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International Mask and Puppet Museum
The International Mask and
Puppet Museum has changed its name to the Open Hand Theater that is
located inside what they call a castle, with giant puppets and
characters from imaginary worlds and faraway places that are sure to
excite and astound you and your family in Syracuse, New York. The
Open Hand Theater grew from the Seedling Theater of Oneonta, New
York, opening in 1980 in a small studio loft in Syracuse in an old
abandoned warehouse which would later become Armory Square. In 1985,
they moved to the Plymouth Congregational Church, starting a series
of collaborations in the Syracuse area and helped bring this theater
to the point its at now. The theater has always been committed
to the involvement of the community, and is very concerned about
social concerns, education and community development, with the
earliest productions including children's touring shows, downtown
winter pageants and the annual Imagination Celebration Parade. The
theater opened the International Mask and Puppet Museum in 1999,
contained in a magnificent miniature castle that had been
constructed in 1890 as a special center for the performance and
puppetry arts. The Hand in Hand Youth Theater opened in 1989 and
offers exceptional training to the younger artists, and the theater
is proud to offer yearly summer circus camps for the children along
with other venues. They have garnered numerous awards for their
excellence in production and community involvement, with the highest
quality of puppets and masks around. The museum's collections has
been based on the six main geographic location of the various
cultures that include; South America, Africa, Asia, North America
and Oceania. Their main focus evolves around African masks and
relics, a world of music, folk and ritual musical instruments, India
marionettes and shadow puppets, contemporary masks and puppets, a
collection based on individual contemporary artists, Indonesian
masks and puppets, the world collection with individual masks and
puppets that have come from various places around the world,
Vietnamese water puppets, Mexican masks and Day of the Dead relics,
Chinese shadow puppets, Russian relics and masks, Italy commedia
dell'arte masks and English marionettes. The collections have been
chosen if they offer hands-on abilities or viewing presentations.
The castle where the museum and theater is housed had been
constructed by Charles L. Hoffman, President of the National Brewing
Company, as a unique Victorian house for his family, where it would
be filled with much laughter and interesting entertainment; as well
as becoming a fraternal lodge, community arts center and union hall.
Charles stated that he wanted his castle to be a third size replica
of the castle he had remembered on the Neckar River in his native
country of Germany. There are marvelous carved floral details around
the doorways and doorknobs, with the trim surrounding the keyholes
made of solid brass that had been etched. Sliding pocket doors have
been installed to separate the main rooms and the newel post in the
foyer is topped by a large grooved globe. The floors were
geometrically accented, polished hardwood, with the fireboxes in the
fireplaces containing outstanding eagle designs of brass. The
theater would acquire this unique castle in 1999, and transform it
into the magnificent cultural resource that it has become today.
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Erie Canal Museum
 The
Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, New York is exactly what it says it
is, a museum about the Erie Canal across the state, and situated in
the Weighlock Building that is also listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1971. The museum began in 1962, housed in a
weigh lock building that was constructed in 1850, where the canal
vessels would come in to be weighed as they went through the city of
Syracuse on the canal, as well as a gallery of the current state of
the canal. When the Erie Canal Museum opened its doors, it would be
celebrating and preserving the life of the last surviving structure
and weigh lock that exists in the nation today. The Greek revival
structure stands proudly as a testament to the once important Erie
Canal as it relates to the history of the region and the country.
When the canal was in full swing, a weighlock was used to weigh the
cargo, and it was a lock that had been designed to weigh the boats
coming through so they could charge them a toll, with seven
constructed all together, and located at Albany, Waterford,
Rochester, Syracuse, Troy, Oswego and Utica. The Syracuse weighlock
building wasn't the first one built, which happened in 1824, and
that one had been a chamber that would be the same level as the
canal, and no structure to enclose it, with the weighing done by
water displacement. It was an accurate way to measure the weight,
but the canal boat captains had such a hard time understanding it
that they eventually called it "little more than a guess pond". So,
in 1828, a new one was constructed, but the wood that had been used
would only last for five years, so another was built, with a
building beside it, more efficient, but by this time, the canal was
becoming so congested that they deepened it to 7 feet and made it 70
wide to try accommodating the numerous boats. It would reach its
peak in 1845, no longer able to handle the heavier and newer boats,
so the last one would be opened in 1850, designed as a plain two
story red brick building with tin roof, in a Greek revival style,
the first floor containing the weighmaster's office and sleeping
quarters for the men that worked nights, since it operated on a 24/7
basis. The second floor held the offices of engineers and repair
superintendents. The canal would be continued to be used during the
Civil War, but after that, as the railroads gained momentum, the
canal began to see a definite decline in business; so the owners
thought about making a canal that would handle the bigger barges.
Between 1905 and 1918, the Barge Canal was constructed at a cost of
$101 million, and different from the Erie Canal, it would use
natural waterways and didn't need a towpath, and it is still working
today.
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Car Rentals
Syracuse
The
Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology, often called
the MOST, is the museum located in the old Syracuse Armory in the
Armory Square neighborhood of downtown Syracuse, with multiple
displays and a domed IMAX theater. Some of the outstanding exhibits
and programs include; life sciences, gala, discovery cave,
telecommunications lab, science playhouse, TAP into the MOST,
spectacular Saturn, planetarium, technotown and flight and space.
One new and exciting idea that the museum has come up with is the
new cool stuff page on its website, with all kinds of games, fun
things to do and puzzles. When you do go to the museum, be sure to
take advantage of one of their fabulous scavenger hunts or other
projects that offer you and your children plenty of ideas as to what
to do on those bitter cold days when the weather just forces you to
stay inside, and not travel on the dangerous roads. Check out the
site when you have a chance and see all the marvelous things they
have for you to do and see. The IMAX theater always has a great film
playing and you are always welcome. Many of the exhibits are
state-of-the-art interactive displays, like Life Sciences that will
not only help you to learn more about this interesting subject, but
will also thrill, delight and amaze you and your family, with the
indescribable human body and the huge interdependence of its organs,
with a huge human heart that offers you an up close and personal
view of how and what the heart does for the body, and what happens
when there are problems. After visiting this excellent exhibit you
are sure to want to check out all the other special exhibits that
will help you learn more about many things that will absolutely
astound you.
