Tag: DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com

Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling 880 St. Nichols Avenue New York, NY 10032

Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling 880 St. Nichols Avenue New York, NY 10032

Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling

880 St. Nichols Avenue

New York, NY 10032

(212) 335-0004

https://www.sugarhillmuseum.org/

Open: Sunday 10:00am-5:00pm/Monday-Wednesday Closed/Thursday-Saturday 10:00am-5:00pm

Admission: Adults $7.00/Seniors-Students with ID-Children 9-17 $4.00/Children 0-8 Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

The entrance of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum

Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling building

The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling is located on the first floor and basement level of 880 St. Nichols Avenue. This unique little museum caters to small children and their families with lots of interactive programs for the children.

The Children’s Gallery in the First Floor of the Museum with the gift shop.

Children’s Room Exhibition on the first floor

Children’s Room Exhibition on the first floor

My favorite piece in the Children’s Room exhibition

Children’s Room Exhibition

The Galleries:

There were two exhibitions going on at the museum was I visited in March of 2023, Melvin Van Peebles “Blue Room” exhibition which was narrated by his son, Mario. This featured a lot of his artwork in his East Village apartment. I never realized that he was an artist on top of a filmmaker.

Artist Melvin Van Peebles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Van_Peebles

The works were quirky and unique I have to say that and they did stand out.

Melvin Van Peebles “Blue Room” exhibition

The artist/filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles “Blue Room” exhibition

The Melvin Van Peebles “Blue Room” exhibition

The “Hot Dog” sculpture in the “Blue Room” exhibition

The other exhibition that was on display was the “Caribaby” exhibition by artist Bony Ramírez. The artist is a Dominican born American artist who is self taught. His works are large, childlike and offer a look at life in the Caribbean with a twist of the influence of European Colonialism in his work. The works had unusual contours and had a distinct island feel to them.

Artist Bony Ramirez

https://bonyramirez.com/

“Caribaby” exhibition

The artist Bony Ramirez exhibition “Caribaby”

The exhibition room with Bony Ramirez’s works

Bony Ramirez’s work

Bony Ramirez’s work

The Bony Ramirez exhibition

Bony Ramirez’s work

I could see by the artworks featured by both artists that the museum show pieces that were colorful and somewhat interactive which would be perfect for a child to relate to. The two galleries were small so that the works did not overwhelm children whose attention spans were not long but make it interesting for adults as well to have such unique works by contemporary artists.

At the top of the stairs near the entrance, they had the Children’s Gallery where art students from the museum showcased their works. In some cases, the works looked pretty sophisticated. The museum is perfect for small children and their families to get involved with the interactive art and projects that the kids were doing together in the ‘Living Room’ area of the museum.

The museum galleries were broken up into the Legacy Gallery where the Melvin Van Peebles exhibition was located and the Salon where the Bony Ramirez exhibition was shown.

Mission of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling:

(From the museum’s website)

The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling provides our culturally rich neighborhood with a space where children and their families grow and learn about Sugar Hill and about the world at large, through intergenerational dialogue with artists, art and storytelling.

A spider sculpture at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum

Designed to nurture the curiosity and creative spirit of three- to eight-year-old children, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling provides opportunities to grow as both author and audience as children engage with the work of accomplished artists and storytellers and create and share their own.

Another interesting work at the museum

Another work in the main hall

The History of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling:

(From the museum’s website)

Developed by the Broadway Housing Community, The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling is the cultural heart of the Sugar Hill project.

Led by founder and executive director Ellen Baxter for over 30 years, BHC has pioneered high impact solutions to the challenges of deep generational poverty and homelessness in the underserved communities of Upper Manhattan with an innovative model leveraging the synergies of housing, education and the arts to creating lasting change for underserved children, families and communities.

Together with a devoted group of community members and advisers led by Steve Seidel, Director of Harvard University’s Arts in Education Program, BHC conceived of Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling not only as a stimulating space for neighborhood families to gather and share in cultural programs but as a setting to actively address the educational needs of the community’s youngest children, many from families challenged by poverty, little formal education and a lack of proficiency in the English language.

