Yippee Ti Yi Yo

Going to Texas? Live in Texas? My kids have aspirations to visit the great Lone Star State. The love the Wild West. We’ve visited quite a few “western” style museums, but– come on– how western can something really be in New York State? So someday we want to see the real Wild West and some real western museums.

One such wonderful museum is the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas. Now THAT’s western! We would love to go there. If you live nearby or are passing through, give the place a gander and feel free to shoot off a comment here.

The collections look absolutely exquisite (I was an art major in school). I love the works of Frederick Remington, and no western museum is western without his art! The Stark Museum is stocked full of beautiful pieces of art and artifacts of American Indian art (especially clothing, beadwork, and baskets by the Great Plains Indians), rare books and manuscripts (like The Birds of America by naturalist John James Audubon!), and has the only complete set of Steuben Glass–The United States in Crystal, which are a “series of bowls engraved with scenes representing each of the 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the Union.” Wow!

Oh, and did I say admission is free? !

The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas was started by H.J. Lutcher Stark and his mother, Miriam Lutcher Stark. They put together their personal collection of art and artifacts. H.J. Lutcher Stark and his wife are the ones who founded the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in the same area. The museum is having a special exhibition of flora and fauna from Shangri La, in art form. There are works by John James Audubon and Dorothy Doughty. Doesn’t it sound wonderful! The Shangri La Nature Center is absolutely beautiful, too. Admission is “dirt” cheap for that. Should we ever meander out Texas way, we’ll be stopping by these places. If you get there before us, be sure to let us know how fun it is!