Contreras 1

Javier Conteras

David Welton

Intro to University Life

18 November 2019

The History of The Yo-Yo- Museum.

There are different attractions in Chico, but one that many people do not know of is the

Yo-Yo Museum. This museum was founded in 1933 and is located at the heart of Chico,

California. Unlike other museums, the Yo-Yo museum is found within another shop in

Downtown Chico. There are many yo-yos on display in the store but that is not all that it has to

offer. The museum contains more memory and emotion than one can imagine. Champions and

contestants donate their yo-yos to the museum after competitions and with these donations

comes the happiness, sadness, anger, or excitement that they have felt. Every year on the first

Saturday of October, the National Championship is held in Chico, California. Many contestants

come from all over the world to compete and show off their skills. Winners’ names are imprinted

into trophies that are displayed in the museum; with every contestant winner since 1933.

There are many museums in the world, but one that stood out to me was the Museum of

Dance in New York. The Museum of Dance was founded by Marylou Whitney and Lewis A.

Swyer in 1987. It has offered classes, performances, and workshops for anything dance-related

for anyone interested in dance. They give a chance for young performers to try and learn and

have fun with these classes. As well as giving choreographers a chance to implement their

dances they create into performances. The mission of the Museum of Dance was, “that all forms

of professional dance would be honored and that the Museum would be living, with dancers
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taking class and choreographers creating new work right on the property.” Here, in Chico, I

found that the Yo-Yo Museum also tries to keep yo-yos relevant and “living”. They also have

plaques up on walls of performers and of people who have had a hand in creating this dance

space; very much like the trophies that are in the Yo-Yo Museum of contestants who have won.

The Museum of Dance teaches all forms of dances, from the early 1900s to modern dances, they

will teach it. They keep everything that is “old” alive and allow those born in the mid-1900s to

have some memories of their childhood. The Yo-Yo Museum also provides a sense of

remembrance for those who would play the yo-yo when they were little.

In a research article by Kevin Hetherington published on May 1, 2006, he was talking

about museums and h​e talks about the Museum Without Walls and how museums are a

“universal survey of civilization”.He​ stated, “​the essay argues that the museum has always

sought to offer a sense of ​Erfahrung”, which to me, ​portrays what a museum should do.

Erfahrung means experience, so to me, this quote means that museums offer a different kind of

experience. The museums that I have mentioned all provide different feelings to people, whether

it is emotion through dance or a simple memory of a childhood toy.

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Works Cited

Shapiro, Alan. “Museum.” ​Ecotone​, vol. 7, no. 1, 2011, pp. 154–155.

Whitney, Marylou. “History.” ​National Museum of Dance​,

http://www.dancemuseum.org/about/our-history/.