On exhibit at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery One of the reasons I
love exhibitions and museums is that they offer opportunities
for storytelling and consequently, re-telling, as well. Most
museums today are progressive in the sense that they continue a
tradition of scholarship and service for the enhancement of
public education. While some museums favor presentation methods
might be simple and direct, without many opportunities for
interactives, they stimulate public interest through the stories
in their objects and exhibitions. One such exhibition I had the
chance to see recently was Power Play: China’s Empress Dowager,
at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian. The Freer
and Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian produce exhibitions on
Asian Art and house the Smithsonian’s Asian Art collection. This
was a special exhibition on photographic prints from the glass
plate negatives of the photos in the Freer Sackler Collection.
The exhibition itself is about the Chinese Dowager Empress Cixi,
who is widely