I’m starting to feel like this poll was maybe a bad idea. I chose the U.S. museums by number of visitors. I understand that number of visitors does not necessarily reflect quality, but it was a non-arbitrary basis to decide.
National Gallery of Art, DC- 4.96 million visitors in 2008
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY - 4.82 million visitors in 2008
(Smithsonian) National Museum of Natural History, DC - about 5.5 million visitors per year
American Museum of Natural History, NY - about 4 million visitors per year
MoMA NY – 2.5 million visitors per year
Field Museum, Chicago - 1.3 million visitors in 2008
Chicago Art Institute – 1.44 million visitors in 2006
Getty in LA - 1.4 million annually
I really enjoy finding museums that aren’t “over-curated”; they’re more like rooms of stuff collected over the years. Sometimes there are marvelous artifacts that you’d never see anywhere else. A few examples in this category:
True. The best art collection in the L.A. area is the Norton-Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Best collection undermined by horrible curating: Tate Modern. I went there almost ten years ago and the rooms were organized by “themes” that existed only in the mind of the curator. Like there’d be a room called “Energy” and they would have Monet’s Water Lilies, a pile of sneakers in the middle of the room, and an electric orange and yellow op-art painting on the opposite wall. I get the idea of trying to liberate the viewer from the prison of “periods” and “movements” but, at least those are objective ways of organizing art.
Museum that most thoroughly dominates a city: Guggenheim, Bilbao. It’s Bilbao’s Eiffel Tower - the city wouldn’t be the same without it.
Ooh, yes! I visited there about 10 years ago and loved it. I’m a science teacher so it was very cool to see Galileo’s instruments, since we study him in class. I tell my students every year about it and about the finger in the jar!
On a different note, I certainly wouldn’t list this as a “favorite,” but visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site and Holocaust Museum outside of Munich was a very moving experience.
I wasn’t trying to squelch discussion about other museums that aren’t listed in the poll. (I just wanted to clarify that the U.S. museums in the poll weren’t chosen solely based on an East Coast bias.) In fact, I am curious to hear about the museums that other people like.
I’ve been to all the London and Paris ones on that list. My favourites in London aren’t on there, however - the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and (a long way behind those two) the V&A. I’m presuming we’re only talking about BIG museums because otherwise the list would get ludicrously long.
Berlin had some great museums on Museuminsel, but back then (13 years ago) they didn’t have much in the way of interactive exhibits. And the best place overall for art galleries is Barcelona. Can’t pick one favourite out of all the great exhibitions there.
I tend to plan vacations around museums. Of the museums in the poll I haven’t visited, all but 2 are in cities I haven’t visited. Those 2 are MoMA (I’m just not that into modern art, though I suppose I’ll get there someday) and the Tate Modern (not yet built when I visited London).
Big London museum no one else seems to have mentioned: The Imperial War Museum. Biggest surprise there: The art collection. Surprisingly big and surprisingly good.
Only museums I’ve gotten badly lost in: The V&A in London (huge building, confusing signs) and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (three buildings badly joined together, frustrating signs. A pity, as the Walters is a small gem–not a huge collection, but I was amazed at the range it covered, especially of religious and Asian art.)
Was it…being renovated for a number of years, or something? Because I’ve never been, and my aunt lives in South Pasadena. She’s the one who took me to the Getty, and she’s also taken me to the Huntington Library. I feel like I remember that there was an art museum in LA being renovated… it just seems weird that I’ve never been if it’s the best art museum in LA. I don’t know.
The only museum I’ve gotten badly lost in is the Louvre. My friend and I found ourselves completely turned around in there, wandered through a door thinking it might lead to the exit, and found ourself face to face with the Venus de Milo. That was surprising.
Under the “other” category, I’ve heard that the Cleveland museums of art and of natural history are well-regarded, and I know both like the back of my hand. And the Museum of the Rockies here in Bozeman is the T. rex and triceratops capital of the world, though one might not expect such an excellent museum in a town of 30,000 people.
I’ve also been to Chicago’s Field Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute, and all of the Smithsonian museums.
No, I’m an American, but I love NHL hockey so CBC is my friend. BTW, I loved the Museum of Anthropology at UBC - I don’t know if you saw that because I posted it so far up the thread.
MOMA is the greatest, but I have a sentimental fondness for the National Portrait Gallery/Museum of American Art (These have always shared a building and are basically a single Smithsonian museum).
Seconded. That was an awesome exhibit. And not long after, I went to Salt Lake City and a cocktail party in the lobby of the Concert Hall next to the convention center, with a Chihuly in the lobby.
The one I’ve been to most is the Museum of Natural History in New York, mostly as a kid but I still drag my wife there whenever we get back.
I used to go to a conference in DC, and usually had a free afternoon, which I used to head to the Mall to go through as many Smithsonian museums as I could. Air and Space is great, of course. I once went to a party there, during the Star Wars exhibition, so we got to see it without the crowds.
I’ll also put a vote in for the Pergamon in Berlin, with the Ishtar Gate. We went to Turkey soon after visiting, to Ephesus, and heard that going to Pergamon was not worth much since the good stuff had been taken to Berlin.
Re. my favorite of the ones on the list: the National Gallery in London. Not only is it free to get in, but the audio tours are also free* (though they don’t make it too well known), and fantastic. This means if you’re in the area and have some downtime you can pop in, get some headphones, and take a world-class art history lesson whenever you like. Also great for similar reasons is the nearby National Portrait Gallery - the paintings aren’t as interesting, but putting on those headphones and listening to mini-biographies of the person you’re staring at is a great way to learn British history.
*They may charge now; it’s been a few years since I’ve been able to go, unfortunately.
BTW, I loved the Museum of Anthropology at UBC - I don’t know if you saw that because I posted it so far up the thread.