Search Results for: art museum

Playing “I Spy” at the Yale University Art Museums in New Haven, CT
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Playing “I Spy” at the Yale University Art Museums in New Haven, CT

ByJennRecord

The city of New Haven, Connecticut is most notably home to Ivy league Yale University, and Yale University (amongst other things) is home to two exceptional art museums, both free and open to the public year round. The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG), founded in 1832, features nearly 300,000 objects in its collection. The YUAG is the oldest university art museum in America and includes plenty of classrooms, workshops, and opportunities for the public to both visit and study at the museum. The Yale Center for British Art  (YCBA) (located directly across the street) is the largest museum, located outside the United Kingdom, dedicated to British art, with over 20,000 drawings, 2,000 paintings, 250 sculptures, and 40,000 volumes in the museum’s research library. The museum opened to the public in 1977 and features four floors of permanent and rotating exhibits.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Art Museum in Hartford, CT
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The Wadsworth Atheneum Art Museum in Hartford, CT

ByJennRecord

The longest, continuously open public art museum in America (yes, it beats even the MET in New York City!), the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art was founded by Daniel Wadsworth in 1842 and opened to the public in 1844. The term “atheneum” refers to a “cultural institution that includes a library, works of art and artifact, which is devoted to learning history, literature, art, and science.” Today, the museum has a collection of over 50,000 pieces of art, ranging from paintings and sculptures to furniture, installations, and china.

10 Art Museums With Virtual Activities for Kids
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10 Art Museums With Virtual Activities for Kids

ByJennRecord

You might be surprised to learn that my family, children included, like visiting art museums. Art museums have come a long way from just “silently standing and looking at paintings some old guy or girl made a million years ago.” Today, so many art museums are finding new ways to engage children and welcome families into their galleries. We wrote about the many benefits of taking children to art museums last year in this post featuring the Guggenheim in New York City. A huge bonus? Most of these museums, and other art museums, offer FREE admission for children, usually ages 16 and under.

Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
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Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

ByJennRecord

Disclaimer: I have chosen to continue my weekly blog posts sharing our recent adventures exploring America. Our family has been safely quarantined for over a month and we will continue to do so until it safe to head out on our next adventure. The travel tips and recommendations we share were current at the time of visitation in 2019-2020. We recommend helping our country (and world) by staying home and planning for future adventures. We hope these posts bring you inspiration and motivation to plan your next trip!

One of the oldest buildings in Washington DC and now a National Historic Landmark building, The Donald W. Reynold Center for American Art and Portraiture is home to both the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The complex first opened to the public in 1968 and completed renovations in the early 2000s. Both institutions, overseen by the Smithsonian Institute, are housed in the same complex. The Portrait Gallery has over 23,000 pieces of art in its collection and began officially commissioning portraits of presidents, beginning with George H.W. Bush. The American Art Museum is home to one of the largest collection of American art in the world and includes The Luce Foundation Center for American Art, housed on the 3rd floor. The Luce collection has more than 3,000 pieces of art in mediums from paintings to sculptures to medals to jewelry.

Bringing Kids to an Art Museum: The Guggenheim
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Bringing Kids to an Art Museum: The Guggenheim

ByJennRecord

It may seem like an unlikely place to visit with children: an art museum. You may be concerned that your child will be bored, cranky, or worse- so hyper that he or she goes sprinting through the exhibit halls touching every priceless masterpiece. For a while, that was my nightmare. For years, we stuck to the children’s museum- aquarium-zoo circuit. However, now that my children are out of the toddler/preschool phase, I’ve been trying new places with them when we travel.

So, when I ordered tickets to Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim in New York City (read about the various holiday things we like to do in New York City here), I thought it would also be fun to check out the museum.

front entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
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10 Exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Kids Will Love

ByJennRecord

One of the most famous museums in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is located on Fifth Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, part of the famed “Museum Mile”. Founded in 1870, the museum’s collection includes over one and half million pieces of art in forms ranging from paintings, sculptures, photographs and drawings to costumes, decorative arts, and musical instruments that span over 5,000 years. There are 17 different departments and hundreds of galleries on display throughout the over two million square feet of space.