Best museum/art gallery you have been to? Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. Musee D'Orsay

[applegrove]

in Paris.

[femmocrat]

1. I loved the Hirshhorn in D.C.

http://hirshhorn.si.edu/visit/

All of the museums on the Mall are wonderful. I've never been to Europe, but hope to visit the Louvre one day.

[elleng]

8. If you get to Paris, try L'Orangerie instead of or before Louvre,

which is SOOOO HUGE and crowded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_de_l%27Orangerie

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden

devoted to a ship that sank on its maiden voyage (didn't even make it out of the harbor) in the 17th century.

I had spent about an hour in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, so that's how much I set aside for the Vasa Museum. I ended up staying more than three hours. It's a must if you're ever in Stockholm: first of all, they raised the actual ship and it's sitting there in the middle of the museum. They have a 1/2 hour film about the process of salvaging it. They have exhibits on life aboard ship and life in the 17th century in general. They have exhibits on the restoration and preservation process. The ship sank so close to shore that most people on board were rescued, but about 30 were not. Several skeletons were found in the wreckage, and there's an area of the museum where they show facial reconstructions and explain what they can figure out about the former owners of the skeletons (health, social class, etc.)

I also really liked the annual Shoso-in exhibit at the Nara National Museum in Nara, Japan, about 30 miles south of Kyoto. Back when Nara was capital in the eighth century C.E., the imperial family built a wooden storehouse and put all their treasures in it. By sheer dumb luck (or maybe even sheer genius), they created a building that perfectly controls temperature and humidity. As a result, the objects in the Shoso-in, some of which came from as far away as the Middle East on the Silk Road, look almost new. Thinking that a building that has preserved the artifacts for 1200 years is probably the best place for them, the curators keep them locked away, but for about two weeks every October, a selection of the artifacts is put on display. I happened to see an ad for the exhibition while walking through a train station in Tokyo, and since I was going to be in Kyoto during the time of the exhibit, I made sure to reserve a ticket.

[Brickbat]

3. I love the Art Institute of Chicago, it's like visiting an old friend. I also love the White Room in

the Winter Palace.

[GReedDiamond]

4. Philadelphia Museum of Art...

...home of the essential Duchamp collection housed there, and the greatest single work of art of the Twentieth Century (IMHO), "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even," aka, "The Large Glass."

[cyglet]

5. I like the quirky ones

I've been to the Louvre and that (and Vasa btw, though I really liked Skansen), but I like the unconventional ones. Like the medieval torture museum in Amsterdam (Amsterdam seems to corner the market, really). I guess more seriously I liked the Deutsches Museum in Munich for science related stuff.

[cloudbase]

6. Norton Simon

in Pasadena, CA and the Kimbell in Ft. Worth.

Impressive for the quality of the collections.

[elleng]

7. Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_de_l%27Orangerie

[applegrove]

9. I missed that one. It has Cezanne?

[elleng]

10. Yes

'Though most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the museum also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo, among others.'

[applegrove]

11. Sounds wonderful. Some day I'll see it.

[elleng]

12. Lovely collection, nice setting, not crowded (last April, anyway.)

[OriginalGeek]

13. Well I've only been to the Smithsonian and the Salvadore Dali museum

but I loved them both so they are my favorite.

I assume we are not counting any of the Ripley's Believe it or Not! "museums".


Don't know when I'll get back to DC but Dali is only a couple hours away so I will go there again.

[applegrove]

14. I went to Washington as a kid but don't think we got in to see the Smithsonian. I think

I would have remembered it and I don't. We did see the art gallery (I forget what it is called) and the Washington Monument.

[OriginalGeek]

15. I've actually been twice

I remember the Air and Space museum from when I was a little kid but that's because my grandpa took me and he had just retired from the Air Force and he loved (still loves) airplanes and space craft. He showed me the Airstream trailer the astronauts stayed in after coming back which was especially cool because he had one very much like it (only for regular people - no fancy space stuff in his). That was back in the late 60s - He still does the Airstream thing too - he just came home from a week long rally in south Florida.

And then 2 years ago I took my wife and daughter to DC to look at the same stuff - but I remember more of it this time. We were only there for 2 days though so I know I missed a ton of stuff that we couldn't get to so I really do hope to get back there.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. I am very partial to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma

It contains "the largest collection of Western American art ever assembled", including originals by Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran, and James Earle Fraser (the designer of the Buffalo nickel)

[nuxvomica]

17. Art Institute of Chicago, MOMA, the Uffizi

I fondly remember looking for all the paintings from the Masterpiece board game at the Art Institute and being blown away by "Guernica" and Rousseau's "La Boheme Endormie" at MOMA and the awesome Botticellis at the Uffizi.

[PassingFair]

18. The Louvre.

This literally took my breath away.

[siligut]

19. Nike, and the way she is displayed, took my breath away as well

I love museums and the Louvre is amazing.

For my favorite museum, it is hard to say, but when I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus at the Uffizi in Florence, I had a little thrill.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Paladin]

20. Musee D'Orsay, By A Wide Margin.

I've told friends that it would be worth their time and money to fly to Paris, see the D'Orsay, and then fly home again without doing another thing. That's how good it is......

[Major Nikon]

22. Paris is just the place to go for museums, period

The Louvre and D'Orsay are phenomenal. The Centre Pompidou is pretty amazing. The Musée Rodin is well worth seeing. L'Orangerie is worth going to just to see Monet's water lilies.

[MadrasT]

21. The Sixth Floor Museum

The Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. It is amazing.

(The British Museum in London is another favorite.)

[Burma Jones]

23. Best? Can't say, but I do like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian museums

Haven't been to Europe yet.......I really want to hit the Prado, Uffizi, Louvre, Tate, the Vatican, etc etc etc etc......

Was just at the Air and Space Museum last Sunday with the kids......It's good to see the actual real live Wright Flyer and the Apollo 11 Command module and the rest.......Damned Crowded though......

Long ago, I was in a High School program where I had mostly free run of the US Capitol Building, that was very museum-like.........

The National Arboretum in DC is very interesting

MOMA is wonderful as is The Met

[sinkingfeeling]

24. British Museum in London.