Say Hi to Lowbrow

I'm one of the crotchedy few who isn't thrilled by the Dr. Seuss "Memorial Sculpture Park" plopped down in the middle of the otherwise elegant quadrangle of the Springfield Museums. I'm crazy about Theodore Geisel, Springfield's most famous son, and I don't dislike the bronze statues designed by his step-daughter, Lark Grey Dimond-Cates. I just don't think they belong in that spot.

Formerly, the gracious sweep of lawn set off the beautiful buildings when viewed from any angle. Now the whole space is all wrong: lopsided and crowded. Standing on the steps of the Art Deco Museum of Fine Arts, looking toward the Italianate George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, your view is blocked by a giant cartoon elephant. WTF?

I believe the purpose of sticking them there, rather than in Forest Park where they belong, is to lure crowds to the museums. Once you've made the pilgrimage with the kiddies to see Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat and the Lorax, you might as well make an afternoon of it and acquire some culture.

For those families who manage to make it from the parking lot past the Welcome Center and the Museum of Natural History to the statues without buying a ticket for the special dinosaur exhibit now underway, this costumed T. Rex has been hanging around as a marketing ploy. I was reminded of the aggressively friendly costumed jerks roaming Brussels's Mini-Europe, insistent on taking your exorbitantly expensive souvenir picture.

So much for the cabinet of curiosities. Museums are becoming more like theme parks every day.