Rollins College, in Winter Park, FL has a beautiful campus on the edge of a lake, with huge oak trees.  It also has Cornell Fine Arts Museum, which I visited for the first time recently.  While looking for the museum, we ended up in an art building with a display of student work in the hallway.  Pretty cool, huh?

I think they’re made from masking tape and maybe lightweight cardboard.

Next door, we found the museum.   It’s well designed and well-lit.  There were also activities for children.  This is the entry foyer.

The zebra head costumes on the right relate to the primary exhibit, called “Transcommunality.”  Presented by artist Laura Anderson Barbata, it’s a culmination of her work with stilt-dancing communities in Latin America and the United States.

The exhibit features stilt-dancing costumes that were made by hand with a wide variety of materials.  The one below was made with cotton fabric, wood, cane, fiberglass rods, mesh, decorative trim, mirrors, papier-mache and paint.

Here’s a closer look at the head dress.

Dancers perform in these outfits while wearing homemade stilts.

Children apparently participate in this, as well.

One room was full of costumes with stilts that had also been carved or decorated.

The one above even has a caterpillar and several lady bugs!

Dolls showed more stilt-dancers.

I didn’t get a very good shot of the giant suits, made in the USA.  They were used in a performance as part of “Occupy Wall Street.”

In addition to the stilt-dancing exhibit, there were several other interesting pieces on display.  The one below is called Haystack After Monet #2, by Vik Muniz.  It definitely resembles Monet’s painting.

But, this one was made from pieces of colored paper.  See the close up below.

This particular exhibit has just ended, but it’s replaced with student and faculty exhibits.  I bet they’d really be worth seeing.  And if you’re in the area you may also enjoy the Morse Museum, which houses work by Lewis Tifany.  There’s lots to see and do in Winter Park.

Ellen Lindner