May at the Tehachapi Museum

On First Friday in May, the Tehachapi Museum will feature several special exhibits that opened in the last several months and will continue through May. In the Tehachapi Families Case, the Fickert family of Bear Valley is featured.

Two other recent exhibits will continue. Dr Terry Warsaw’s collection of marbles, including ancient pottery, stone and minerals, early German glass, and more recent American glass are on exhibit, along with information on how to play marble games. The other recent exhibit showcases pottery made by Hazel Kanstein, wife of Lew Kanstein, a former mayor and co-owner of the BeeKay Theatre. Hazel Davis came to Tehachapi as a schoolteacher sometime in the late 1910s or early 1920s later marrying Lewis Kanstein. At their home on Green Street, Hazel operated a plant nursery and sold her pottery.

A new exhibit of Williams family baskets in the Milano Gallery features four baskets, made by Refugia Williams, of Kawaiisu coiled construction, with coils formed of deer grass, wrapped with split willow. The woven designs on the individual baskets were created by wrapping coils with Joshua tree root, bracken fern root and yucca root. A small oval basket, prior to 1930, is possibly the last basket made by Refugia before her death in 1932.

Join us from 5 to 8 p.m. on the First Friday of each month for appetizers and wine at 310 S. Green St., a short walk from the many downtown galleries and shops that participate in First Friday. Regular Museum hours are Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Noon to 4 p.m.