In Praise of...Museums

[dudog84]

With a drink and a meal in my area — what’s not to like?

It's a date! Gotta warn ya though, I'm cheap but not easy.

[OldPhiKap]

The Airborne Museum in Taccoa, Georgia is outstanding. Not far from Currahee (which is a beotch of a final climb). Not too far from Royston, either.

[mpj96]

The transportation museum in Spencer, NC is great, especially if you like steam locomotives or want to learn how to work on them.

The Dali museum in St. Petersburg, FL is excellent. Small and memorable.


The first art museum I remember enjoying was a Norman Rockwell museum in Philadelphia. Sadly, it appears to have been permanently closed.

[fidel]

The Dali museum in St. Petersburg, FL is excellent. Small and memorable.

Seconded on the Dali museum. Wonderful.

[aimo]

Seconded on the Dali museum. Wonderful.

I went to the Dali museum at its previous location, have not been there since it moved.


Growing up in Durham, we frequented what was then called The Children's Museum. It is now very well-known as the Museum of Life and Science. https://www.lifeandscience.org/ I embarrassingly admit I have not been there in a really long time, but in my defense, it stays crowded with schoolchildren and families. They have updated the old Dinosaur Trail and have added to their animals, including their conservation program for endangered red wolves.

[budwom]

I went to the Dali museum at its previous location, have not been there since it moved.


Growing up in Durham, we frequented what was then called The Children's Museum. It is now very well-known as the Museum of Life and Science. https://www.lifeandscience.org/ I embarrassingly admit I have not been there in a really long time, but in my defense, it stays crowded with schoolchildren and families. They have updated the old Dinosaur Trail and have added to their animals, including their conservation program for endangered red wolves.

The Dali residence in Spain is something else. It still has the swimming pool shaped like a particular organ, and I'm not talking Hammond.

[Phredd3]

The Dali residence in Spain is something else. It still has the swimming pool shaped like a particular organ, and I'm not talking Hammond.

Würlitzer? Flentrop?

[Nepos]

The Dali residence in Spain is something else. It still has the swimming pool shaped like a particular organ, and I'm not talking Hammond.

Looks like they might have gone out of business https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Organs

[Nrrrrvous]

Anyone who gets to Richmond, VA should check out the Poe Museum. https://poemuseum.org/

The house that they turned into the museum is "The Old Stone House" and is considered one of, if not the, oldest residential structures still standing in Richmond. It's a cool place, especially on fall evenings, just a certain air about it.

[Bob Green]

I enjoy museums and have been fortunate to visit many in my travels. This one leaves a lasting impression:

https://nagasakipeace.jp/en/visit/abm/

[Billy Dat]

It's been a long time, but I really enjoyed the National WWII Museum in New Orleans when I went there after it first opened.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Up close to me in NY, I can recommend two outdoor museums.

The first, which I think is closest in spirit to the intention of this thread, is actually on the grounds of the Pepsi World Headquarters in Purchase, NY. A museum where you can look into the windows and see people plotting how to foist soda and other fast food on the world!
The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens
https://www.pepsico.com/sculpture-gardens

Drive about 90 minutes upstate, and explore the expansive grounds of the Storm King Art Center, a 500 acre outdoor museum...one that rents bikes!
https://stormking.org/

[camion]

I am fond of the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN.

Among other things they have a blacksmithing forge where they demonstrate metalworking. I watched the smithy as she made this little ditty. (The spoon is included for scale.)

birdy-thing.jpg

[curtis325]

It's been a long time, but I really enjoyed the National WWII Museum in New Orleans when I went there after it first opened.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Up close to me in NY, I can recommend two outdoor museums.

The first, which I think is closest in spirit to the intention of this thread, is actually on the grounds of the Pepsi World Headquarters in Purchase, NY. A museum where you can look into the windows and see people plotting how to foist soda and other fast food on the world!
The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens
https://www.pepsico.com/sculpture-gardens

Drive about 90 minutes upstate, and explore the expansive grounds of the Storm King Art Center, a 500 acre outdoor museum...one that rents bikes!
https://stormking.org/

Speaking of upstate NY, The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning (of all places) is wonderful.

[Duke Blue Lemur]

For those of you in North Carolina, the Asheville Museum of Art https://www.ashevilleart.org/ has had a renaissance in the past three years similar to the Peabody Essex, albeit on a smaller scale. They have recently had a very interesting Wyeth exhibit (all three generations) and are currently showing photographs from a former acquaintance, Joyce Tenneson https://www.ashevilleart.org/exhibit...ed-and-veiled/. It's a really good place to see excellent art and not feel overwhelmed.



Section 15

We went here for the first time this spring and really enjoyed ourselves. The Wyeth exhibit was very good. Excellent permanent collection. The gallery guards are the most friendly and welcoming of any museum we've been to.

[Duke Blue Lemur]

The most eclectic museum I've been to is the Pitt Rivers Museum, with an entrance in an unassuming corner of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It is like stepping into the 19th century. Three stories of anthropological artifacts collected at the height of British colonization. The artifacts from a myriad of cultures are jammed into glass cases floor to ceiling. Boats are hanging from the ceiling. Apparently, they have increased the light levels in the museum. I remember it as very dark, which added to the mystery. The Natural History Museum collection is more traditional but you can go upstairs to the site of a famous debate on evolution between Huxley and Wilberforce.

[budwom]

You can't walk ten paces in London without coming across a museum or three. Here's just a sample of some of the odder ones: https://www.visitlondon.com/things-t...london-museums

[rsvman]

The Mutter museum in Philadelphia is something else if you aren't squeamish.

[Duke Blue Lemur]

Speaking of upstate NY, The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning (of all places) is wonderful.

Speaking of Corning, the Rockwell is an excellent small museum of American art with an emphasis on Native American and Western art. A must visit place when we go to Corning, my wife's home town.

[budwom]

Speaking of upstate NY, The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning (of all places) is wonderful.

An artist friend of ours who died recently left most of his glass work to the Corning Museum and you're right, there's some fabulous stuff there.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

An artist friend of ours who died recently left most of his glass work to the Corning Museum and you're right, there's some fabulous stuff there.

In the summer of 2018 the Corning museum had a glass barge that started out in Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Bridge - we took the kids on a miserable day (it was under cover) and they did an extended glass blowing demonstration that was really cool. Over the course of a few weeks the barge made its way up the Hudson then across the Erie Canal, making stops for events in various places along the way. It made me really want to go to the museum.