Jim and I have decided we need to explore our local world more, so today’s field trip was to the Fitchburg Art Museum.  We’d been there once (or maybe twice?) before, but it’s been several years since we last visited, and we were very pleasantly surprised by the changes.  We were obviously the only visitors in the museum when we first arrived, and we were greeted enthusiastically by an older woman at the desk who informed us that the museum has a new director who has made significant – and good – changes to the museum.  And it’s clear that the director is on to something, because every security guard in the museum was happy and friendly and helpful and welcoming.  I’ve never seen such a great bunch of security guards; usually they seem to be wishing they were someplace else more exciting, but not this crew.

It’s a small museum, but they have two awesome special exhibits at the moment, one of paintings from the Hudson River School, and the other (my favorite) of photographs from the museum’s “world-class collection.”  (See the museum’s website for more information on each of these exhibits – scroll down a bit on the home page and view the six page cycling banner.)  I’m not a photography expert, but I think they had some pretty awesome photographs in that exhibit…photos by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott, and many many more.

We also enjoyed the other exhibits we visited: the Egyptian gallery, the gallery of Eastern art, and the African masks.  The enthusiasm of the guard in the Egyptian gallery knew no bounds, and his enthusiasm encouraged us to explore that gallery in far more depth than we otherwise would have.  I even took the time to look at the mummy of the cat, and moved from being grossed out by it to intrigued by it.  And the mummy of the tiny crocodile was fascinating.

We were happy to see other museum visitors arriving as we concluded our visit, and hopefully the energy of the museum’s new director will bring many more people to this small but vibrant cultural gem.  As for us, we will definitely be back, sooner rather than later (upcoming field trip with Dad to see the photography exhibit).

And next week’s Sunday field trip is to meet our new nephew!!