Museums and Gardens

Among our many fun activities in Phoenix, visits to two museums made the list.  I blogged about the Musical Instruments Museum at my music blog which you can read about here.

While planning our Arizona trip, I ran across something that made me think there might be an art installation by James Turrell somewhere.  We are enamored of the Turrell at Pomona College called Dividing the Light.  A  little internet searching.... and I found that he is actually working on something in a crater near Flagstaff, but that is not quite ready for prime time yet.

When I found out that the Phoenix Art Museum had a work by Turrell, I put it on our agenda and when we arrived at the place, we were surprised.  First, it doesn't use natural light from the sun.  Second, it is pretty small in scope compared to other works of his.  You can sit there on the floor in front of it and watch the colors change ever so subtly and slowly, or do as we did and watch it for a few minutes, then tour the rest of the museum and return to the Turrell to see how it had changed.

The rest of the museum had some pretty interesting art, so that made our end-of-the-day trip there worthwhile.  Besides, Wednesday afternoons are free or donation at this museum.

A museum of the outdoor sort with lots and lots of natural light - the Desert Botanical Garden - came highly recommended to us by a variety of sources and with good reason.  We happily wandered the various cacti and desert wildflowers for several hours, and we recommend visiting in the morning when the sun is not quite so direct and hot, even though there are many shady places throughout the garden.

More pictures from our whole trip here.

At the entrance to the Garden - these plants are made of glass