If someone at the City Art Museum had ever casually observed a woman who visited the wing that hosted the Ravi Varma collection regularly, they would not have made much of it except she was probably a dedicated art lover, a Varma fanatic even, and would have rarely guessed that the conclusion they deemed best plausible had little truth to it; but if the same someone had decided to make a keener observation and gained wisdom about the woman's singular, steadfast path from the parking lot to the same painting each time, they would have concluded less wrongly about her art patron ship, and a p

I see they fall somewhere between 16 to 60. They also fall in the lowest of income groups. Some are immigrants. Some are refugees. Political or environmental. Some work. As baggers at supermarket stores. In housekeeping. As daily wagers. As house wives. Uneducated. Semi-educated. And, I volunteer a few hours a week to help them learn English. To read, write, speak. To get by. The literacy program coordinator walks me around.