My first tour that I wanted to attend
was the Villa Terrace Renaissance Garden. I chose this site specific
because I always drove passed it and never knew that it was a museum/
garden. Honestly, I thought it was some rich family that owned a
beautiful home and garden. I've lived in Milwaukee and I didn't know
until Open Doors Milwaukee. I recently went to the Renaissance Faire
which is why I wanted to attended the Villa Terrace Renaissance
Garden. When I first entered the building, it was beautiful. The
Villa Terrace courtyard greeted us with some sculptures and a
beautiful fountain! It was gorgeous because it was what we saw first
before we entered the Villa Terrace Renaissance Garden!
The background story to this beautiful
Villa Terrace is that an architect David Adler helped build a home
for Mr. & Mrs. Lloyd R. Smith. The Villa Terrace was built on the
east side of Milwaukee because Agnes (Mrs. Smith) came back from a
visit to Italy and fell in love with the architecture. The Smiths
already owned both Terrace Avenue so it was the perfect location over
looking Lake Michigan. It was their own little Mediterranean getaway!
When Mr. Smith died in 1944, Agnes donated the Villa Terrace to the
Milwaukee to use as a museum. It was very beautiful and I did feel
like I was in Italy because of the architecture and the beautiful
garden. It was very romantic and very open. It's like what Nato
Thompson stated, “Experimental Geography
should be considered as a new lens to interpret a growing body of
culturally inspired work that deals with human interaction with the
land.” I agree with this quote because it's an experiment to be
carefully judged. Play with the natural surroundings because then
someone can build a beautiful home and building specifically for the
landscape. It was such a beautiful Villa Terrace. I really liked the interior and exterior of the Villa Terrace. Personally, I love vintage and classic homes which is why I had a great experience visiting this place. Such a beautiful home with amazing architecture. Every floor and every room I came into were very detailed and I could tell Agnes paid close attention to any small details. The design of the Villa Terrace was thought out and it does make me feel like I'm in Italy because of the structure of the home. The main attraction was the courtyard with it's beautiful sculptures and even the ground was detailed. Once you passed the courtyard, you entered through this wooden, royal door and it brought me to their Great Hall with a grand piano overlooking Lake Michigan!
I was
excited to visit the Artasia Gallery and Museum! Oh wow, I had so
much fun looking at all the artifacts from China, Tibet and Nepal. I
walked passed this place so many times and going in the place was
awesome. I could easily connect to the artifacts that I saw in
Artasia because I am Hmong and my culture do uses similar things
compared to the artifacts in Artasia. The patterns that I found on
the scarves were beautiful and I am all about patterns so seeing the
clothing made me excited. The Chinese dresses reminded me of some of
my traditional Hmong Clothes. There were lots of statues of Buddhas
and music instruments, it was all very amazing! It was so crowded in
the lower level because it was packed with tons and TONS of unique
artifacts. It took me forever to look through every single thing
which I did not mind because they were so beautiful. We have this
music instrument, a Hmong flute that makes a harsh tone to it but
it's beautiful and I saw something similar to it in Artasia. Also, on
a side note, the tones are based on the style and size of the flute.
I don't know how to play, but my father does. Hmong people migrated
from China so I think that's why the Hmong culture is so closely
related to their culture. It's funny because my parents took a trip
to China Town in Chicago and bought themselves a Chinese cabinet,
coffee table, and a larger table that's in our basement and we aren't
even Chinese!!!! There were beds,
cabinets, chairs, and more furniture!
What got my attention was that I passed these statues on a shelf and I read the description of why they always looked evil which is funny because they actually do look pissed off or just mean. It make sense once I read the text because it was to ward off any evil spirits, I mean you can't play it nicely, there needs to be some aggression in order to fight off evil!!! 
After
the visit to Artasia I went to Venduras Tea House & Cafe and
order this Jamaican tea that had a hint of Hibiscus! It was delicious
to drink because it was a cold day that I went to visit and the tea
was nice and hot. It was a good day!
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