Maridon Museum celebrates the Chinese New Year
The Maridon Museum, located on North McKean Street, welcomed the Year of the Snake with a special Chinese New Year event Friday, Jan. 31.
The event, which was held two days after the official start of the Chinese New Year, featured live music, food and drinks and a scavenger hunt to find two animals — 13 snakes and 10 turtles — within the art exhibits in the museum’s different galleries.
The Maridon Museum opened in 2004, with its creator, Mary Phillips, having collected many of the pieces of art displayed inside. With paintings and sculptures created over the past several hundred years, the oldest object dates back to some time from the second to third millennium, B.C.E. Several notable exhibits include a statue of Buddha, who’s belly guests are encouraged to rub for good luck, and a horse sculpture dating back to the 700’s.
The docents of the museum enjoy being able to show off the personal collections of Phillips, who passed away in 2009, as well as holding the Chinese New Year event to show the works to new guests.
“We love to do this to bring people in and engage them. I knew Mary Phillips, so it’s neat because of all the nitty-gritty things about it. All this was in her home,” Millie Pinkerton, one of the docents at the museum, said.
The museum’s director, Roxann Booser, said Chinese New Year is a really big deal in China and other countries in Asia. China has a 15-day celebration. The official new year started this past Wednesday for them.
The museum used to have a Chinese New Year event at the Butler Country Club, where it would have a larger event with a traditional lion dance and other festivities. After moving the event to the fall and holding the Harvest Moon charity event, celebrating another big holiday in China, the museum decided to start celebrating the new year again.
This is the fourth year of holding the celebration at the current museum facility. Booser said the museum tries to make it fun for people, while they can mingle and come and go, have good food and listen to music. The museum has been able to get a nice crowd every year they’ve held it.
“They enjoy being at the museum, which is nice because when you have a chance to walk around, it has a very nice atmosphere, people really enjoy being around the art,” Booser said. “It’s relaxing, people seem to like it here.”
Booser’s son, Michael, who volunteers at the museum, said that through Phillips’ collection, the museum focuses on art that is intricately carved, with unique colors and color gradients, and details on smaller pieces that would have taken great amounts of time to create. Guests at the Chinese New Year Event got to observe many unique artifacts.
“A lot of people may hear it’s an Asian museum and go, ‘why is there an Asian museum in the middle of Western PA?’ And other people would rather see something that has more … American heritage,” Michael said. “A lot of people would be surprised how much heritage is in this museum.”
With events like the Chinese New Year celebration aiming to draw new guests to the museum, Booser still emphasizes how easy to access it is, with small entrance fees and a location just off Main Street.
“We are unique to Butler, and all of Butler County. We are the only museum in Western Pennsylvania that mixes Asian culture with German Meissen porcelain. And it’s a time to enjoy the beauty of the art, and just relax and learn something,” Booser said. “I call it the happy place, because people come here to enjoy and learn and meet friends.”
