Nature Face

Recently, my friend Maryann introduced me to the William Way Center, an LGBTQ community center with a fantastic library and a great schedule of events for the Philadelphia area: http://www.waygay.org/. I was particularly excited when I found out that they have a hiking group that gets together on the last Sunday of each month to walk the Wissahickon trail. Living in the big city, I’ve been craving some time outside, away from the urban jungle.

Maryann and I joined the hiking group this afternoon outside of a pizza place on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill, which is generally an area considered part of the “suburbs”, but – as we found out – is actually within city limits. We also learned that the area that we hiked in is considered part of the Fairmount Park System, and that (according to one of our fellow hikers) Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in the United States. This old map shows the park in its entirety:

Without knowing it, apparently, I explored two ends of the same park on two separate weekends: Fairmount Water Works, which I wrote about discovering in the last post, is located at the far southern end of the park, and the Wissahickon trail consists of the long, skinny northern section, shaded in with a darker color on the map above. One of our fellow hikers told me that the park was made possible in part because of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, when development along the Schuylkill River and its tributary, the Wissahickon, was halted in an effort to prevent the spread of disease by maintaining a clean water supply for Philadelphia. I did a little bit of online research and didn’t find any information that corroborated that particular claim, but it is certainly true that the one of the purposes in creating the park was to protect the city’s drinking water.

From Chestnut Hill we walked down a few residential streets until we entered the park in the valley, which seemed like a totally different world. It is certainly a beautiful area, and we were lucky to have a day when the sun was shining and the bitter cold of the past week was somewhat broken:

Though I was expecting a more challenging hike, and this outing was more what I would call a leisurely walk, it was wonderful to be out in the open, walking in the woods along the river. The water is crossed by some beautiful old stone bridges along the way:

…and the trail itself also has some beautiful stone work:

These structures give the park a somewhat cultivated feel, like New York’s Central Park, but they are few enough that they don’t intrude too much on the sense of walking in the woods. It was certainly different than a mountain hike at home in New England, but did manage to temporarily satisfy my craving for nature.

Aside from getting in a lovely walk and learning more about Philadelphia and its history, I was also happy to meet some new people. Maryann and I were the only representatives of our demographic in the group this day, being the only women and the only people in our 20’s present, but it was admittedly quite refreshing to have the chance to talk to people from other walks of life.

I think I’ll be re-joining this group another month!

 

Art Face

Today was the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.; today was also the second inauguration of President Obama. These are two big things to celebrate.

Something significantly less important, but celebration-worthy nonetheless: today was pay-what-you-wish day at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Pay-what-you-wish day also happens on the first Sunday of each month at the PMA.

I braced myself for the cold outside and navigated a new bus route to the museum – public transportation is an adventure in itself, and something I mean to make a day-long activity out of someday. Arriving at the museum, I offered a dollar for my admission. I probably could have gotten in for free, but I had guilt.

I’m a sucker for photography, so I started out in the Honickman and Bergman Galleries on the ground floor, which has changing collections of prints, drawings, and photographs. It’s hit-and-miss; sometimes they have really cool stuff, and sometimes not so much (in my opinion). I was in luck this time; the latest exhibit is a collection of photographs by different artists at different periods, without any apparent uniting theme. It included photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothy Norman (who is a fascinating person: http://www.philamuseum.org/pma_archives/ead.php?c=NOR&p=hn), and Felice Beato (the first person to photograph a military operation in action, when he accompanied Anglo-French forces in the Second Opium War in the mid-1800s in China). There was also this photograph on display, depicting southern segregation in the 1950’s – a reminder of the reason we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., Day:

Robert Frank. Trolley, New Orleans, 1955.

I was also struck by this image, depicting one aspect of civil strife in El Salvador in the ‘80s:

 Susan Meiselas. Soldiers Searching Bus Passengers, Northern Highway, El Salvador, 1980.

Having watched the inauguration ceremony earlier in the day, I was feeling very American; so I went next to the American Art galleries on the first floor, which emphasizes artists from Philadelphia. Thomas Eakins was heavily featured; The Gross Clinic was out, but this similar, later painting was prominently on display:

Thomas Eakins. The Agnew Clinic, 1889.

There was also a large section dedicated to American impressionists like Edmund Tarbell and Edward Redfield, who painted beautiful winter landscapes.

The rest of the museum I sort of buzzed through. I bypassed all the furniture, dishes, period rooms, and armor, as well as the “modern and contemporary art” section of the museum, since those are generally things that fail to capture my attention. I walked briskly through the “European Art” galleries, of which there are many, and paused only occasionally to note paintings that really struck me. This one amused me:

William Blake. The Nativity, 1799 or 1800.

…because that’s totally how the birth of Jesus happened. I briefly checked out the special exhibition, exploring “the interwoven lives, works, and experimental spirit of Marcel Duchamp and four of the most important American postwar artists: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.” I quote from the museum pamphlet because I couldn’t tell you myself what it was about. I spent about 2 minutes in the gallery, during which time I took this photo, causing a security guard to magically appear at my side and sternly remind me that photographs were not permitted:

I was overwhelmed. There were a lot of people, and they were all talking in the most sophisticated terms about Art, and there was an intermittent recorded voice that uttered incomprehensible yet terrifying (loud) sounds. I left promptly, and immediately sought the outside sculpture gardens, which I had never seen:

   

I was rewarded. As I explored the gardens, I discovered the Fairmount Water Works, which I didn’t know you could walk around in, and some of the most beautiful views of Philadelphia and the Schuylkill River I’ve ever seen.

   

 The Fairmount Water Works was apparently one of the nation’s first municipal water delivery systems. Aesthetically, it’s beautiful, especially at sunset. Pictures would explain best here:

After wandering around for about an hour and feeling like I had had quite an adventure, I walked back to Center City along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway despite the cold, and getting to see these sights: