Museum Hopper

i was home for the holidays and knew i had to go see at least one museum in detroit. it was such an obvious choice, the detroit institute of arts , which had been recently renovated. my boyfriend and i headed over there on a chilly sunday afternoon. we decided to just see the museum , not the special exhibits, since we both had not been there in so long. next time we are back in the city, we will probably try the detroit science center . the parking was very convenient and just a short walk to the front of the museum. i liked the museum layout. the rooms were small and i found it easy to move from room to room. i think the best part of the museum, which i have never seen in a museum, were these descriptive signs in almost every room. the signs seemed to unite all the objects in the room (i.e. the paintings, sculptures, sketches). there were throughout the entire museum from the modern to the neoclassical to the egyptian art. a visit to the dia is not complete without mentioning

i went to the fashion institute of technology (fit) museum on saturday. it was strategically planned to overlap the newly opening night & day exhibit as well as the soon closing american beauty . the night & day is in the exhibition space that the other two exhibits i have seen is in. the american beauty exhibit was downstairs in the basement. i had never been down there for an exhibit before. downstairs was quite open feeling with tall ceilings, but was rather factory, minimal and industrial. the night & day exhibit was well done. it followed the similar pattern their other exhibits working through the periods comparing and contrasting the different style of outfits. it was interesting to see how they progressed. the largest change seemed to occur between 1920-1945. they had some beautiful dresses. i was not quite as impressed with the american beauty exhibit. they seemed to preface the exhibit with stating that they had to expand their vision of what an "

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i went to the metropolitan museum of art today to see the art of the samurai: japanese arms and armor, 1156-1868 . this exhibit was in the typical special exhibit location....second floor to the left passing through the marble statues. the exhibit was fantastic. as described in the introduction to the exhibit, it is the most comprehensive exhibit ever devoted to samurai art. most of the art were designated as "national treasure" and "important cultural property." i found quite a few of the items on the wikipedia page for japanese national treasures . the exhibit had a number of swords, sword mountings and armor. a number of the items (~60) will be switched out in the next week with new items. most of the items cannot handle light for such long periods. some of the armor was fantastic, in particular one. this particular armor was replicated 100 years later for a child in the same family. this helmet was absolutely fantastic. i cannot believe that i spent

i went to the brooklyn museum of art today. the subway posters/ads for the exhibit who shot rock & roll : a photographic history from 1955 to present have been calling out to me. it was fairly quiet as i entered the museum today and got up to get my ticket pretty quickly. after that, i headed up to the 5th floor for the exhibit. i found the exhibit generally well spaced although it was a difficult to navigate the exhibit. i did quite a bit of walking back and forth to take it all in. i am also 100% certain that i did not take in the exhibit in order. i was a little irritated that they let strollers into the exhibit. these were strollers that parents were using to hold all their jackets and bags, not actually their children! it was crowded enough without these extra items! overall, i find that the museum has quite an unusual layout. i thought that the exhibit was quite good. it covered a large era (over 50 years) and all different aspects of "rock and roll." i

i went to the new york historical society last weekend with my friend, suzi! she just happens to be a history phd candidate which was just perfect for this museum! she is in town doing research for her phd; most of her research has been done in the new york historical society! we went to see the lincoln and new york . the advertising line that has intrigued me was: lincoln, the most beloved president new york ever hated. the exhibit was quite lengthy about 1/3 longer than we expected. it stepped through his history with new york starting with his arrival to give the infamous cooper union speech advocating to not expand slavery to the mourning parades and viewings after his assassination. the exhibit was very well done. i was able to follow the exhibit with my limited history knowledge, but suzi still found it interesting even though she knows a lot more about this subject than the average visitor. we both decided that our favorite part of this exhibit was this on screen game. i

after suzi and i left the new york historical society, we headed down to the morgan library for a visit to the morgan library . we wanted to see the new exhibit, a woman's wit: jane austen's life and legacy . she also had never been to the morgan and wanted to see it before she heads back to ann arbor. the exhibit was one large room broken into about four different sections. this exhibit did not really require navigating in any particular order. each wall/glass cabinet was somewhat self contained when it came to the material. the morgan library has the largest collection of jane austen manuscripts and letters in the world. it also has the only remaining complete jane austen manuscript, lady susan . i loved seeing the early editions of her novels in particular emma and pride and prejudice . this exhibit (like the ny historical society) also had a number of satirical cartoons mocking the societal customs and dress of the day. placing these cartoons side by side with