This painting looked like girl’s earrings

Recognizing that young children are natural artists and embracing their love of stories, the Museum planning team envisioned a place that tapped into children’s intrepid curiosity and wide-ranging imaginations; where they would not only see art and talk current research on the impact of early childhood education in the arts, 3 to 8 year old’s were identified as Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling primary audience the age cohort identified as most open to learning through the arts. Through transformational experiences in art and storytelling. Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling would foster the creative intelligence and cognitive skills that prepare children for social and academic success, positively impacting the outlook for their future and the future of their community.

The Sugar Hill Project marks the geographic center of the legendary Sugar Hill historic district, home to the Harlem Renaissance. Celebrating the important history of this landmark neighborhood and signaling BHC’s commitment to the community, internationally acclaimed architect David Adjay was selected to design Sugar Hill as a beacon of opportunity. David’s architectural practice-grounded in the philosophy that social purpose and design are intertwined and mutually reinforcing was a great fit for the vision for the Museum as a vibrant arts space that reverberates with the social and cultural milieu in which it is located.

A place that celebrates learning, creativity and culture, the story of Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling is now part of the Sugar Hill neighborhood too.

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight The Private Members Night at the Met February 14th, 2023

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight The Private Members Night at the Met February 14th, 2023

Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Private Members Night.

The “Private Members Night” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art makes you want to be a member!

Touring the “Lives of the Gods-Divinity in Maya Art”

jwatrel's avatarmywalkinmanhattan

Our special ‘Members Only” nights at the Met are a lot of fun!

I had just finished Finance class at NYU and I needed a break. I could tell that my Professor wanted to leave early as well and the whole class was lost on learning the Income Statement so it was a perfect time to end the class for the evening.

I had signed up for the ‘Private Members Night’ on Valentine’s Day thinking that people would not attend this event on Valentine’s Day. Boy was I wrong! The museum was packed with people all over the museum. Since the whole museum was not open (the Roman and Greek Galleries on the first floor with the American Wing to the back being open and upstairs it was the Special Galleries and the Impressionist Wing), the areas of the museum including the restaurants and gift shops filled with members dining…

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The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

The Century Museum and Collectors Association Dutchess County Fairgrounds 6636 Route 9 Rhinebeck, NY 12572

(845) 876-4000

https://centurymuseum.wixsite.com/home

Dutchess Fair Features

Open: When the fairgrounds are open Spring, Summer and Fall for events

Admission: Free

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Century Museum Village inside the Dutchess County Fairgrounds

When the Dutchess County Fairgrounds are open for the season for big events in the Spring, Summer and Fall, the fairgrounds open their historical museums that are located on the property. These include the School House Museum and the Train Station Museum and the when the volunteers are there the Dutchess County Volunteer Firemen’s Museum. The main museum is the Century Museum Village, a look at rural life in Dutchess County at the turn of the last century.

The Schoolhouse Museum in the Century Museum Village

The Train Station Museum at the Century Museum Village

The Century Museum Village gives an interesting look of the changes in life in rural communities all over the United States until the start of WWII. Farming communities had their own way of life, their own clubs and organizations and traditions that were different from City residents. Life on the farm was productive but hard work. As time rolled on, modern conveniences found their way to these communities but as we see by all the machinery, there was still a lot of work to done.

As you progress through the different displays and dioramas, you can see how life improved over time. Progress swept through these communities between WWI and WWII and with the spread of the second industrial revolution after WWII and the change of the consumer market. The advent of the modern highways, the newly built suburbs and movement out of the cities changed these regions even more.

The entrance of the museum and the various dioramas

The museum is lined with different displays of life in the rural community and the advancements made in these communities between about 1880-1930.

The Advancement in farming practices and equipment

The Milk Man buggy

Ice block industry for refrigeration

The household for the farmhouse wife started to become easier with new machinery to help around the house. Modern ways of washing clothes, cooking food and cleaning the house started to make life a bit easier in the household. This left time for a social life and to tend to other things around the house.

The Modern Conveniences of the home

The modern household items to make life easier from 1870-1929

The modern kitchen before electricity came out to the country was still run by coal and wood. Modern electricity would not start until after WWI and even then was not available to everyone. Cooking and washing had gotten easier but still required some work on a everyday basis.

