Art & Ambience: 5 Museums That Are More Than A Pretty Picture
@junejuneee shows us a balloon-filled room isn’t too good to be true!
It’s a childhood rite of passage to whine about going to a museum. The often cavernous and impenetrable places seemed like an acute form of torture — hours of trudging through windowless galleries and being hushed by strangers. Even the food, the best part of every experience, was meager and impossible to locate.
So naturally, you might be reluctant to go back and relive those visits. However, many old and new museums around the world are transforming their buildings into more engaging, interactive, visitor-friendly places. They’re creating a whole new integrative experience where art blends seamlessly into the space around it.
Below, you’ll see some incredible museum spaces that are so intriguing they’ll make you regret ever thinking art was boring.
The Perfect Instagram Photo Opp — The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
@neil3feeney captured one of the coolest displays
Easily the most Instagram-worthy location in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is a haven of beautiful spaces. There is literally a room of mirrors designed just for you to sit in a throne and take an amazing picture. In a town chock full of young people, it’s designed for the iPhone generation. The art is in the signs, the architecture, the towering glass sculptures that guard the edges of the food court. The museum invites you to enjoy the space in a completely unique way — to “feel,” to “communicate,” to “flirt” with your surroundings. Sounds cool, right?
This backdrop is giving us serious insta jealousy @slamdrews
The museum is eclectic, modern and bustling. Ancient art galleries are wed beautifully to the contemporary — imagine walking from Greek statues into a room where fiberglass men hang from the ceiling. The MFA will delight, challenge, and excite anyone.
For Those of You Who Enjoy Palace Living — The Park Avenue Armory, New York City
Is this the @parkavearmory museum or a mansion’s living room?
The Park Avenue Armory is not just a museum. In fact, it describes itself as “part palace, part industrial shed,” a place for “unconventional work that cannot be mounted in traditional performance halls and museums.” Basically, it asks that you throw all your expectations about how art should be presented out the door.
The Armory, originally built in 1861 by the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard, served as a military post and social club. It features a 55,000 square foot drill hall, which was converted into a breathtaking exhibition space. Every installation in the Armory weaves in history and the sheer size of its space to create sensational, demanding, and, at times, disorienting experiences.
Their latest exhibit, for example, features a hall where the lights alternate turning on and off, a slamming piano, and giant monochrome balloons that suffocate the room. The juxtaposition of a military building to irreverent, anti-establishment art creates a unique atmosphere.
This “museum” is not one to miss.
A Quick Trip Outside the Galaxy — The Broad, Los Angeles
@thebroadmuseum capturing fascinated museum goers
This museum has people coming for the art and staying for the architecture.
Opened to the public in September of 2015, The Broad is a newbie to the museum scene but is quickly making a statement. Visitors are welcomed by a futuristic white facade which leads them to a vault-like cement atrium. Escalators serve as transport through daunting tunnels and up into pristine galleries where Koons tulips cohabitate with Lichtenstein oil paintings.
You could get lost in an infinity-mirrored room that feels like a condensed galaxy (and where, coincidentally, Adele shot some scenes for a recent music video), or peek into priceless collections. You can enjoy the space at night, too, while viewing performances by local contemporary artists.
We love @kyouk73’s snap of the galaxy room
A Green Space in the Middle of a Concrete Jungle — The Noguchi Museum, New York City
A beautifully tranquil space captured by @noguchimuseum
The Noguchi is notable not for its magnificent ceilings or storied halls, but rather its lack thereof. In fact, what makes this museum space so special is that it’s mostly outdoors. The Noguchi garden is renowned as a tranquil haven for trees and sculptures alike, where art and nature blend together in spite of a surrounding city. It is the perfect place to wander through on pretty summer afternoon, though there is an interior portion featuring ten beautiful galleries.
The founder and namesake for the museum, Isamu Noguchi, envisioned the place as the perfect home for his work. Now, it showcases his sculptures as well as more contemporary works, and has transformed the surrounding neighborhood of Long Island City into a hotbed for new museums — such as the MoMa PS1 and the Museum of the Moving Image. Today visitors could spend hours exploring the Noguchi and surrounding museums while learning the history of how such an amazing cultural installation was developed.
The Coolest Academy We’ve Ever Seen — The California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
The CAS, located in downtown SF, is like being transported to the future. One in which our buildings have grass roofs, biodomes, and aquariums. The museum’s sprawling property features endless wonders: architecturally breathtaking grounds, a planetarium, and natural history museum. Visitors can even climb to the top of a tower for unparalleled views on the city.
@shylysky showing off the outside of the museum’s enclosed rainforest
There’s really something for everyone. It’s as if someone took the contents of the Met and moved them into a science fiction fantasy. The museum is a glass-and-greenery jungle of fascinating exhibits. Who new environmental studies could be this cool?