i decided to stop by the morgan library on saturday after my volunteering. i am really happy i did since they had the exhibit, where the wild things are: original drawings by maurice sendak . this was very timely given that the movie with the same title was just released as well. it shows some of the early drafts as well as some of the final illustrations. sendak originally had planned to name the book where the wild horses are . the morgan has an exhibit opening in 2 weeks about jane austen that i am VERY excited about, a woman's wit: jane austen's life and legacy . times visited: 6 time in museum: 20 minutes overall: A

i went to the metropolitan museum of art right after i visited the whitney . i headed to the met to see the vermeer exhibit . the vermeer exhibit is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the dutch's arrival in the new york known at that point as new amsterdam. the exhibit was very well organized. as usual, the met does a great job giving the social context to the paintings and the history behind them. tons of people were at the exhibit, but the exhibit had enough space to move around. the exhibit leaves enough space around the paintings everyone is there to see. the vermeers were amazing. the highlight of the exhibit was the milkmaid , which hasn't been in the usa since 1939. the exhibit also had 5 of his most famous paintings: a maid asleep , young women with a water pitcher , woman with a lute , study of a young woman and allegory of a catholic faith . i loved all the symbolism in the his paintings, which were so well explained in the descriptions. definitely

i went to the whitney museum on sunday for my 100th trip to a museum! i headed up there by myself mostly to see the georgia o'keeffe: abstraction exhibit. as expected, the exhibit was quite crowded. besides the permanent exhibit and the o'keeffe exhibit, 3 of the other floors were closed to viewers in preparation for upcoming exhibits. the o'keeffe exhibit took an entire floor which at least was well planned. the rooms were segregated by time period, which i felt was appropriate. i did not know much about georgia o'keeffe going into this exhibit. i did read this review from the nytimes as a prep going into the exhibit. it was interesting to see some of her less familiar work. the abstracts paintings were beautiful. i loved the colors; she seemed to experiment quite a bit with different shades of blue. her later works were influenced by flying around the world and her compound in arizona. the exhibit definitely displayed a side of o'keeffe's art

last weekend, i went to the cooper-hewitt national design museum with my dad who was in town. it was my second trip there. the cooper-hewitt museum had one exhibit about sustainable design . they had an exhibit titled design for a living world . it featured 10 sustainable materials taken in new creative ideas....everything from cotton to cocoa. i recognized a few of the designers, isaac mizrahi (salmon leather), kate spade co. and maya lin who designed the vietnam memorial as well as the university of michigan wave field. it showed the design plans to the finish product. i really liked the chinese bamboo design by ezri tarazi . he took bamboo stalks converting them to lamps, clothes hangers (sort of a coat rack) and speaker and CD stands. the one unfortunate thing with this museum is that if they are working on one exhibit that only leaves one other exhibit to see. if you go to this museum at the wrong time, you really don't have much to see. times visited: 2 time in t

i went to the lower east side tenament museum today. i have not been to the museum in about 2 years and figured it would be time to pay it another visit. this "museum" is just composed of guided tours through a restored tenement on a variety of topics. i did not book a tour in advance, so i attended the tour titled the moores: an irish family in america since the timing worked out the best for this tour. this was the smallest tour i have been on; there was only one other family of four who happened to be from ireland. our guide was fantastic and very chatty. each tour is supposed to be 1 hour although our guide happily talked for about 1 1/2 hours. i think the moores lived in the building the earliest of any of the tours that i have attended. they moved into the building around 1868. most of the other ones are around the end of the nineteenth century. this tour focused on the health, building and sanitation issues regarding this time period. it discussed som

i visited the american museum of natural history recently with my boyfriend. he had never been and i figured this have material that would interest him. as usual, i do not like that this museum charged quite a bit extra for all the special exhibits. i also wish they would put a little more effort towards some sound proofing. it is great that this museum is geared towards children, but they obviously make a lot of noise. the halls in this museum just seem to echo with the sound. we ended up wandering around the rose center for earth and space for quite about half the time. the big bang demonstration was broken while we were there. he really enjoyed walking through the moments in time and seeing how the universe has changed and expanded. we also saw the dinosaurs. it still bothers me that this exhibit does not start where the majority of people think it would start. i still have not figured out how to go up the stairs to start the exhibit where you are supposed to. every

