Tag Archives: Eiteljorg Museum

Our Day at the Eiteljorg Museum (Beyond Jingle Rails 2024)

December 20, 2024 By in Indiana Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Dialogue with a Deer!

Harry Fonseca, Dialogue with a Deer, 1995. (I’m reminded of the Deer Lady from Reservation Dogs.)

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: last weekend my wife Anne and I visited the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in our hometown of Indianapolis and checked out their annual, widely advertised Jingle Rails exhibit — a festive collection of elaborate toy train dioramas that recreate a variety of well-known settings using myriad natural materials to exacting specifications and festooned with Christmas trimmings. Walking laps around the hall in childlike, wide-eyed wonder was a neat feeling.

Obviously the Eiteljorg has more to offer beyond the one special happy-holiday attraction. I’ve worked a few blocks away from the Eiteljorg for years, but the last time we went there was waaay back in early 2007 to view a special exhibit of Roy Lichtenstein’s rarely mentioned Old West-themed works from his pre-Pop Art days. The two of us were online regulars back in that pre-MCC, pre-social-media era, but I don’t think we ever posted about it anywhere. I aimed to rectify that oversight for this special occasion and the rest of the museum.

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Toy Trains and Xmas Xings: Jingle Rails 2024 at the Eiteljorg Museum

December 17, 2024 By in Indiana Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Intricate wood models of downtown Indianapolis buildings including the OneAmerica Tower, Salesforce Tower, and Monument Circle featuring the lit-up Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

A cross-section of tiny downtown Indianapolis, not to scale and with some buildings rearranged or missing.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: sometimes we leave the house for Christmas activities here in Indianapolis! Last year my wife and I attended the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s annual take on A Christmas Carol and had primo seats in the front-row fake-snow splash zone. My coworkers and I have made the Indiana Historical Society’s Festival of Trees a team-building tradition. Anne and I also used to escort her Mamaw to the Christmas Gift and Hobby Show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds until her passing in 2018. We’re Christmas fans in search of more Christmas ’round town, even though our place is loaded with enough Christmas decor for three households. (I’m not complaining.)

Once again we were blessed with an opportunity for another local cultural experience whose advertising we’ve noted and dismissed till now — free tickets courtesy of my employer (one of their organization’s corporate partners) to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art on the occasion of their annual Jingle Rails exhibit. Whatever’s normally in their Allen Whitehill Clowes Sculpture Court is carted off elsewhere and replaced with enormous dioramas that are festooned with Christmas decorations and toy train tracks. Li’l locomotives run laps nonstop around the hall while visitors gape in childlike wonder. I guess that’s the ritual? As I said, this was our first time.

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