Disappointing Night at the Museum

As mentioned in my previous post, I submitted a zombie yeti to the Minneapolis Institute of Art's Foot in the Door exhibit. The opening reception was Thursday night, and I was super excited to go, spurred on by sneak peeks the MIA was posting to their Flickr page.

I mean, look: my yeti on a wall! In a museum! With other art! ACK!

image © Minneapolis Institute of Art

I knew it would be busy. I knew parking would be difficult. But I was not fully prepared. It took us nearly an hour to find parking. I was getting salty, but I understood; roughly 5,000 people submitted artwork, and I'm sure they were all just excited as I am to see their art in the city's most respected museum. Not helping was the city's decision to ban parking on the even side of streets for the rest of the winter.

We finally found a spot, hiked the half-mile or so from it to the
museum, picked up our nifty artist ribbons (how cool is that?!), shed
our outerwear, breathed a sigh of relief, and then. . . .

The line circles around the rotunda on two floors before entering the exhibit. Image © Minneapolis Institute of Art

We hit a solid wall of humans. The kind volunteer at the end of the line informed us it'd be an approximately 2-hour wait. Just to get into the gallery. So I would say the exhibit is already an unbelievable success. Hooray for art!

Deciding we didn't have it in us to wait in line, we checked out some of the other galleries before heading home somewhat defeated. I've been hearing really great things about the exhibit and caliber of art on display from friends who did get in on opening night. One friend even heard a woman proclaim that my yeti was her favorite piece. So awesome!

So many people (and so much awesome art!) in a smallish space. image © Minneapolis Institute of Art

The exhibit is up until June, so I have plenty of time to head back and see it when the museum is less crowded. I think I'll bring some friends and some champagne and stage my own reception!