i went to the new york transit museum today after the insistance of my friend, matt. it was definitely worth the trip! i headed there on an overcast, hot, humid day. the museum is in a "retired" subway station, so probably not the best place to head when it is hot and humid. most of it is not air conditioned. it was pretty neat. i made it just in time for the tour. the tour took us through how the first subways were built, the history of paying subway fares, how they actually collect all the money out of the subway cars and buses, and then we got to walk and sit in old subway cars. the tour was definitely nice since the guide was informed and interesting, but there seemed to be plenty of signage and documentation around the museum that you could do it on your own. the museum flowed very nicely. when you enter, it is all about subway construction. you could explode your own set of dynamite, see the tools and many pictures of the construction. it was really int

i went to governor's island for the 2nd time last weekend for a bike ride. it was a beautiful day although slightly on the humid side! i brought my bike and headed down to the free governor's island ferry (near the staten island ferry). the ferry left on time. it's a quick 8 minute ride over to the island. we disembarked and i was off! the bike ride was very nice. the path around the island was smooth and wide. the island has some spectacular views. it is the closest land mass to the statue of liberty. it also has fantastic views of lower manhattan and jersey city. on the ride, you pass by a pretty cool picnic area complete with picnic tables and hammocks! the island does not have any water fountains, which was disappointing to me. either bring your own water or you can buy bottled on the island. times visited: 2 time on the island: 1 hour overall: B

i went to the guggenheim museum by myself today. the museum is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary. as part of the celebration, they have a large exhibit about frank lloyd wright . the exhibit is titled: frank lloyd wright: from within outward . as everyone is aware, the guggenheim building in new york city was designed by frank lloyd wright in 1959-1960. the building was completed 6 months after he passed away. the building is fantastic. it has finally finished the refurbishment of the museum (late last year, i believe). when walking by now, you can view the actual museum, as opposed to scaffolding. it was pretty interesting to view 64 of his projects in a museum he designed. this was the very first major exhibit about frank lloyd wright i have ever attended. as usual with exhibits at the guggenheim it started at the bottom and worked up to the top of the museum. they had everything from sketches to models and pictures of the projects that were built. i had nev

so, i went to the bronx zoo yesterday for volunteering. i was basically chaperoning young adults. i was accompanied then throughout my trip by 2 other coworkers (that i had just met) and 3 siblings aged about 8-14. we had our ticket and food paid for. work bought us the jumbo pass with all the add-ons. we arrived right as it was opening and headed straight to the gorillas. i still cannot believe you have to pay extra to see a permanent exhibit at the zoo. one complaint about this zoo: i feel like you have to do a lot of extra walking to get where you want to go. also, the map is difficult to follow. i cannot believe that i am admitting that. i usually don't have issues with maps, but this one kept giving us problems. a surprise hit: the bug carousel! we went for a ride on it right before leaving. it was a nice way to get a little break before walking the last bit to the bus. we were at the zoo until 3, so a fairly full day. the 6 (and then 7 of us in the afternoo

i visited the metropolitan museum of art this weekend to look at the new special exhibit, the model as muse: embodying fashion . it was pretty fantastic. i went to the exhibit since i read about it in this new york times' review . the exhibit is in the space that the turner exhibit was in about 8 months ago. the exhibit was laid out in a chronological order. it started with the 1950s and ended with the present/future of modeling. this layout made sense given that the exhibit walks the viewer through the evolution of the female figure. the exhibit was an interesting mix of commentary, magazine covers, photos, couture and video. as i walked through the exhibit, the commentary was excellent at bringing cohesion to which models' lifestyles influences what fashions and styles. it also drew lines between the ideal feminine silhouette and the models influences that ideal. the exhibit was quite crowded, but seemed to handle the crowd well. i could still see and read eve

