The Blue Wall

As most of you know, The Alice put on a wonderful Japanese woodblock print show from our permanent collection during the summer and autumn of 2008. In order to display these stunning prints properly we completely transformed the museum’s Weaving Room into a gallery exhibit space, removing all objects that had been historically shown there. Last autumn, at the conclusion of the exhibit, the prints were placed in their archival boxes and put back to sleep in storage... the barn loom was returned, and the gallery was restored back to the Weaving Room, as if no print exhibit had ever taken place!

With big changes come new ideas... we thought, hmmm, why not include some adventurous color in the Weaving Room? A delicious dark cobalt blue was settled on, and we painted one panel of the North wall to add some energy to the room. Interesting how one new idea can lead to another... this new blue really wanted to become a stage to feature an additional item from the collection. Perhaps a wonderful piece of furniture that has always been difficult to fully appreciate in it's usual space in the museum? Aha!

We carefully moved a Queen Anne High Chest down from the Southeast Bedroom on the third floor and placed it in front of the blue. It actually sings in its new space! For once it is properly lit and the color of the chest leaps out!



It will be another few months before our public can come to see this transformation in person, and there will be other new exhibits when we open again for tours in the Spring. I hope this little teaser will get you in the door again... you really must see the blue wall and High Chest!