Culture and cookies

Last weekend we went to Milwaukee on a day trip to visit the Milwaukee Art Museum. With a population of about 1,700,000 in the metropolitan area, Milwaukee is our state's largest city. The newest addition to the art museum was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and it beautifully fits its setting on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Calatrava said he was inspired by boats on the lake, among other things, but I think it's very birdlike. We happened to arrive at noon when they close and then reopen the movable sunscreen because people love to watch it move. (It also closes at night and in bad weather.)  Mr. Rududu, resident mathematician, pointed out that it's a good demonstration of a ruled surface. That is something that looks curved but is made up of straight lines.

 After a yummy and economical lunch at the museum cafe, we saw a quilt show and an exhibit of Raphael's  Lady with a Veil. We caught one of the last days of the Raphael exhibit. His beautiful lady will soon be back in the Pitti Palace in Rome after a three city tour in the US; we felt lucky to see her after just an hour and a half in the car. The quilt show will be up until September 6, 2010.

We also meandered around the museum for a while as it has a very interesting collection. I really liked this large glass sculpture by Beth Lipman. It's called Laid Table (Still Life with Metal Pitcher).

After our dose of culture, we headed to our other favorite place in Milwaukee, Brady Street. It's the home of Sciortino's Bakery, with its dizzying array of Italian cookies. Nearby is a fine Italian grocery store called Glorioso's. Could it be that our trips to the art museum are just an excuse for driving over to pick up Italian goodies?