Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Roadside Shrine: Route 41 near Riverdale, CA

Richard J. Pilgrim, april banks, san francisco mobile museum, roadside shrine
From April Banks, as she bicycles across the US for WeRide3000, she is recording roadside shrines for our exhibits. Here is the obituary:
Richard J. Pilgrim

In loving memory of Richard J. Pilgrim, 62, of Riverdale born on Aug. 17, 1945 in Reedley and passed away on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 in Riverdale.
He is survived by five children and 12 grandchildren, Sonny and Carla Pilgrim and their three daughters, Cayla, Cara and Christa of Tulare, Randy and Dianne Pilgrim and their daughter, Raenni and two sons, RJ and Ryan of Visalia, Clyde Pilgrim of Laton and his son, Travis and daughter, Victoria both of Hanford, Richard and Michele Pilgrim and their son, Bronson and daughter, Carrington of Visalia, Sadie Pilgrim and Carlos Cantu and son, Christian and daughter Savannah of Laton; two sisters, Frances and Carol of Riverdale; three brothers, Frankie of Terra Bella, Jimmy of Caruthers and Billy of Fresno.
Services will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 1 at the Laton Lions Hall.

- Published in The Hanford Sentinel on February 26, 2008

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Exploring Shrines: between Mendota & Kerman

Each year we have an idea of sorts that we're exploring, and we invite you to join in (of course, we feel free to mix it up with surprising, and completely unrelated topics when the opportunity arises).

Shrine. Yes, shrines to the times, the past, the glory of them, the heartache. That's our area of interest for this year. We'll be posting challenges, interviewing folks as part of the exhibit development process, and generally co-investigating it with you.

To start it off, let me introduce April Banks. She is an artist and designer who is currently on a cross-country bicycle ride called "We Ride 3000" to bring awareness to public education.

Since she's going to be crossing the US at ground-level, we've asked April to photo-document a type of shrine we whiz by on the freeway- the roadside shrines. We'll be posting them here she progresses. This first image is from Rte 180 in California:


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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sparky

The AAM 2010 meeting was thought-provoking for such a small institution such as ours. Not much evidence on the ground about the earlier-posted "Spark" idea. Found out later that it's really about the industry setting higher standards for itself around excellence and innovation. Something we all enjoy striving for.

While we tend to go to our audiences and have fairly humble exhibits, it does mean that we are extremely nimble and in a good position to test out ideas and approaches. We're working on road tests for new things to engage with you. It's in the hopper now, and will be unfolding over the Summer and into the Fall.