When I was 35 (in 1992) I went to New York City for the first time. I had gone to run the marathon, but I had the whole day before (October 31st, by the way, Halloween) to walk around and check things out, arriving on an early morning Continental 737 with only three other passengers.
I had made almost no plans other than the race. After I registered for the race (they had an amazingly UN-impressive race festival, after seeing what Revco used to do in Cleveland) I got to my hotel pretty early and so I went walking. Along the way I identified everything, without planning to be sight seeing. I knew I was right around the corner from Times Square. Carnegie Hall was obviously Carnegie Hall. Central Park was right where it should be. I realized that had I come to NY when I was younger I never would have left. Somehow it was already part of my psyche, and this has been the case all of the many times I've been back.
To make a short story extremely long (I NEVER do that!), I ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had a huge Magritte exhibit. After walking in and seeing the scale of the museum, I decided to take in the Magritte and not much else - that would be enough. The artwork was in concert with me. I was alone, and that was a rarity at that point in my life, with two young children at the time. Wonderful art museum experiences were not new to me, but this one made me realize that this was the perfect way to go to a museum - ALONE.
My patronage of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum goes back to the ground breaking ceremony, where I got to shake hands with Chuck Berry. I have been a Clevelander my entire life. As an adolescent I hung around downtown and took art classes and stuff and I have worked downtown almost continuously since 1984. So I have a lot of history with the Rock Hall, and I go there pretty frequently (probably on average 15-20 times a year - my office and desk look out on the building).
I had made almost no plans other than the race. After I registered for the race (they had an amazingly UN-impressive race festival, after seeing what Revco used to do in Cleveland) I got to my hotel pretty early and so I went walking. Along the way I identified everything, without planning to be sight seeing. I knew I was right around the corner from Times Square. Carnegie Hall was obviously Carnegie Hall. Central Park was right where it should be. I realized that had I come to NY when I was younger I never would have left. Somehow it was already part of my psyche, and this has been the case all of the many times I've been back.
To make a short story extremely long (I NEVER do that!), I ended up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They had a huge Magritte exhibit. After walking in and seeing the scale of the museum, I decided to take in the Magritte and not much else - that would be enough. The artwork was in concert with me. I was alone, and that was a rarity at that point in my life, with two young children at the time. Wonderful art museum experiences were not new to me, but this one made me realize that this was the perfect way to go to a museum - ALONE.
My patronage of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum goes back to the ground breaking ceremony, where I got to shake hands with Chuck Berry. I have been a Clevelander my entire life. As an adolescent I hung around downtown and took art classes and stuff and I have worked downtown almost continuously since 1984. So I have a lot of history with the Rock Hall, and I go there pretty frequently (probably on average 15-20 times a year - my office and desk look out on the building).
October 19, 2007
Most of my visits are shorter than I would like, but short visits to any museum beat long ones. I have the benefit of frequency of visits. I usually have a target exhibit - either one of the featured, temporary or borrowed ones. Or a targeted film to watch. Two of my favorite places to sit are the induction ceremony videos (they should sell these - I would buy them) and the hall of fame videos. The latter has a very good sound system and nicely edited video. Both of those also tend to be very up-lifting and the hi-fi is very pleasing to my audiophile ears.
So here are the museum conclusions:
- Go alone
- Keep visits short
- Know what you want from the visit - have a target
- Really try to absorb the exhibits - let them take over the moment
No comments:
Post a Comment