On Sunday, March 21, 2021, my family drove my youngest son Sam to the airport because he was moving back to Germany. He spent four months at home due to COVID-19 after losing his job, but the resort he worked at hired him back. After we said our goodbyes, we considered stopping at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which was a place we loved before the pandemic. Unfortunately, we needed tickets so the museum could limit visitors.
Instead, we stopped at the Electric Fetus because it was nearby; plus, my daughter, Molly, wanted to go there since she got a vinyl record player for her birthday. At Electric Fetus, Molly got an album called Gorillaz present Song Machine. When she was listening to records, she called me in to see her collection, which included an old Godspell album. I explained to her that my parents had the album when I was growing up because they went to the musical with my aunt and uncle in Detroit when I was a little kid. We listened to the album and Molly seemed to like the music because the tunes are pretty catchy. I suggested that she should start a TikTok Godspell craze, but she’s yet to follow my advice.
The following week was Molly’s spring break, and I just so happened to get my second vaccine mid-week. My husband and I volunteered at testing sites on campus and we qualified earlier than we normally would to get the vaccine for the service. After the first vaccine I felt great, but we were still very careful as not everyone was eligible for the vaccine yet and cases were rising in the area. After my second vaccine, I wondered if I would have side effects. About half the people I knew who had the vaccine had side effects after the second shot. When I woke up the day after getting the second vaccine, I felt great and I decided to take Molly to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) for the day.
We left about noon that day and stopped for a chicken sandwich for lunch. We talked about the trip and how excited we were to be going somewhere fun. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we stopped at a rest stop right before we got to the Cities. Around 2pm we arrived at the gallery about a half hour early for our 2:30 tickets and they let us in early. Our first stop was at the gift shop where Molly made two Penny Art pennies—one for herself and one for her friend Addie—of a dog and of the state of Minnesota. Inside the store, Molly found some treasures: a postcards and a Capricorn card set.
We headed to the second floor and we looked at art in the following galleries:
- Asia
- Africa
- Ancient Art
- Period Rooms
- Americas
- Pacific Islands
The museum was not very crowded, which was nice. We are mainly interested in paintings up on the third floor and we headed up there to check out the following galleries:
- Europe & America 1600-1900
- Europe 1200-1600
- Modern & Contemporary
- Photography
- Judaica
- Prints & Drawings
- Period Rooms
Up on the third floor, we started in the Modern and Contemporary gallery and made our way across the museum to the large Europe & America 1600-1900 gallery. We enjoyed walking through the galleries and taking photos of our favorite paintings for inspiration. We came across a huge dollhouse and we both agreed it reminded us of the dollhouse in the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington DC.
We headed back toward the Modern and Contemporary gallery where we found the van Gogh painting Olive Trees, which we both loved because the painting reminded us of our time in Tuscany where we stayed in villa on top of a mountain that was surrounded by hills an hills of olive trees. Also, in the Italian spirit we looked at several Madonna and Child paintings. There was a statute of a young ballerina, which reminded us of the ballerina statute in the Orsay in Paris.
A gallery on the third floor had large windows where we could see the Minneapolis skyline. It was a beautiful and familiar sight. Also, in the Modern and Contemporary gallery we found the Salvador Dali painting Portrait of Juan de Pareja. For those of you who read my previous blog, you may remember that we visited the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain, and he’s another one of our favorite artis. The last painting that we stopped to admire was Picasso’s Woman in an Armchair. We have seen Picasso paintings in many galleries, and we even visited two Picasso galleries, one in Paris, and one in Barcelona.
We had a great day and when we drove off, I told Molly that I almost felt like normal. What I meant was before COVID-19, but Molly responded, “Mom, we are normal.” I love that kid. I cannot wait for our next adventure.
Polly and Molly Outside Mia