Little Houses

The Museum of Fine Arts has some rather unusual exhibits at times. On display through January 25, 2009 is Place (Village), the work of Rachel Whiteread:

This exhibition features the US premiere of her most recent work, Place (Village) (2006-08) and traces the position of domestic objects through sculptures and drawings. Over several years, Whiteread has collected handmade English dollhouses and configured them into a sprawling "community" filled with haunting memories and melancholy. Place (Village), encompassing the left side of the Foster Gallery, appears as if it was discovered at night. In contrast to this installation are individual sculptures from an early floor piece cast in rubber as well as more recent "stacks" cast from the interior of tattered boxes.

Dollhouses can be works of art as well as playthings for kids! Some of our dollhouse books are rather dated, so I will be looking for something newer soon, but, that doesn't mean that the ones we currently own have no value! A World of Doll Houses by Flora Gill Jacobs [745.592 JAC] was published in 1965. It provides an historical background on dollhouses in a friendly, conversational way,

There's a little folding bed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that is several thousand years old. It is Egyptian. Greek and Roman toy furnishings a thousand years or so younger than that have been exhibited at the British Museum in England. If dolls had furniture, then they probably had houses, too.

A newer book on our shelves is Making Doll's House Miniatures with Polymer Clay by Sue Heaser [745.592 HEA]. Polymer clay is a marvelous substance that can be molded, baked in a home oven, and painted. Almost anyone can create simple dollhouse furnishings using the book as a guide.

If you'd like to see the MFA display Place (Village), you need only reserve our MFA pass and make the short trip into Boston.

Shelburne Museum: Maker Unknown – Detail, Ramshackle Inn Doll's House, About 1900

If your interest leads you farther afield, then a trip to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont is in order! The museum's collection of dolls and dollhouses is worth the drive! As a matter of fact, you could spend several days at the Shelburne Museum and not see all of its vast collection!