THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070448
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 90 lines
Tourists here for the Seawall Festival stumbled onto an unusual sight Thursday evening as Indonesian dancers took stage in the Middle Street Mall off High Street to dance for a private party at the Children's Museum of Virginia.
The dancers were dressed in brightly colored costumes with intricate gold embroidery. On an outdoor stage surrounded by loudspeakers, young women danced their country's traditional dances to the harvest and to represent coming of age.
It was quite a scene.
The black-tie and tennis shoe gala was designed to commemorate the opening of a new exhibit of Indonesian Children's art and to raise money for the second phase of the museum.
M.E. ``Betty'' Burnell, director of museums, said the second phase, now being designed, is estimated to cost about $3 million, depending on what design the city approves. Those designs should be ready this fall, Burnell said.
The second floor will house a $1 million antique toy and train collection that Junie H. Lancaster donated to the city before he died. Other options for the floor, including a computer lab, are being considered.
The City Council asked for a number of designs after a controversy arose over what to put in the atrium on the second floor.
Some museum commissioners and council members favored putting a lighthouse lens in the huge window front, while others want to put a carousel there. Exhibit designers will offer the council a number of options - including their own visions of what should be exhibited in the atrium facing High Street. The city hopes to open the second phase by the end of next year.
The party served to remind people that there's a lot more to be done to complete the Children's Museum, Burnell said.
``Everything is perfect, the food, the dancers, the art,'' said Zelma Rivin, a board member.
``Everything except the crowd,'' she added in a whisper.
The museum had hoped to draw about 300 people from nearly 1,000 invitations mailed. Instead, it had an intimate cocktail party of about 60. Tony Earles, director of the Children's Museum, said some of those who didn't attend the $40 per person event sent donations, so the museum made a little money for the project.
Burnell said she was also pleased to get the Indonesian exhibit, which has been traveling around the United States since 1994.
One of the museum's missions, she said, is to showcase cultural diversity.
``The gallery is partly designed to help people in our area experience and learn other cultures and to teach different traditions and lifestyles,'' Burnell said.
The exhibit ``The Giant Who Swallowed the Moon'' is an extraordinary collection of art done by children from 4 to 17.
The art, exhibited in the museum's changing gallery, is organized around basic themes such as home life, city and rural life, work, games, religion, folklore, festivals and world affairs.
The style of the works belie the age of the artists. There are detailed portraits of Indonesian women making batik cloth, done by an 11-year-old girl. A 15-year-old boy painted a portrait of men harvesting rice in a field. A 7-year-old did a colorful and detailed look at insects.
The exhibit is named for a portrait depicting folk tradition around the eclipse of the sun or the moon. When an eclipse begins, children and adults rush outside making noises to scare away ``the giant'' who appears to be devouring the moon.
Eventually the eclipse is over, the moon reappears and the villagers believe that they have chased away a giant.
Other folk stories are also depicted in the children's work.
Joseph Fischer, the curator of the exhibit, worked and studied in Indonesia for several years. He is the author of ``The Folk Art of Java,'' a book in which one chapter is dedicated entirely to children's art.
Fischer collected the work from an art teacher in Java and from gallery owners in Bali. He said he decided to showcase the work to make people realize that children are ``wonderful informants of what's happening in their own society and culture.''
He also wants people to recognize the value of their work, whether its art or literature.
Representatives from the Indonesian embassy in Washington, who helped sponsor the exhibit and brought the dancers and some Indonesian cuisine, also attended the party. ILLUSTRATION: The beauty of spreading culture
The performers entertained with traditional dances to celebrate
harvests and young people's coming of age in Indonesia.
BETH BERGMAN photos
The Virginian-Pilot
Indonesian children prepare their makeup before their dance
performance Thursday evening for a benefit and exhibit opening at
the Children's Museum in Portsmouth. Even tourists benefited from
their outdoor performance off High Street. by CNB