After an extensive approval process and a crap ton of paperwork, I (a human!) have been granted limited access to The Drunk Gnome for the purpose of making one blog post. The gnomes around here are freaking protective of their blog….sheesh!
I wrote this article to pitch an idea about opening a gnome museum. King Jerry finally decided it was in the collective gnomish interest to publish my article. Whew. Hooray! Let me know what you think!
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An Idea About a Gnome Museum
I recently helped my grandma, Ruth, move into an assisted living facility due to her health. For nearly thirty years, she lived in a lovely three-bedroom ranch home in a quiet Central Illinois town. Although she was not a gnome collector, she collected souvenir bells, decorative plates, and angel figurines. As a beloved member of her church and community, Grandma Ruth’s friends and neighbors always give her small gifts for her birthday, Christmas, and as travel souvenirs.
Moving to Brookstone Estates meant Grandma Ruth would need to downsize her belongings to fit into a small one-bedroom apartment. As my parents and I sorted through the rooms of her house, we were overwhelmed by how many collectible items she had collected over the years. She slowly came to realize that she could not take many of her treasures with her.
Since neither my parents nor I had ample storage space, we arranged to hold an estate auction at the community building. Setting aside her most favorite pieces to keep, we reluctantly boxed up her collectibles, applied priced tags, and set them on tables for neighbors and friends to browse through. Almost all of Grandma Ruth’s collectible items were purchased at the estate auction. However, I couldn’t help but feel a pit in my stomach over her beloved bells, plates, and angels being sold for pocket change to people I didn’t know.
This experience made me think about my own collection of gnomes and other gnome collections around the world. Then an idea came to me…a gnome museum! I would love to create a museum for gnome collectors to contribute to and for gnome fans to visit.
To put these ideas into motion, I would reach out to gnome collectors and inquire if they would be willing to donate one gnome from their collections to join gnomes from around the globe to be featured in the museum. The International Gnome Club Newsletter is a perfect venue to get the word out! I would also manage a website with details about how to donate gnomes to the museum and blueprints of how the museum would be organized. I’ve already secured the domain name, www.gnomemuseum.com.
I have a few ideas about how to organize the museum to feature individual rooms for collectors with multiple donations, separate sections for gnomes doing different activities and collected from different eras. In addition to gnomish displays, I would love to organize family-friendly activities and events such as gnome craft-making, gnome scavenger hunts in the yard, gnome-themed refreshments, and a gnome expert speaker series.
Although I have some ideas, I am sure that some of you gnome enthusiasts reading this have many more! I would love to hear your thoughts about establishing a gnome museum, what should be included in one, and suggested museum locations. Although Grandma Ruth has come to terms with her lost collections and enjoys living at Brookstone Estates, I can’t help but think she’d be happier if her beloved items were consolidated in one place for others to truly appreciate the way she did.
Please contact me by email with your thoughts, suggestions, and advice at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you and keeping our gnome collections preserved for future generations of gnome enthusiasts!
Sincerely,
Gnomeplaya The Human
