Gross Antiquities

“My favorite part was the mummies, and how they took out people’s brains through their noses.”

Ah, yes. The “brain hook,” a slender little antiquity with a stomach-churning purpose--and the ability to charm 12-year-olds. It was a highlight of the day for Gene Estrada, echoing the gleefully grossed-out majority opinion of his sixth-grade classmates. The Holy Family School students from South Pasadena had just gotten a sneak preview of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition “Ancestors: Art and the Afterlife,” at the museum’s new second venue, LACMA West.

The show of art used in the funerary customs of ancient Egypt and 20th century sub-Saharan Africa is in LACMA’s brand-new Experimental Gallery for families and children, which opened to the public on Saturday, housed in the light-filled, remarkably transformed old May Co. building at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.

Thumbs-up were given to a “portable grave”--a formidable, nail-studded sculpture containing dirt from an ancestor’s burial place--a mummy and sarcophagus, ancestors embodied by Picasso-esque carved wooden statues and ivory figures polished smooth by the hands of reverential descendants.

Two Ghanaian “fantasy” coffins--one shaped and painted like a giant onion, the other like a rainbow trout--were a hit, although a touchable LACMA-commissioned lion coffin pined for company.

There are offering baskets, drawers of amulets and ceremonial jars where “the guts go,” as one canny docent told an engaged group of kids, who were staring at Thermos-shaped limestone containers topped with elegantly carved human and animal heads.

“We made an active effort to find objects that were fun and accessible,” said curator Nancy Thomas.

Thomas, who specializes in ancient and Islamic art, collaborated in the creation of the gallery with associate curator of African art Elisabeth Cameron, curatorial assistant Elizabeth Caffry and Jane Burrell, head of LACMA’s education department.

“I have a 12-year-old, so I knew the interest,” Thomas added, referring to some of the more grisly aspects of body preservation.

Despite its deliberate appeal to kids who have graduated from dinosaur thrills to “Goosebumps” chills, however, this is not a traditional action-packed little kids’ museum or some bells-and-whistles Chuck E. Cheese-type play station romp.

Tailored to older elementary school-age children and up, the educational displays and interactive components require a willingness to think about what is being presented and why.

“We wanted a space where we could experiment with the way we present art,” Burrell said, “and reach out to future museum-goers.”

Estrada and several classmates, besides their fascination with brain hooks, were intrigued to learn how many people interact with long-dead family members.

Top on the students’ “most interesting” discoveries: “the way they dance to bring the ancestors back” (Jasmyn Duran, 11); “how the different tribes solve problems asking the ancestors” (Ian Palmer, 11); “dancing to bring back the ancestors, that was pretty good,” Edward Villalvazo, 12); “how they communicated with the ancestors” (Taylor Slattery, 11); and “the problem solving baskets” (Luke Paul Patruno, 12).

Estrada got interested on a personal level: “I want to find out about my background,” he said. “My ancestors are from Mexico. I’m going to do some research and talk to my mom’s dad.”

And adults won’t feel out of place here, either. Labeled with non-condescending clarity, the displays are art museum quality. What’s different is presentation.

“You don’t have to see it in sequence,” Thomas said, “unlike a standard exhibition. And we offer information on a lot of different levels. The objects themselves have a story to tell and they are also the inspiration for art-making activities in the gallery.”

In the middle of the exhibition is an Egyptian “offering” table where visitors can do rubbings of raised hieroglyphics. They can also check out an activity kit that guides them through an offering ceremony.

The activities, some suggested by the display labels, are both high- and low-tech. A 3-D computer puzzle--very popular--directs users back into the exhibit with clues for finding a message from an ancestor; continuously playing videos put some of the art in context; a video station invites visitors to tape comments about their own family histories.

A table is laden with top-quality books for browsing; nearby, carpeted steps strewn with pillows afford comfort for reading or drawing. Crayons and sketch pads are supplied.

“It’s better than other museums,” Patruno summed up, “because you get to actually do stuff.”

Beginning this Sunday, a student-curated “Day of the Dead” altar exhibit, created by second-graders at El Sereno Elementary, will be on display through January.

Note: Admission to the Experimental Gallery is always free; other exhibitions at LACMA West are ticketed.

BE THERE

“Ancestors: Art and the Afterlife,” LACMA West, Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue (entrance on the building’s north side), Los Angeles. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon to 8 p.m.; Fridays, noon to 9 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., through June 14. Free. (323) 857-6000.