Grand Prize – Passion Flower
How did you find your passion?
This morning my NIA (non-impact Aerobics) teacher mentioned that 30 years ago at the height of the high impact aerobics craze she went to a conference where she participated in an exercise class with approximately 500 participants. It wasn’t long before half the class left because, rather than stressing boom-boom, jump and twist movements, it stressed grace and centering practices that come from engaging in modern dance and practicing marshall arts. My teacher was ecstatic since with a smaller crowd there was more room to stretch and move about. She said that by the end of the class she had tears in her eyes. The zen-like program spoke to her. She had found her passion, her life’s ambition, and a career that still engages her after 30 years.
Her story made me consider how I discovered the focus that directed my life. It was not long before I realized it was accidental. When I speak of passion, I mean that can’t stop myself from pursuing an interest. I love and embrace activities that keep my mind challenged and engaged in the community. At the core of my being a few dramatic events changed the course of my life. Eventually, they led to embracing science education wholeheartedly as a career.
The pivotal point, however, started at home.
I have always been influenced by my children and now grandchildren. They are the reason I became interested in educational psychology in the first place. They are why I started a museum in my basement and why I became involved in art. You might ask, “Painting? What does that have to do with education.?” I painted because I believe a well-rounded person is versed in the arts, humanities, and science. I also needed to relax from busy jobs as museum director and mother. Art provides an avenue to practice creativity but it is also meditative. Painting slows my mind which struggles with a ‘to do” list that seems to go on and on. It is impossible to put a dab of paint on a canvas or draw a line and think of something else. Art also set an example for my children by demonstrating that hobbies are as important for developing a sense of who you are as work.
In retirement I continue to pour an equal about of energy into painting, writing and speaking about how people learn. I am hopeful that the books I write will touch someone’s soul as much as those I have read have influenced me. This week I was notified of a review to be published by the San Francisco Book Review. It is presented here because the reviewer’s insight touched me. He grasped my passion and expressed it well. I especial like the last line and know that a great many of my readers are in similar positions to change the world.
Lives of Museum Junkies: The Story of America’s Hands-On Education Movement
By Marilynne Eichinger
Publisher-Inkwater Press, $19.95, 396 pages, Available on Amazon, Powells Books, Barnes and Nobel and local bookstores.
Picture a museum in your mind. Did you imagine exhibits, roped-off bits and bobs from history meant to inspire, amaze, and educate, but always out of reach? Even today, this idea of the museum as the look-but-don’t-touch institution persists. But there is another way. For decades, hands-on education has sought to break down the barriers between exhibits and visitors, allowing interested minds of all ages the opportunity to interact with exhibits, to learn firsthand by experiencing scientific principles in action. And Lives of Museum Junkies chronicles the long journey behind bringing science and museums to your fingertips.
Marilynne Eichinger uses her story — the story of how the Impression 5 Science Center in Lansing, Michigan, was brought to life — as the framework upon which to mount an encouraging, inspiring tale of dedicated people forging their own path and establishing something new and exciting for their community. This is the story of hard-working, generous, driven people starting from scratch and building something unique, valuable, and hands-on. From marketing and sharing one’s brand to expanding an idea on a national and international scale, the stories of Eichinger’s work at Impression 5 and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry encompass all aspects of community building, starting a business, and shifting people’s perceptions of just what can be accomplished when creativity meets commitment. Readers also get to meet other key voices and entrepreneurs Eichinger has worked with, people who have inspired her and who have helped blaze new trails for hands-on learning. These profiles bolster Eichinger’s mission to lend credibility to the hands-on museum movement and show the many different paths one can take toward achieving success in ambitious charitable works.
Although the many benefits of this truly useful style of education are touted here, Eichinger refuses to paint a rosy picture of the process. The author never shies away from sharing the missteps, obstacles, and hard lessons encountered along the way, including a truly shocking revelation that typifies the gender politics at the time and the long legacy of gender bias in this country that still impacts us today. By pulling science and learning out from behind the glass and velvet ropes of traditional museums, Eichinger helped spark a revolution in understanding how we learn and how to engage (and re-engage) young minds in fundamental concepts of science. Lives of Museum Junkies is part tribute, part handbook, and part inspirational guide, reminding us once again that a small, dedicated group of people can change the world… because they’re the only ones who ever have. – Reviewed by Glenn Dallas for the San Francisco Book Review
Book Launch Party, November 3rd at Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon – 7 PM, in the Old Library. Come join the fun.
Artwork is always for sale – Contact me at marilynne@eichingerfineart.com
Grand Prize – Passion Flower / acrylic on canvas / 24” by 28” / $ 499