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Museum Day!

Leigh Witchel

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Leigh Witchel

Leigh Witchel

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http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/articles/about.php

Free admission on Saturday to selected museums (some of which are already free, but what the heck!). You need to print out an "admission card" at the Smithsonian site.

In NYC, the Big Guns don't participate but lesser known gems like The Frick Collection are on the list.

Where are you going - where would you recommend going on the list?

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papeetepatrick

papeetepatrick

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The Asia Society and the Frick are both good ones, because Asia Society definitely usually charges. I wonder if there is still no 'pay as you will' day or evening at the Morgan, which is the way it was before the renovation and rebuilding--so almost certainly not now. It was the only one I knew of that never had a free day or evening, even though those unfamiliar with the Met could be easily fooled into thinking they've got to pay full price every day--15 years ago they kept the 'Pay what you wish, but you must pay something' well in view, and now you just have to know.

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Klavier

Klavier

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Fridays (after 5:00) at MoMa are free, too! That's the justification for the $20 admission at all other times. Special exhibitions are ex$tra.

Are you sure about that? As a MoMA member, admission for me is "free" (after paying $80 for the year), but I've never seen any surcharge for special exhibits there. Carbro, you really have to go!

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cubanmiamiboy

cubanmiamiboy

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Fridays (after 5:00) at MoMa are free, too! That's the justification for the $20 admission at all other times. Special exhibitions are ex$tra.And shame on me for not going since it reopened. :clapping:

Last time i went to NYC i was at MOMA on a friday, (i always do, as i know about the "free fridays"). It was last year in august, and they had that fabulous DADA exhibition. For the first time in my life i could see the famous Duchamp's urinary (aka "Fountain" :clapping: ) in front of me...

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carbro

carbro

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Fridays (after 5:00) at MoMa are free, too! That's the justification for the $20 admission at all other times. Special exhibitions are ex$tra.
Are you sure about that? As a MoMA member, admission for me is "free" (after paying $80 for the year), but I've never seen any surcharge for special exhibits there. Carbro, you really have to go!

I just checked the website, and I was mistaken.

MoMa is free after 4:00 p.m.

Admission is free for all visitors during Target Free Friday Nights, sponsored by Target, every Friday evening, 4:00–8:00 p.m. Tickets for Target Free Friday Nights are not available in advance.
Maybe I was also mistaken about the extra charge. If so, sorry.
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Petra

Petra

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I would also recommend the Frick for anyone who hasn't been there yet. The collection the Fricks managed to amass in such a short period of time is mind-boggling. I was expecting the Fragonards as they are mentioned in every listing of the Frick, but to stroll into a room and be suddenly confronted with Holbein's twin portraits of Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More is an incredible experience. These portraits are so iconic in a certain segment of our popular culture (count me as one little girl who fantasized about being Anne Boleyn took a great interest in the formation of the Church of England) that it is amazing to see the originals.

Edited to add: If I am able to get to the City on Museum Day, I will probably take my children to the Greek mythology exhibit at the Children's Museum of Manhattan.

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bart

bart

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[ ... ]count me as one little girl who fantasized about being Anne Boleyn took a great interest in the formation of the Church of England
:) I love that.

Personalizing (imagining yourself in the picture, and developing empathy) is a great way to build lifetime interests in culture, history, even religion. The way young Henry VIII preseneted himself in portraits was a visual role model for me when I was a teenager. But images of old, bloated, preposterous and rather scarey Henry VIII was a warning to be careful.

All of this reminds me why it's so important to make museums accessible to young people and give them plenty of time to look, think, and feel their responses to the art. Sometimes just being free to wander and spend time staring at works which catch your fancy -- without docents or teachers or lots of educational aids to tell you what you should be seeing -- works best.

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SanderO

SanderO

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Another interesting museum experience is the newly added to by Renzo Piano JP Morgan Library a former residence off Park Avenue in the mid 30s (NYC). It has a delightful cafe, a fabulous book shop and some interesting art and musical manuscripts. The old library itself is a gorgeous room. It's a tiny museum and well worth a visit.

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papeetepatrick

papeetepatrick

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The Holbeins in the Frick are indeed magnificent, but I'm all about the Vermeers in the south entry. They're stunning, and the Frick has three Vermeers. Three. And I agree about the Morgan as well. Worth the time on that Saturday or any Friday night when it's also free.

Anytime I can get close to a Vermeer I am happy, so does that make it okay that I am also nuts about the Fragonard screens and Tiepolos at the Frick, including the one with the tiny dog on silk dress? We've recently been talking about the 18th century, and people's attitude about how it's 'too pretty' can sometimes get on my nerves. I recall art history classes when all the intense students made sure to repudiate Fragonard, and a professional art historian tried to ridicule my enjoyment of Boucher. Was more tolerant of Chardin, with the dead game (I like Chardin too, and the Met had an amazing special exhibition a few years back.)

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Petra

Petra

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pp, I don't think a board dedicated to classical ballet would ever ridicule someone who is nuts about the 'pretty'... I have no visual art education but I would think that ballet-lovers have a greater facility than most to recognize and appreciate both the aesthetics of a painting and the rigour and technique required to create it.

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papeetepatrick

papeetepatrick

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Thanks, GWTW, I can see little reason why people think the 18th century is all that much more extravagant than other ages. Sometimes there's an ideological, i.e., especially Marxist, reading of these kinds of aristocratic works of the 18th century that I don't see as often applied to other periods.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20111

This is slightly off-topic, unless we can include the Met Museum in this discussion (I looked at their pages and could find no free day, although they have raised their suggested admission yet again.) But I finally got around to reading this after bookmarking it months ago, and it is very fine. I mention the Met, because that's the only museum in NYC I know of having a few beautiful Tintorettos, although the article does mention one from the National Gallery being used in the Prado show. I was most fascinated about the paintings that are never moved from Venice, and would love to spend a week in Venice going to look at the Tintorettos at some part of every day. Also remarkable in the article are Henry James's impressions of the paintings; he was overwhelmed, and there are a wonderful couple of paragraphs in which he describes how Tintoretto dissolves the realism/idealism aporia. Definitely one of the most impressive pieces of art writing I've seen in a long time.

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