Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Exhibitions: Heroes at the Walters Art Museum



Next time you get a chance, if you live here in Baltimore, stop by the Walters Art Museum and check out their newest exhibition, "Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece," which opened two weeks ago.  The exhibition showcases Greek artworks (mostly vases) from the Walters' collection as well as several other contributing museums, arranged around the theme of Heroes such as Herakles, Athena, Odysseus, and Helen.  The show explores not only Heroes, but Hero worship and modern-day Heroes, as well as various monsters and challenges Heroes faced, like the Cyclops above.  There are many fun interactive spots located throughout the gallery, my favorite being the "Personality Quiz" that tells you which Ancient Greek Hero you are most like (The first time I took it, I got Helen, which means I am "Beautiful and Enchanting" or something along those lines.  Then I took it a second time, changing the answers to questions where two answers both sort of fit, and got Athena, "Creative and Smart").  You then can take a pin with a symbol that represents your Hero and a card that explains your Heroes' traits, and follow that Hero around the show by locating your Hero's symbol on the labels of all the pieces where your Hero is shown or discussed.  All in all, it is a fun, creative show that manages to take something that can be kind of boring sometimes (Greek pottery) and make it easy to understand and, in many cases, fascinating!



"Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece" will be on display at the Walters Art Museum, located at 600 N. Charles St. in Baltimore, Maryland, through January 3, 2010.

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