A museum based on buildings. While it doesn’t sound like the most exciting subject, it’s far more intriguing than one would think. Even the building itself has a rather ho-hum look to it, almost warehouse like in its simplicity, putrid red bricks racked into a pile in the middle of the city block. The National Building Museum isn’t much to look at on the outside, but you’ll see that there is more than meets the eye awaiting inside.

There were several exhibitions that intrigued me, but the two that caught my attention the most were Storefront Churches and The Places We Live (closed on November 15th).  Both exhibits capture portions of human culture that are not examined often enough or properly portrayed in today’s society.

1855 3rd St., N. Richmond, California, 2004. Camilo José Vergara

Storefront Churches is full of portraits taken by Camilo José Vergara, which were taken from his book How the Other Half Worships.  The photos capture the essence of these churches in their true light with unique designs, placed in settings not typically used as churches. They were minority churches of either Black or Hispanic congregations, composed of people who didn’t have the money to build from the ground up, but have a fervency to gather together in one place and obtain an audience with their God. These churches, covered in graffiti, advertisements, dust and moss, embody a different time and a different era. Before there were megachurches, these were the churches that our ancestors attended.  A place where everyone knows your name and visitors are made to stand and introduce themselves at every service.  This is where the food is cooking every Sunday to feed the congregants, visitors, and the poor alike. These are the places that we cannot forget because they contain so much culture, our history and many things we should carry into our future.

Jonas Bendiksen/ Magnum Photos

And then we come to Jonas Bendiksen The Places We Live – four separate sections, each with four blank white walls of emptiness that are suddenly brought to light as you enter the threshold. Inside of each, the story is told of four different families in four different Third World countries. The emptiness is filled with pictures showing each family’s surroundings on a daily basis. The feeling of bareness and lack permeates the room as you listen to them tell their stories.  As I listened and placed myself inside of these four walls, I felt as if I was imprisoned.  As if I was surrounded by an inescapable presence, the hand of poverty pulling me into the ground, keeping me beneath the feet of average men. Yet, many of the story tellers were not saddened by their plight, but happy for their health and what little they did have. These are people poor beyond poor, lacking basic needs, yet they were neither downbeat nor depressed about what the next day holds; a repeat of the preceding days.  Truly embraced, this is an exhibit full of lessons and visions of true appreciation expressing the real meaning of Thanksgiving. I took my children to see these exhibits and explained all of this to them and they will now see that even when little, we’ll always have more than what we witnessed there that day.

So all in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this museum experience. We gained new insight on the world, learned to value our past and, once again, to never judge a book by its cover.  If you’re in the area, do stop by. You never know what you might learn….