We read about a frequent visitor to the Harvard Art Museums who for more than 30 years has made the seemingly unusual request that their curators bring out art objects he wishes to look at. Actually, it’s standard procedure for art museums at colleges whose facilities are primarily used as teaching museums to do this. The newly renovated and expanded Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth incorporated three classroom with high ceilings and wide doors specifically for use by professors wishing to bring the art to their students as well as students to the art.

And so, the man at Harvard, who is not an alumnus, but who has embarked on a lifelong effort to teach himself “to not just look, but really see.”

He reminded us of our dad. Maybe because Father’s Day approaches and Spruce Point Inn has many reservations on the books for dinners, breakfasts and weekend stays with extended families and reunions in celebration of fathers from near and far.

And maybe we learned how to help curate “oceanside memories made in Maine” by learning how to see beyond what we were looking at while listening to him. To think about why he saved the newspaper the day man walked on the moon. And why he had that lifelong student’s love of books that looked at his interests – mountains, space, oceans and the unexplained oddities of the universe – more closely.  Read more...