The Kitchen in the Country

The home decor had changed after the Civil War to WWI with the changes in mass production and industrialization. Furniture, rugs, lamps and pictures had become available in all makes and sizes for sale both through catalogs and General stores or maybe a trip to the City to a Department store. People were able to furnish their homes nicer due to mass production and changes in quality of home furnishings.

The Rural Bedroom

Bedrooms have not changed much since then

The idea of the Parlor is equivalent to our modern Living Room. It is usually the room that all socializing is done in, where the family’s best furniture and knick-knacks were placed. It was the nicest room in the house.

The Rural Parlor

The finest home furnishes and the pride of the home was displayed in the parlor.

Both inside and outside the home there would be changes in the way people lived over a fifty year period. There would be changes in plumbing, carpentry and printing. Modernization would change the way people did their jobs and the way they interacted with their customers.

Modern Machinery

A better way to chop wood

Modern pump processes

Shopping was beginning to change after the Civil War as well. The days of people making everything at home was not longer necessary as more and more consumer items became available. Clothing, dishes, toys and hardware could be bought at the General store along with prepared and bakery items. It made life for the rural housewife easier.

The General Store

Prepared items in the General Store

The bakery items and things for sale at the General Store

Quilting has always been a social affair with women meeting and gossiping while working on projects on their own or one big project for the home.

Women working together making quilts and sewn items for the home.

Crocheting for the home

Use of Looms for clothing and rugs

Modern printing took a turn as more modern machines made it easier to produce printing items for playbills, newspapers and magazines. The end of the WWI our modern magazines were being created. The way trades were changing more modern equipment was being used in every industry.

The Printing Press as things start to automat

The Clock Maker

Wood Harvesting

Transportation continued to improve as we moved from the horse and buggy to the modern carriage to the automobile. Improvements continued when mass production started with the Model T Ford and just kept improving. Still even today we like the idea of horse drawn carriages and sleigh rides as a traditional part of our past that we like to maintain especially during the holidays.

Horse Drawn carriages and Model T’s

The Modern modes of transportation

The Outhouse

The School House Museum:

The Modern School has not changed much since its rural past. I just think you can’t hit a student with a ruler anymore and I could not see a student with a Dunce cap in today’s politically correct world. The blackboard has not gone out of style as well as a teacher teaching the next generation.

The One Room School House Museum

The school room set up still remains the same to a certain point.

The Teacher still leads the class

I don’t think would happen to the modern student

The One Room School House set up.

The Schoolhouse Museum

As the museum shows us, somethings have changed and some things remain the same. At some point, we did things right.

The Train Museum

The Pleasant Valley Train Museum at the fairgrounds is a simulated train station that was moved here from the old site. Inside it has been renovated to reflex train travel at the turn of the last century with artifacts from the time period from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. You get to see what life was like for the station manager and passengers at that time.

The Pleasantville Train Museum at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds

The hand cart at the turn of the last century.

The inside of the train station.

The train manager’s office at the Train Museum.

The Luggage Room at the Train Museum.

Artifacts at the Train Museum.

Artifacts from the train lines at the Train Museum

Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison Township Historical Society Inc. P.O. Box 4 Mullica Hill, NJ 08062

Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison Township Historical Society Inc. P.O. Box 4 Mullica Hill, NJ 08062

Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison Township Historical Society Inc.

P.O. Box

Mullica Hill, NJ. 08062

(856) 478-4949

https://www.harrisonhistorical.com/

https://m.facebook.com/Harrison-Township-Historical-Society-310499278053/

Open: Sunday 1:00pm-4:00pm/Monday-Friday Closed/Saturday 1:00pm-4:00pm

Admission: Free but a donation would be appreciated.

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46655-d25105321-r866773005-Harrison_Township_Historical_Society-Mullica_Hill_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison County Historical Society

The Harrison Township Historical Society/Old Town Hall Museum

Former Exhibition in 2023:

TORNADO 

This new exhibition commemorates the 2021 Hurricane Ida Tornado through first-person narratives, artifacts, video and photography. 