i went to the tower of london again on this trip to london . i absolutely love it. this trip, i did most of the beefeater tour and then went to the new exhibit, henry viii: dressed to kill . i skipped the crown jewels since i didn't have lots of time and there was a line queuing out of the tower to see them. the yeomen warder (aka a beefeater) tour is included in the price of admission to the tour. they begin about every 1/2 hour or so and are the reason i keep coming back to the tower every time i am in london . if you miss the start of a tour, either wait for the next one/come back to it or catch up to the one ahead of you. they talk about the "ins and outs" of the tower as well as lore and stories about its occupants. they are quite comical. the tour might not be suited to young children since most of the stories involve someone being beheaded! this time, i went to the new exhibit about king henry viii . remember, when i complained about how king hen

i visited kensington palace this trip with a friend from work, jo . it is the second time i have been to the tour. the first time was about 7 years ago when i visited london with my aunt. i got to by walking through the gardens which were lovely. the main reason for the "above average" (not outstanding) score is that the exhibits were all over the place. since this is a historic home, they can't exactly rip down doors and walls to create a more cohesive exhibit. that being said though, i felt like this was particularly bad. we had to repeat major parts of the exhibit to move on to the next part and lots of backtracking. the first 5-7 rooms were about dressing for court . the first two showed styles from the early 1920s (some earlier) and the work it took to get ready for an event at court. the palace provided headsets to elaborate and provide more background on what we were looking at. these were helpful although i do prefer to read placards (since that c

i visited the victoria and albert museum (finally) by myself. the last time i was in london, i didn't have much time to visit it, but i stepped into it briefly. i promised myself that next time i was in london, i would go visit this museum. i am not sure how i skipped it the first two trips. i think v & a + london's national gallery = the new york metropolitan museum of art from what i could tell unless i missed the just "pure" artwork. my goal was to visit the highlights of the museum that were on the first floor, which were most of the list. it really seems like this museum had everything. i particularly liked the india, china and japan exhibits. they seemed to have some very rare and beautiful pieces. i wish i had had a little more time to explore it more. times visited: 1 time in museum: 1 hr overall: A-

i went to the petersen automotive museum over easter weekend with my boyfriend when i was visiting los angeles. he has been a few times and really likes it, so he thought it could be something we could do together. also, a solar car he built and designed in college was recently donated to the museum for their alternative power exhibit and he wanted to see it. i was very surprised with how well done this museum was. when you arrive, it is pretty obvious the layout of the museum. as a visitor you are forced to go right, which takes you through a " streetscape " of cars from southern california starting in the early twentieth century. at the end of the exhibit it drops you right next to the escalator to take you to the second floor. it deposits you right at the next exhibit, the alternative power exhibit. they had a few other exhibits, which were great. they had a "what were they thinking?: the misfits of motordom ." some of these cars were nuclear powere

i was interested in the onassis cultural center after reading this review in the nytimes when the exhibit first opened, but then was decided to visit it when seeing it listed in the ny magazine a few months later. i was very impressed with the museum itself. the guards were helpful. one pointed out to me, which way to traverse the gallery (counter clockwise). another quietly pointed out the two replicas in the museum. (the real ones can't travel because they would crumble in an airplane from the pressure). they showed expertise about the art they were protecting, but didn't interupt your viewing experience. they have an exhibit (well the entire museum was this exhibit) about " worshipping women: ritual and reality in classical athens ." the exhibit addresses the "preconceptions about the exclusion of women from public life in ancient athens." The art shows a much more nuaunced view of women's roles in greek life. the art shows women participat

i went to the frick on a sunday afternoon to check out the new visiting exhibit: masterpieces of european painting from the norton simon museum . they have five paintings on loan from the collection. they are from the "old masters." they had one of a dog that i really liked. the detail in the painting was fantastic. you could practically feel the dog's fur. i really like this museum. it was a tiny exhibit, but worth a trip up to see it. times visited: 3 time in museum: 25 minutes overall: A-

at my boyfriend's urging, i visited the traveling bmw art cars exhibit. he had seen it in los angeles and it traveled to grand central, new york city after that. bmw currently has 16 art cars and is in the process of picking an artist for #17. the collection started with alexander calder painting a bmw race car (which was actually raced after being painted in le mans). four cars travel every year . this year, it is all american artists: andy warhol , roy lichtenstein , frank stella and robert rauschenberg . the cars were fantastic. roy lichtenstein's car had his signature dots on it portraying a road, grass, sun and sky. the stella car was fantastic. it was supposed to be a 2-D design on a 3-D object. you can just feel the air rushing over this car. it was definitely worth a visit to look at these fabulous cars! times visited: 1 time spent at special exhibit: 30 minutes overall: A-

