UrbanArts had spring break. So I didn't go in this week.
MN Orchestra - MIA - 4 hours
I had such an amazing experience this weekend! I was assisting at the Minnesota Orchestra with the MIA. There is a new show called Eat, Prey: Raptors in Nature at the MIA and so we were spreading knowledge about the birds and I bought to assist with bird experts and hang out with an owl and a Falcon!
The first day, which was a Friday MIA had Mike Billington from the Raptor Center come in and talk to the visitors of the Orchestra center. We had set up a booth with some pamphlets, and people were just hanging out but when it got more crowded Mike started addressing the whole crowd to talk about the birds. It was such a fun evening! He told everything about how the owl and Falcon react to when it gets hot, how they are trained about their body anatomy. He had such a impressive way to talk to the crowd. He was educating them but it didn't really feel like education but more like a fun trivia facts. The birds really kept everyone engaged. It is so awesome that animals still have that effect on us. People were peaking from the second and third floor to watch them and hear about them. I'm surprised that they were all this engaged for almost 2 whole hours! Specially after teaching a lesson now I realize how hard it is to keep them this engaged specially when they have an orchestra to go to! I also got to learn a lot about them that evening.
The second day we had Frank Taylor from the Minnesota Falconers Association with us with this Falcon bird. It was awesome to see him talk to the crowd after hearing Mike talk. They had such different styles! Frank was older and he had all the stories from the importance of Falcons during Shakespeare time - how important the Falcons are in the middle east (he had bought some currency from there to show that they have the Falcons on it as well has the arm rest from there) - everything about how it took him almost 10 years to get the license for the bird! It was amazing to hear! The crowd was also really excited, in fact many of them were listening even though the Orchestra was about to start. I was happy that I could actually answer a question about the bird someone asked me because I had heard it the previous day! Frank was also a great artist who had drawn many Falcons and he bought his work along. The bird was so majestic and I'm so happy I got to hang out with it even behind the scenes! The idea of having birds there at first seemed so funny to me at first but I'm so glad that they did that because everyone surely enjoyed it and learned a lot! The birds looked fine till the end of the talk too ;)