program, Out of Egypt, she also wrote part of the catalog for our current show, To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum.


When did you first realize you were interested in Egypt? What sparked this interest?
I was about seven or eight years old, and my mother came back from a business trip to London with my dad. She went to the British Museum and brought back a number of books about the ancient world - about the Romans, Vikings, Medieval Europe, and a few about ancient Egypt. These books were all about the daily lives of ancient peoples - how they cooked their food, how they built their houses, and how they buried their dead. I especially remember one of the books that had dozens of pictures of unwrapped mummies and coffins, and I thought that was pretty amazing. But I don't know what the real spark of interest was. Long story short, I have always been interested in cultures that are long dead. I want to know what they were really like. I still love the ancient Romans and Vikings, but Egypt won.

2. For a field so deeply rooted in the past, how has modern technology changed the role of the Egyptologist?
When I was working on my dissertation and traveling to museums throughout Europe, I had to cart a suitcase of books with me. Now I just bring an extra hard drive with PDF scans on them of the reference books I will need. I used to send letters and faxes to set up appointments at foreign museums. Obviously, now you can contact just about anyone in the world through email. And most importantly, digital photos have changed the lives of art historians and archaeologists everywhere. The first couple of years that I taught, I used slides with all of the fiddly carousels and expensive processing fees. What a wonderful invention PowerPoint and digital projectors are. I even remember that I was the only graduate student at the National Gallery who wanted to use digital images, and I had to get them made into slides, which was a bit backwards... Things have changed a lot since the year 2000. I've just started a database on Egyptian coffins, and I'm able to store and organize literally tens of thousands of images of these complicated funerary arts. With slides, that would have been impossible.

3. What is the question you are most commonly asked? And what is the biggest misconception about your job?
I'm most commonly asked why I decided to become an Egyptologist, and strangely I have a very hard time answering this question. It's almost too personal. Or the answer is too emotional. I don't think most people understand how much sacrifice there is in this profession. And so I think the decision was really a calling, of sorts, at least for me. We Egyptologists, and academics like us, choose to have almost zero chance of getting a job after the PhD. We choose to spend 8 to 10 years in graduate school, scraping together funds from stipends, part-time jobs in the library, and the odd student loan. We choose to move from one short-term post doc after another when we get the PhD, and that's if we are very lucky. We choose to measure our worth by the articles and books that we write. So, in the end, you have to be REALLY devoted to the lifetime pursuit of a dead culture. Don't get me wrong: I'm rewarded every day with my job. Unlike most people, I actually get to do what I love. But the choices that led to this happy ending were all rather insane because the chances of any of them working out was pretty low.

4. If you only had the opportunity for one more trip to Egypt, which two or three places would be on your must-visit list?
Well that's a hard question! First, I would have to head to Luxor, because it's one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world - with Karnak temple, Luxor temple, dozens of royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and the mortuary temples on the west bank. Second, I would go to Cairo and just hang out every single day in the Egyptian Museum. The treasures in that museum are insane, and I'm not just talking about King Tut. Third, I would head to Abydos and visit my favorite temple - the Osiris temple of Seti I which has some of the most delicately cut and beautifully painted limestone relief anywhere in Egypt.

5. Name one thing about ancient Egypt that everyone should know, but hardly anybody does.
Slaves did not build the pyramids! And Egyptian culture was not built by slave labor. The pyramids were built by draft labor, which pulled Egyptian peasants from their lands into service for the king. It was the same situation for temples like Karnak or Luxor in ancient Thebes. I think most people think that Egypt is largely the product of foreign slaves, like ancient Rome was. But in reality, ancient Egypt was able to support such a high population that it was able to exploit its OWN PEOPLE to great effect. Unlike the Persians, Macedonians, or Romans, they didn't need to built a massive empire that built wealth on the backs of slaves. They had more than enough people in their own land who needed work so badly they were willing to work for daily bread.

SAVE THE DATE: Dr. Cooney will be our guest for the August 3rd Thursday event on August 19th.