i finally took my boyfriend to the metropolitan museum of art . he had been visiting me too much in the city. i just couldn't allow it anymore. it was time to just do it. i took him to see some of more "masculine" parts of the museum, in particular, the armor and the swords. i really wanted him to see henry viii's armor. i think it is really interesting because you can see how he was built, how tall he was, etc. two days before we went to the museum, they removed it! talk about awesome timing. he did enjoy seeing the armor, swords, guns, and weaponery. it is nice to see how things are made. little known fact: the met has one of the best collections of weapons/armor in the world. we then headed over to the egyptian exhibit, which is great for the engineering or artsy minds among us. the met has a temple that the country of egypt gifted to the us of a, which the US then gave to the met to display. the construction is fascinating, how it was built. my b

i went to the fashion institute (fit) museum on a saturday afternoon to check out the new exhibit. i was very impressed. as usual, the museum is free. one half of the museum was closed (no exhibit), but the other half had their new exhibit, seduction . it was quite beautiful. the exhibit covers about 250 years of women's fashion displaying how the female shape and clothing that covers it has changed. they have some beautiful gowns, corsets, and accessories. i loved one of the dresses . it was designed by cristobel balenciaga . it is designed with "black net lace, black silk and a pink satin ribbon" tied around the waist. i really liked the simplicity of it and then the pop of the pink ribbon. i also really liked this dress for the intricate drapping/wrapping by halston . after this visit, the museum which was on the border between a B+ and an A- got bumped up to an A- after excellent execution on this exhibit. times visited: 2 time in museum: 30 minutes overal

last weekend, my dad and sister were in town and we headed up to the american museum of natural history . we were there for quite a while. we started out checking out the " animals of north america ." always a pleasure. every animal from alaska was bigger than the other animals in the family...everything is big in alaska. we also checked out the " hall of ocean life " to obviously, check out the ocean animals. i love the sea otter! then of course we had to head upstairs to check out the dinosaurs! i finally identified what drives me crazy about the dinosaur exhibit. if you head up the main stairs/elevator, you have to cut through half of the exhibit to get to the true exhibit entrance. otherwise, you start with dinosaurs, then you go back in time to the first vertebrates, then you get to the wooly mammoths (and early humans) and then you head back to dinosaurs. you are really supposed to start with the vertebrates, then the dinosaurs (both sections in

i went to the getty with my boyfriend and some of our friends that live in LA. it had been raining in LA for the past few days. we were lucky that we hit about a 4 hour rain-free hours. the great news about the rain is that it cleared a lot of the smog...we could see all the way down to long beach (supposedly). i had no idea what to expect when we went to the museum. it is up on this hill that you take a cable car up to the top of the mountain that overlooks LA, the valley, etc. the museum is composed of lots of separate museums, so going on a day with good weather is more important than i realized. they also have these pretty gardens that wind about the place. another nice thing about this museum is you just pay to park ($10). we saw a couple different exhibits while we are there. the first one was the belles heures (the beautiful hours) of the duke of berry. they were on loan from the metropolitan museum of art in new york city. we also checked out the tango with the cows:

i went to the rubin museum today to look at their new exhibit on embroidery from india and pakinstan . it was busier than usual at the museum, more noisy children than usual...also, a lot of people must have been eating in the cafe on the first floor because the entire place smelled like soy sauce and asian food. i saw the exhibit, color & light: embroidery from india and pakistan . it was interesting. the museum had lots of different examples from the various states of india and pakistan. i liked the clothing the best. it was interesting to see how small the people were that wore them. most of the fabric was recent compared to some of the other exhibits i have seen at the rubin, as in it was from the last 200 years. i, also, went downstairs and looked at the last nomads: photographs from inner magnolia by a yin . the photographs were all in black and white. looking at them, i was transferred to another place. i guess slowly the horses/goats are being replaced with ca