The Mission of the Old Town Hall Museum/Harrison Township Historical Society Inc.:

(from the Museum pamphlet)

Since its founding in 1971, the Harrison Township Historical Society has presented exhibitions, events, programs and publications focusing on the heritage of South Jersey in Mullica Hill’s Old Town Hall that was built in 1871.

The Stone Age in Harrison Township and Living Off the Land: Food, Farms and Families, explore the region’s Paleo-Indian heritage and our local foodway and farming traditions. The Raccoon Valley General Store and the Harrison Academy Schoolroom recreate two rural institutions.

We also present seasonally changing special exhibitions, student programs and unique special events like the annual Groundhog Dinner (featuring local sausage-“ground” hog!) and the popular Mullica Hill Ghost Walk in October. Visit https://www.harrisonhistorical.com/ for news and information.

Come and experience our Heritage!

Our History:

(from the Museum website)

In 1971 the Township Committee of Harrison Township under the leadership of Mayor Philip J. Reuter, appointed a committee whose purpose was to form a historical society that would lead a community effort to preserve and provide a new purpose for Mullica Hill’s historic Old Town Hall.

Since that time the Harrison Township Historical Society has successfully met this initial charge, not only preserving the building (a key contributing structure in the Mullica Hill National Register Historic District), but also establishing a museum that has won state and national awards for its exhibitions, programs and publications.

The “Living off the Land” exhibition shows life on the farm in Southern New Jersey. This exhibition shows life on a South Jersey farm from the late 1600’s to today with some of the equipment, commercial items and furniture showing the lifestyle on the farm. This first floor exhibition gives us a peek at what life is like in the day of a farming family.

The main room on the first floor of the museum is broken down into sections. In the special gallery space is the exhibition “Tornado” about the tornado that hit the surrounding area during Hurricane Ida in 2021. The exhibition gives first hand accounts of what happened and people’s experiences and the clean up.

In the Main Room when you enter is the Raccoon General Store and the Harrison Academy schoolroom showing what life was like in rural Southern New Jersey.

Raccoon General Store:

All sorts of everyday items were sold in the General Store which was also a gathering place for the town’s citizens. This is where you would catch up with your neighbors at a time before telephones.

Everyday items would be found in the General Store

Everything could be bought at the General Store for the house with special trips into the City during the holidays or for special occasions

Household items at the General Store

In the back of the General Store is the exhibition of the Harrison Academy Schoolhouse showing teaching in rural New Jersey up until about 60 years ago. These rural communities had the one room school in some cases up until WWII. As the areas developed, the regionalized school system came into play and these small schools became of thing of the past.

The schoolroom set up has not changed much over the last 100 years

The room was still heated by the potbelly stove

The Teacher’s Desk, the globe and picture of the President still exists in the classroom today

In the center room is the old Post Office, another fixture of the town’s social life. This was located in Mullica Hill up until fifty years ago.

The Mullica Hill Post Office

The entrance to the hall with the Post Office and Farm Equipment

The facade of the old Post Office

The back part of the exhibition is the farm equipment that would be used in commercial farming. The processing and packaging of fruits and vegetables would have been done when the harvest was being picked and getting ready for markets in New York, Philadelphia and Newark. Fruits and vegetables were packaged on the farm and readied for market.

Life on the farm was not always easy

All sorts of equipment for processing fruits and vegetables is on display

All the bailing and shifting equipment needed on a farm

Business advertising

Packaging fruits and vegetables for the market

Life on the Farm

The second floor also provides not just a look into the life of the farming family but at the Native American’s life in the area before the colonist settlement.

The artifacts of the Native American Lenape Indians

The local Native Americans the Lenapehoking

Day to day equipment and home products of the Native Americans

Arrowheads from New Jersey and beyond

Family life on the farm included the family dinner

Meals would have included churning butter, gathering eggs, milking cows, processing apples for cider, baking and pickling.

Preparing for a meal would have meant the best linens and china would come out of storage and placed on the table.

Families sat down together on Sundays to eat and enjoy each others company.

