Back for Part Two of our visit to Newfields.
You guys. I freaking loved this place. The girls did too. I’m not sure why we waited so long to go.
Well, I do know why. It’s the drive. But it wasn’t even that bad! AND I think I took the longest route by accident…
But seriously, this museum was so incredibly amazing. The mixture of outdoors and art is so refreshing. It was the the artsy version of Conner Prairie. And it was WAY more kid friendly than I could have imagined!
Trails.
Art.
Statues.
Sculptures.
The LAND!
Everywhere we turned, there was something to explore – Inside and Out!
Finishing up outside, we headed to the Lilly House.
This home is gorgeous and beautifully maintained. It’s so well done it’s something you could move into right now! The basement area (not shown) holds a little theater to watch some info on the building and the carriage house/garage where there is a beautiful old car remaining.
And upstairs they’ve turned the rooms into galleries to host beautiful exhibits which were really cool to look at because the one showing at the moment was local submissions. We couldn’t get over the staircase though.
Once we were done touring Oldfields (Lilly Estate), we headed up to the back of the grounds which included a few extra fun things…
Crossing Waller Bridge to visit the 100 Acre Nature Park…
Which included art like Funky Bones by Atelier Van Lieshout
(And I made sure to share the artists names with the girls when I could but I guarantee they remember none)
The Play Patch where the girls enjoyed swinging…
Bench Around the Lake by Jeppe Hein that the girls really thought was a slide…
And admittedly, I kind of did too… an artsy one.
And we got one good look at the lake before we headed back inside…
Since we’d never been before, we asked at the information desk what we needed to touch on!
They immediately shared the Star Room which was A M A Z E. I think the girls could have stayed in there ALL day long.
All. Day.
They were able to create their own artworks at the little crafting table.
Olive really loved plugging the pieces into the oversized light board.
And they both loved making a doodle.
Ipads were involved, so duh.
And we left our creations on display as we moved onto other areas of the museum.
We explored 3 of the 4 floors of the museum.
We checked out the African art wing where the girls were able to make their own pouches as well as design coins and hats.
We checked out the Asian Art wing where we all played Japanese Tea.
We visited the Mad Hatter exhibit that was amazingly cool and I took no pictures of (insert faceplant emoji)!
When I told Ella we were in the American Art wing she immediately asked if they had any T.C. Steele paintings (see our trip to his home this summer here), which of course they did!
And she melted. She was so excited to know of an artist in there!
And she had a few favorites that she enjoyed while we were there too.
Like this painting…which she studied back and forth…
It was so cool to watch the girls take in the paintings, exhibits, crafts… really they took in something from every corner it felt like! I was so happy they loved it.
Lastly, we walked outside because I wanted to get their photos with Numbers by Roger Indiana…
By this time they were done, but they indulged me.
And glad to be able to offer them the opportunity to spend the day there.
Next time we’ll check out 4th floor and run around the grounds again!
Leave a Reply