A full day out

Friday
Knowing we had rain in the forecast tomorrow, we thought we would get out and make the most of today. I had discovered online several things I wanted to check out in Dayton, about 40 minutes drive north from us. Our first port of call, and the feature for my Blip, was a Christmas exhibit at the Marian Library on the University of Dayton Campus, a private Catholic university. The library is the home to a large Crèche or Nativity collection, which began in 1984, and was originally based on generous contributions of friends and donors. Since then it has grown into an extensive collection of over 3,600 nativities from around the world, from different cultures, and made from many different materials. Their Christmas exhibit, Nativities and the Natural world, features some of these nativities and explores the intersection of Christmas and nature through the nativity sets, artwork and more. Top left is entitled A feminine touch, and is from France in the late 1800s, created by nuns from papier-mâché and enclosed in glass. My thumbnail is created from camphor wood, and was hand carved in Zhejiang China. Lower left is part of a display created from a special bread dough and covered with glistening veneer. It was created in the 1990s and is from Ecuador. Lower centre is also from the 1990s, from Paraguay, and created from Banana leaves and wood. Lower right is made from Mother of Pearl abalone shell, no other details. My collage barely scratches the surface. It was a wonderful fascinating exhibit, and we didn’t even get to see all of it, as the Mezzanine level which housed some of them was cordoned off for a special event.
From there, we moved on to Dayton Art Institute, which is currently featuring a special exhibition on Toulouse Lautrec ( see extra). Lautrec merged art and life, creating art that explored the cabarets, race tracks, music halls, cafes and brothels of Bohemian Paris of the late 19th century. He produced theatre advertisements, book covers, invitations, cafe menus, lithographs. His famous posters, immortalizing the era’s entertainers such as Aristide Bryant and Jane Avril, were shown alongside many original drawings, where you see the seeds of inspiration.
When we were finished there, it was time for an early dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant, before going on to the evening’s event, A Carillon Christmas at Carillon Historical park ( see extra). Carillon Park is an open-air history museum, sharing the stories of the contributions Dayton made to industry and innovation, notably of course with the Wright Brothers and the birth of flight, and also with the National Cash Register Company. I was expecting it to be mainly a light display, including the adjacent carillon bell tower, decked out as a huge Christmas tree, and hadn’t expected all the buildings to be open, otherwise I would probably have left it for another evening! It made for a long, but fascinating day!
Step count: 9,250