Maryhill Museum celebrates new season with kick off on March 20

The featured exhibition is It's More Than A Game: the Art of Chess Today which brings together an extensive collection of American chess sets and works of art made during the past 50 years that use chess as a visual metaphor.

Also featured is the exhibit Candy, Clay & Crayons: Chess Sets by Young Northwest Artists. This is the 6th edition of this popular exhibit which features chess sets created by kindergarten to high school students. The title of the exhibit refers to the uninhibited playfulness of the designs as well as the unusual materials used.

Visitors can join Colleen Schafroth, executive director, as she relates the fascinating history of the game of chess; Julie Young, director of Chess for Success, discuss the excitement chess brings to school children; artist Alice Bonham lead a fun art making project for kids of all ages; a performance by the Goldendale High School Jazz Band; and the action in the Game Room.

The 2004 Outdoor Sculpture Invitational exhibit will also open. It features recent large scale sculptures by 14 contemporary Northwest artists, many of whom will be on hand to talk with visitors.

The museum will inaugurate a new gallery to spotlight its most recent acquisitions including an American Indian stone sculpture gifted to the museum by the Mary Hoyt Stevenson Foundation and a photograph by Native American artist Chuck Williams, gifted by Mary Schlick of Mt. Hood.

The museum has reinstalled three popular sets from its Theatre de la Mode collection. The sets include 41 French fashion ensembles from 1946.