MOVIES ON THE LAWN NEXT FRIDAY!

THE SHADOW KNOWS!

This weekend we have an awesome EGYPTIAN SHADOW PUPPET SHOW...


HOW TO MANIFEST IN THE SUNSHINE AND BE HAPPY
~an original shadow-play by John Cruncleton (with apologies to the Egyptian Book of the Dead)

Saturday and Sunday 2pm-4pm

ROCK IT, BOTTLE!

As you can imagine, there are A LOT of wine bottles left after our bi-annual Philbrook Wine Experience. Most get recycled, but some are used by our staff for the Philbrook Wine Bottle Decoration contest. This is a fun way to let our staff show their creative side and way of re-purposing these bottles.

The one seen here was turned into a super-cool way to water your plants. Wow, what a creative bunch of people we have here!

A LITTLE OKC LOVE

Our friends at THE OKLAHOMAN wrote up a lovely piece about our current exhibition.


To see the article in full, CLICK HERE

HOT SUMMER/COOL SHOW

Beat the summer heat and see this extremely COOL show.

And maybe you can learn how TO LIVE FOREVER!

And the winner is...

The winner for of our OBJECTS AND MEMORY PHOTO ESSAY CONTEST is...

Kathy Murphy.

See essay below

This little ceramic frog has to be over 50 years old. I always remember him in my grandmother's bathroom holding stick matches for lighting the gas wall heater. He sat there until I was 15 when she moved to another home, and was relocated to her "show-off" cabinet with the Limoges porcelain and Murano glass. Now, 40+ years after I met him he resides on my mantle where I see him every day. When we liquidated everything in her home the only thing I asked for was this little green frog. Nobody knew I wanted him until I visited the estate auction. My uncle smuggled him out of a box lot in his pocket and pressed him into my hand before the bidding started.
Everybody has special childhood memories. Many of mine involve my Grandma Susie and the times she took me to their farm for the weekend. I remember baths in a big zinc tub on the wrap-around porch, snapping beans fresh from the garden and the cool Oklahoma plains breezes going all the way through the opened up house. That house blew away in a tornado over 20 years ago. The frog survived. I saw her this last weekend and at 94 years old she is present in body but in mind she is there only in the very instant you are talking to her. She can't remember the conversation we had 5 minutes previous. She does remember me as a child playing at the farm, and I think this little froggie does too.

THANK YOU!

Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful pieces you submitted to our photo essay contest. We will announce the winner at tonight's event and will post here tomorrow.

THANKS AGAIN!

Tomorrow: Objects, Memories, and More!

Tomorrow is our monthly 3rd Thursday event.

We hope you can join us as this will be a memorable experience for all. Our guest for the evening will be filmmaker Jonathan Fein, here to talk
about his PBS documentary, "Objects and Memory"

We will explore why and how ordinary objects become much more than that in the wake of big events or tragedies.

We will also be announcing winners and reading entries to our photo essay contest. Prizes will be awarded.

Cash Bar 5:30pm-6pm
Talk: 6pm

Friends in Bookish Places

Our friends at the Schusterman-Benson Library were kind enough to set up this fabulous little display in honor of our current exhibition. We could not do what we do without community partners and ambassadors like this. THANK YOU!

Keep An Eye Out

Make sure to check out this new banner coming to the Brady District.

More to come soon!

TOMORROW IS FREE DAY

Hey Everyone,

Tomorrow is our monthly Free 2nd Saturday. There is something for everyone including our new show, "To Live Forever". Bring the whole family and take part in wonderful activities. Have lunch at our restaurant, walk the gardens, or whatever you feel like doing.

See you here!

PROJECT X-RAY

La Villa in Review

Natasha Ball, of the popular "Tasha Does Tulsa" has reviewed our newly-redesigned and spruced-up restaurant in Tulsa Business Journal. From what we can tell, she had a wonderful time. See what she had to say...


Power lunch: La Villa at Philbrook Museum of Art
Natasha Ball
6/7/2010

When we heard La Villa — the restaurant at Philbrook Museum of Art, 2727 S. Rockford Road — was boasting a new look, we knew we had to stop by to check it out.

