This academic year I've been doing monthly Gallery Spotlights at the PMA. Each month's spotlight focuses on a single object in the collection. So far I've done a 15th-century terra cotta portrait head, a Florentine relief plaque of the Madonna and Child, a Resurrection of Lazarus Panel by Palma Vecchio, and a mysterious portrait by Titian. The Spotlights are envisioned as 'conversations' rather than lectures, and it's fascinating how the conversation is never the same from one day to another (since I do Spotlights on the same object three days in a row each month). Part of this is due to the composition of the groups; Thursdays sees a lot of people who are themselves museum guides, while Friday has a big group of retirees who have all been attending together for years. Saturday doesn't have its own standard following (unless you count Phyllis and her friend Luanna!), so it's something of a grab bag.
I've been pleasantly surprised at the level of enthusiasm and the response to the individual objects. For example, I've always been impressed by the physiognomic accuracy of the terra cotta head and its sense of psychological presence, so I was taken aback to hear from many people, including Phyllis, that they'd never given it a second glance before. Gratifyingly, they were telling me this to frame their new-found appreciation after the Spotlight! I was especially pleased that a number of the guides reported later that they had added the piece to their tours with great success. In the case of the Palma Vecchio, I was surprised in a different way, by the audience's interest in something that I had found pretty unimpressive. I'd been worried that there wouldn't be a vibrant conversation at all, and yet one day we got caught up talking about techniques of Venetian oil painting, and another about Christian liturgical practices. The people who attend are there because they're really interested in talking about art, even if they have little background in it. That level of attention plus the mature age of most of the participants, which adds a greater element of life experiences to the mix, provides a nice change from the classroom experience. The people are all really friendly and interesting to talk to, as well. Actually, yesterday I received a really nice compliment from one of the women; she told me she wished I had a clone, since she'd been hoping to set me up with her son but had realized I was married!
The Spotlights have also given me a good link to Philadelphia this past year. Last semester Amy awesomely let me use her apartment in Center City, but this semester I'm shacking up in Chez Phyllis. I don't ever miss Philadelphia when I'm in New Haven (I've noticed that I always think I'm going to be really mournful about these kinds of changes--leaving Shelton, leaving Philly--and then I adjust really quickly), but being here has been really wonderful. It's just all so comfortable and familiar--I did spend four years here, after all. I love Phyllis' house, its space, its profusion of exotic stuff, all of it with interesting tales attached, like the frieze-like fragment of a Hindu painting framed in her office, which she rescued from the trash at her almost-fiance Ravi's family home in India. New things have appeared in my absence, including an upright piano in the dining room (I don't think she plays, so I need to ask her about this tonight), and a new kitty, Echo, who is a black Abyssinian.
It's only a little bit strange to be here as guest, rather than resident. It's great not to have to wonder where the spoons or extra towels are, but I've been really thrown off by being in the spare bedroom on the second floor, it all just sounds different somehow, to the extent that I can't distinguish someone coming up the stairs vs someone coming down from the 3rd floor. That someone would be Laura, of course, my youthful replacement, who is very nice, but definitely quiet, and not always certain of how to interact with Phyllis, I think. We all went out to dinner together last night to Bacio, a perennial favorite, and as we were leaving Phyllis, true to form, wound up getting into a 15-minute conversation with the chef as Laura and I stood by the door. I told her how on my first visit to that restaurant with Phyllis, she (politely, but opinionated-ly) schooled the chef on how they might improve their meatballs by following her mother's approach of soaking the bread in milk, while I just stood there semi-awkwardly. Hopefully Laura realizes how awesome Phyllis is, though. She had left yet another present for me on the spare room bed when I arrived, and I had to laugh, because while most of Phyllis' gifts to me have been great (several of the nicest shirts I own, and which I typically wear on Spotlights, came from her), she also often tries to give me her clothes, which are a little too mature in style for me just yet. This gift was a chocolate turtleneck sweater from Lord and Taylor, and it was lovely--but she'd also added a little silk scarf of the same kind she often wears, which made me laugh. Not yet, Phyllis!