Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 21 May 2018

Iraqi, Syrian guides bring views to Philadelphia museum

By NATALIE POMPILIO guards lead tours, he said,
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three while some tribal museums
Iraqi natives and a Syrian feature Native Americans
woman have been enlisted guides. "Museums have
as guides to share a mod- been looking at demo-
ern cultural perspective graphics and asking, 'Who
with visitors to new Middle is not here and how do we
Eastern galleries at the do something about that?'"
Penn Museum in Philadel- Baker said. "These programs
phia. are an opportunity to pro-
The guides intersperse vide a more authentic ex-
personal stories with his- perience as opposed to a
toric content as they lead typical tour with a docent
groups through the Univer- who is knowledgeable and
sity of Pennsylvania Mu- passionate but not cultur-
seum of Archaeology and ally connected."
Anthropology's new gal- Penn Museum will contin-
leries that tell tales going ue to expand the Global
back 10,000 years. Guides program, Owens
"People really have trouble said, as it opens two new
understanding and con- galleries showcasing Mex-
necting with objects from ico/Central America and
the ancient past," said Ellen In this April 26, 2018 photo, the headdress and jewelry of Queen Puabi dating to some 4,500 years Africa in the next year. The
M. Owens, Penn Museum's ago, is displayed at the Middle East gallery in the Penn Museum in Philadelphia museum is working with two
Merle-Smith director of Associated Press organizations that help new
learning programs. "Peo- immigrants to find trainees.
ple who come from these rats or visit a marketplace a school boy's recounting scales and weights dat- Part of that training includes
places, even in contempo- where traditions go back of an argument with his fa- ing back to the 1800s. The discussing provenance and
rary times, can find a con- thousands of years." ther. Using a blunt reed on scales are similar to the how guides feel about see-
nection with the objects On a recent tour, guide a clay tablet, the boy de- ones used at the market ing objects from their home
and they provide an inter- Abdulhadi Al-Karfawi tailed how his father had near her home in Damas- countries on display in the
esting window into what it's pointed out cuneiform tab- scolded him, saying "Why cus. Saradar remembers U.S. Guides in the current
like to walk through these lets used for accounting, are you wasting time? Get when, as a teenager, her group say they are happy
magnificent ancient ziggu- legal text and, in one case, to school! Apply yourself at mother taught her to use to have pieces of their old
school!" the scales so she could homeland in their new one
"I read that and think of my double check the weights "Every time I go through
father, who was a tough of the fruits and vegeta- the gallery, I feel like this is
person who had 15 boys bles she'd purchased from Iraq," Al-Karfawi said. "My
and girls but was on top a vendor. "Because if he grandma wore a head-
of everything," said Al-Kar- cheats her, everyone in the piece like (Queen Puabi).
fawi, 40, a former translator town would know," Saradar . The dishes are so lovely
for the U.S. Army in Bagh- said, drawing laughter. and they remind me of my
dad who settled in the U.S. Rusty Baker, executive di- sister serving food." Saradar
with his wife and children rector of the non-profit said she saw the exhibit as
last year. "Today, as a fa- advocacy group PA Mu- a way to build cultural un-
ther, I have the same argu- seums, said programs like derstanding. "This is the best
ment with my kid. I never the Penn Museum's Global thing I could do, being a
thought it was happening Guides provide visitors with messenger for my culture. I
thousands of years ago." a richer experience and wouldn't be able to do that
In this April 26, 2018 photo, a wall panel of glazed terra-cotta, In another part of the gal- could help grow audienc- without these objects," she
from a Sufi monastery in Iran, circa 1400 to 1520 BCE, hangs in leries, Moumena Sara- es. At Philadelphia's Eastern said. "I'm finding connec-
the Middle East Galleries at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. dar, 41, paused in front of State Penitentiary historic tions between your people
Associated Press. bronze and brass balance site, former prisoners and and my people."q