Shrine to the Muses
Friday, May 01, 2009 by Sarah Elbert.
Did you know that the derivation of the word museum is from ancient Greek, meaning a shrine to the muses? I didn’t, but it makes sense. I’ve always thought of museums as places of celebration and exploration. Places to take you outside of yourself for a while, if you can open your mind and put aside thoughts of your impending work presentation or the laundry piled up in the basement or your dinner reservation for that night.
So for our May issue, we decided to present a list of 30 must-see museums around the world. The dilemma: Who would write it and pick the museums? We could pull in an art museum curator or arts expert, but then we’d risk missing out on some great history/science/etc. museums. Turns out there aren’t many museum generalists out there (and if you do happen to be one, sorry I missed you!). We do, however, have access to people who are culturally savvy and very well traveled. Thinking myself quite inspired, I reached out to Patricia Schultz, who wrote the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and she agreed to write the piece for Sky. Schultz’s book is a fun read that will inspire enough trips to last you the rest of your life—which is obviously the point. In the course of her travels, she has been to many, many museums—way more than I have—or anyone else on our staff, for that matter. Who better to pick our 30? You’ll find there are many of the expected classics on the list, though we also opted to include some unusual places. Like the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Who knew they used to attach cameras to pigeons in the name of espionage? A far cry from today’s satellite reconnaissance.
I personally was happy to see that Schultz included the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, which houses an incredible collection of art, tapestries and decorative arts in a building and courtyard meant to evoke a Venetian palazzo. Because, of course, a museum is more than the sum of its exhibits. The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, also made the list. It is an architectural gift with striking and often thought-provoking art to match. A few of my favorites didn’t make it into the story, but that’s OK, I get to talk about them here. The Rodin Museum is an absolutely charming place to spend a few hours in Paris. I am partial to smaller, quieter museums, and this is the perfect setting to appreciate Rodin’s sculptures, which are at turns romantic and grotesque, but always breathtaking. Also in France, Cezanne’s atelier in Aix-en-Provence is a special chance to see where the artist worked, along with a collection of his art. The studio window looks out on Mont St. Victoire, which he occasionally painted (and I climbed during my study abroad years—not exactly Everest, but not a bad claim). I could go on … but I’ll turn the question to you: What are some of your favorite museums?
And, finally, an aside: Last night I saw "Caroline, or Change” at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. If you get a chance to see Pulitzer Prize-winning Tony Kushner’s marvelous musical, you should. It is insightful and sad and funny and fantastical, and the music is incredible—from blues to gospel to rock 'n' roll to klezmer music. I made a point of looking up the main actress after the play because if she lives in the Twin Cities, why haven’t I heard of her? (Her name is Greta Oglesby, and yes, she does live here.) The woman’s got pipes. But so did the women who played the parts of the washing machine and the radio, and Caroline’s friend, and the man who plays the bus and the dryer, and Caroline’s daughter, and . . . again, the list goes on. I left invigorated and with my eyes open a little wider.
Post Your Comments