From contemplating mortality to seeing our parents, and ourselves, grow old, it’s often tricky to discuss death and dying. Vacaville Museum’s upcoming exhibit tackles this conversation head on in “The Art of Death.”
The exhibit opens June 14 and will run for six months, longer than the museum’s average installation. That’s because “The Art of Death,” will be more involved, with pieces on loan from locations across the Bay and Sacramento areas and programming to engage visitors.
“It’s really just an opportunity for us as a museum to provide our community with a space to talk about a topic that’s kind of taboo,” says Museum Director Clara Dawson. The idea for the installation came from talks with the museum’s community partners, many of whom work in the death industry.
The top of a grave marker from the early 1900s will be part of the exhibit focusing on death at the Vacaville Museum. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)Through conversations with professionals who work in funeral homes, coroner’s offices and in cremation, Dawson and the museum team decided to address the stigma toward those in the business of death.
“Everyone that we’ve talked to kind of brings up this hesitancy that they are met with when they talk about what they do, and so we really want this exhibit to be an opportunity to showcase and highlight some local people here who are a part of our community,” she said.
The exhibit will have entry points for all ages, says Dawson, and is not meant to be dark or spooky by any means. It will address death through four main pillars: history, art, science and culture.
For example, the museum will feature a Victorian mourning gown and accessories as well as the work of local artists, who were inspired by the topic of death and dying. There will also be entomological (the study of insects) aspects of the exhibit and more.
“The Art of Death” is one of the more elaborate exhibit builds that Dawson has tackled due to extensive community partnership, she says. Those partnerships and collaborations include Silveyville Cemetery District, Pettigrew and Sons Casket Company, Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery District and Bryan-Braker Funeral Home, who is sponsoring the exhibit.
“It’s definitely a lot more work when you have these amazing pieces and stories coming from outside the museum,” says Dawson. Despite the hard work acquiring the pieces, it makes for an interesting and elaborate display, she says.
In addition to the items featured in the exhibit, “The Art of Death” will have programming to go along with it, with dates still to be determined.
Vacaville Museum Executive Director, Clara Dawson, looks over an artifact logging people buried in the Carquinez Cemetery, which willbe part of a new exhibit featuring the different aspects surrounding death. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)There will be a speaker series, where community partners will answer questions and discuss their profession. The museum will also host a monthly bookclub, alternating between fiction and nonfiction, with each book in some way addressing death or our human reaction to it.
With “The Art of Death,” the museum hopes to attract a crowd from outside Vacaville and even Solano County, bringing in audiences from the Sacramento and Bay Areas, says Dawson.
To learn more, visit vacavillemuseum.org
If you go …
- WHAT: “The Art of Death”
- WHEN: June 14 – Nov. 15, Thursdays and Fridays from 1- 4:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
- WHERE: Vacaville Museum, 213 Buck Ave., Vacaville.
English (US) ·