-Merry-Go-Round- still bank c. mid 20th century

Curator: What strikes me immediately is the whimsy! It's got that bright, brassy glow and carousel horses frozen in mid-leap, you almost hear the calliope music. Editor: Absolutely, the charm is undeniable. We are looking at a mid-20th-century metal still bank shaped like a merry-go-round, now part of the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s collection. Curator: A bank! Of course. It is heavy. Like some buried pirate treasure, perhaps. How intriguing! Something once beloved, full of wishes, hopes. The cold metal warms. Editor: That is indeed the fascinating social tension at play: banks often commodify nostalgia to market dreams of safety, success, and consumerism through a folksy lens. Note, too, the use of relatively inexpensive materials like cast metal to produce something so aesthetically delightful but easily replicated on a mass scale. Curator: Easily replicated, yet still holding this unique emotional weight, almost a story in miniature. You think of all the pennies and nickels slipped inside, little financial wishes… It feels a bit melancholy actually, like the end of summer. Editor: The bank’s value hinges precisely on its relationship to capital: a literal receptacle for accumulation. This accessibility, created through material choices, opens paths to engagement. Curator: Yet beyond its function as a savings vessel, there’s a decorative dimension, elevating everyday material to an object of art, its playful theme conjuring up childlike excitement. This "folk-art" approach celebrates fantasy while encouraging practicality! Editor: A blend we can read through the conscious industrial means and labor of its fabrication. It mirrors social trends where functional metalware merges decorative intention. Curator: True. Looking at the symmetry, how perfectly it sits, you begin to wonder what happens after all of those coins were cashed. Does it lose the magic? What tale awaits in its golden age, the memories once purchased. Editor: And that's how it keeps spinning. The material speaks directly to this consumer interaction as well.