More processing of household items

The museum shows that not much has changed over the years but with the advent of modern technology with cars, the telephone and electricity, life on the farm changed but not by much. Traditions and processing crops still had to be done just differently. Life in America was going to change by the beginning of the Twentieth Century and this way of life would be part of the ‘myth’ of small town living. This still does exist in some parts of the rural country.

In early October of 2024, I came across the sign for the Ghost Haunted Walk that the Historical Society was sponsoring in Mullica Hill and decided to take an early holiday break and drive down to South Jersey for this event. I made the day of it visiting other sites around the area. Then I drove into Mullica Hill and joined everyone on a very interesting look back on the community’s past. It seems there’s a lot of haunted spots in town.

Downtown Mullica Hill the night of the walk

The downtown was dotted with scarecrows

The foliage was just starting to change but like Octobers in the past five years it has been warmer and greener further into the month.

The tee shirts of the event being sold at the start of the tour

Our tour guide at the start of the tour

The scarecrows on the tour

We walked many stops in the downtown that was steeped in history even before the Revolutionary War.

The Hanging Barn where a worker hung himself

The history of the 12th Infantry some buried in the town

The Haunted St. Stephen’s Church downtown

The inside of the church where angels were seen

The graveyard talk in the back of the church

The Haunted House where multiple ghosts have been seen

Another haunted house

The Mullica family home is haunted

Another haunted house in town

After the tour was over, I toured the Mullica Hill Historical Society after the tour to see the new ‘Taverns and Temperance’ exhibition in 2024 on the local watering holes of the 18th and 19th centuries of which only two exist.

The Last Call exhibition

The history of taverns and their purpose

The interesting artifacts from the exhibit

The ‘Last Call’ exhibition was a look on how taverns were such an important part of socialization at a time when there were no movies, internet, phones and newspapers were limited. Still there was a strong resistance to people drinking which still reflects to our Puritan past.

There was nothing wrong with having a drink but there was a sense of taking it too far. Still this attitude is reflected today. It is still interesting though how one or two of these taverns have carried over into the Twenty First century. They are still welcoming guests today and that proves the socialization of these establishments and how important they are in our lives.

After the Haunted Tour:

After the tour was over and I had a nice visit with the museum, it was almost 9:00pm and I wanted to eat something. Two small tacos and two doughnuts are hardly a proper lunch for someone. By 9:00pm though, the whole town had rolled up its sleeves. Even the restaurant where the tour started was closing at 9:00pm. I was shocked as there were people inside still ordering. The host said the kitchen was closing and if I knew what I wanted I could sit down.

That was not much of an offer especially at their prices and I made my way down to Naples, the pizzeria and Italian restaurant where I had parked. They were open until a normal 11:00pm on a Friday night (I still do not understand restaurants that close at 9:00pm on a Friday or Saturday night. This part of the COVID scare is over and things are pretty much back to normal).

I went to the host stand and they seated me quickly. Tours were still going on and as I ate my dinner, the place really filled up when I finished because there was no place left to eat in town. (Not a good business decision). I really enjoyed Naples. Not only was it a lively environment with the games going on and a very active bar scene but the food was really good as well and very reasonable.

Naples at the Warehouse at 1 South Main Street in Mullica Hill, NJ

Home

https://www.nj.com/dining/2014/05/dining_out_naples_pizza_in_mul.html

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46655-d421347-Reviews-Naples_Pizza-Mullica_Hill_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The inside of Naples the night of the walk

The pizza was so good that night

Between the Haunted Walk through town and the interesting discussions at each stop to the trip to the museum after the tour, the Haunted Walking Tour of Mullica Hill, NJ was well worth the trip down to South Jersey. It was such an interesting look at the town I would not have known from the many times I have visited the town. The Volunteers did a great job with this event.

It is a great little museum with a lot to see on two floors.

History of the Museum:

Fun Facts:

*People have been living in present day Harrison Township for over 10,000 years.

*Harrison Township originally included South Harrison and the western edge of Elk.

*The Township was named after President William Henry Harrison.

*There is a village called Mullica Hill in Finland.

*The first air shipment of fresh produce in the US took off from here.