In four words, we’re glad we did.

La Villa traded its dated furniture and color scheme for a light and open atmosphere. The restaurant is still a white tablecloth operation; now, though, nearly everything else is white, too. Unlike other all-white schemes in town, the dining room at La Villa doesn’t feel barren or cold. With light pouring in from the restaurant’s two-story windows, offering a view of the picturesque Philbrook gardens, and the yellow accents in wall art and on the tables, it’s a warm, inviting and elegant place to stop in for lunch.

To read the rest of this review, click HERE.

(Photo by Natasha Ball)

KOTV comes to Philbrook

Channel 6 (KOTV) stopped by and had a lovely chat with one of our curators, Dr. Tanya Paul, about our new Egyptian exhibit.

THE GALLERY THAT GROWS

Every month, as many of you know, we host Gallery Talks with our curators and other guests. These talks usually revolve around a new exhibition or something in our permanent collection.

But this Wednesday, we are doing something a little bit different. This time, the gallery is outside. Some people call it "the gardens". Instead of a curator, this talk will be lead by our Garden Manager, Melinda McMillan.

Our gardens are a living work of art. Explore the gardens and cultivate your own sense of designing with color and texture. Join us in this visual exploration of the beauty in Philbrook’s ever-growing and ever-changing landscape.

The talk begins at Noon in the Rotunda. Free with museum admission.

EGYPT ARRIVES!

This weekend marks the opening of our summer exhibition, "To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum". There is a lot of buzz about this show and we are equally excited to unveil it. Wherever you go this summer, you won't be able to miss it...

Not even on the turnpike between Tulsa and OKC.



COME OUT AND SEE US! TAKE A TRIP TO EGYPT RIGHT HERE IN TULSA!

OUR EGYPT

As you know, we are just days away from the opening of our BIG summer exhibition, To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. But one thing you may not know is that we have a small collection of Egyptian pieces in our own collection. The next time you're here, head up to the upper level and check it out.

AN INTERN'S TAKE ON PHILBROOK

Every year we bring in interns from local universities to work with us in the different departments throughout the museum. It's a great experience for the student as well as the staff.

Aimee Deal is a student at Oral Roberts University and is currently an intern in our Communications/Graphics dept. Here's a bit in her own words about her first few days "on the job".

"Although I have been a Texan my whole life, I’d like to call Tulsa my home. Tulsa stole my heart back in 2007 when I first visited the Philbrook Museum of Art. Being away from home and wanting to get away from the dry, boring streets, Philbrook satisfied my thirst for a much needed drink of art, fun, history and educational enthusiasm.

Philbrook’s rich, and sophisticated style rejuvenated my all-too-stressed-out life. The southern hospitality of Philbrook hit close to my heart and I have been captivated ever since.

If I could take away one piece for myself to keep from the Philbrook, it would be the “Joy of the Waters,” by Harriet Fismuth (seen here). This sculpture came originally to the Philips' home, and I believe that this sculpture pinpoints the heart of what Philbrook is all about. The sculpture reflects freedom, life, and art. A must see for sure.



As a fan of Philbrook for the past three years, I have grown to absolutely love it.
As an intern I couldn’t be happier. The staff that I work with and have met deserve nothing but the highest respect. These people are in a constant positive attitude, moving forward and seeking out ways to better the people of Tulsa. With art, education and history in mind, Philbrook connects and achieves it all.

I look forward to the next six weeks of my work here at the museum. More to come…"

-Aimee Deal

SO YOU WANT TO BE A DOCENT...

We are now accepting applications for participations in the Philbrook Museum Docent Program.

Join us on Monday, June 28, 2010 from 10 am to noon to learn all about this exciting volunteer program. During the information program, guests will meet current docents, go on a guided tour of the museum and find out why becoming a Philbrook Museum Docent is one of the most rewarding things you can do. To find out more please visit our Web site www.philbrook.org