Results tagged “Museum” from Intelligent Travel Blog

The exhibit "Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor" opens this Thursday, November 19th, at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. We weaseled our way into the press preview to get you a sneak peek. But before letting us loose to see Emperor Qin Shihuangdi's lifesized warriors face-to-face, Stanford Professor Emeritus Albert Dien, guest curator of the exhibit, reminisced on his first visit to Xi'an, China, in 1977 to see the warriors who'd been discovered three years before by a local farmer digging a well. In our October Places of a Lifetime issue he relates this moment:

Turning a corner, we came upon the figure of an archer that I hadn't seen in any published literature. It was such a shock to see this startlingly lifelike figure that our hosts insisted I sit and rest awhile. . . [T]his archer seemed so vibrant, almost in motion. . .I simply sat and stared in wonderment--and the wonder has never left me, no matter how often I've returned to Xi'an.

The kneeling archer is here at our headquarters, along with 14 other figures including infantrymen, a chariot driver, two musicians, a well-muscled (albeit headless) strongman, a 700-pound horse, cavalrymen, a seemingly obsequious court official, and a general. Also on display in the 12,000-square-foot, four-themed exhibit space are 100 objects--decorative jade pieces, bronze weapons, coins, a naturalistic crane sculpture, details of the warriors' armor, and roof tiles--including 20 "Level 1" artifacts, those designated as the site's rarest and most important finds.

The Japan Society in New York has an unusual exhibit featuring a collection of Japanese tin toys from the early post-WWII period. It's called "Buriki: Japanese Tin Toys from the Golden Age of the Automobile-- The Yoku Tanaka Collection." 

As an intern in D.C. for the first time, I am receptive to all suggestions for what to do in the city. So, when Daniel Pink suggested a visit to the National Building Museum to learn about design in his book A Whole New Mind, I decided to go.

After standing in the Great Hall for a while, overwhelmed by the expanse of open space so out of place in a city, I headed to the gift shop. An hour and a half went by, and I finally had to convince myself to leave the store and look at the exhibits before the museum closed. We visit museums for the exhibits, to learn and not to shop, right?

The evidence is not so clear: notice the gift shops in almost every museum, at most historical sites, and those that amusement park visitors have to walk through after they get off popular rides. In a way, it makes sense--we buy mementos to remind us of experiences that meant something to us. However, often the items sold in gift shops are chintzy little things that can be found anywhere you see people wearing fanny packs.

In order to help you avoid the schlock and zero in on something truly one-of-a-kind, Kate McCormack (Traveler web intern) and I decided to use the model of Traveler's Authentic Shopping Guide for a tiny, niche market: gift shops at Washington, D.C., museums. Continue past the jump to get our ranking of these shops and for our suggestions on what to buy at each.

A new exhibit opened today in the National Geographic Museum here in DC at the National Geographic Society headquarters. It's called "Kodachrome Culture: The American Tourist in Europe" and it features wonderfully retro travel images from the pages National Geographic magazine. Here's one of my favorites, a photo of people lounging on the rocky beach at Etretat, France, with the Notre Dame de la Garde chapel atop the chalk cliffs in the background.

From the exhibit:

National Geographic pioneered the use of Kodachrome film in the late 1930s and was among the first to recognize its advantages. The film produced a dye image without the grain found in other color processes, and the photographs could be enlarged without loss of detail. The film was also faster. Instead of requiring a tripod, color shots taken with a compact 35mm camera could be spontaneously composed. By the time American tourism was taking off in the 1950s, National Geographic photographers were adept at using Kodachrome. The images helped National Geographic stand out from other magazines still publishing in black-and-white.
Eventually Kodachrome became the most widely used color film in the United States.

Fast Facts:

The National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., is open Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For information on the "Kodachrome Culture" exhibit, call (202) 857-7588 or visit www.ngmuseum.org.

Read More:

Senior Photo Editor Dan Westergren discussed the story of how National Geographic Explorers came to name Kodachrome Flat in Bryce Caynon, Utah. And check out a gallery of classic Kodachrome images from the National Geographic archives here.

Photo by Howell Walker, from "Normandy Blossoms Anew," National Geographic magazine, May 1959, p. 629

The New Acropolis Museum, a project that the New York Times called "one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in this decade," is celebrating its opening day on Saturday after years of planning and labor--33 years in all, eight since the design was chosen. The stunning modern building, designed by New York architect Bernard Tschumi, allows visitors to view the Parthenon from balconies and see archaeological remains through glass floors. It boasts 226,000 square feet of glass, 150,000 square feet of display space spanning five floors, and 4,000 artifacts. However, perhaps the most important statement made in this museum's opening is not what it has, but what it is missing: The Elgin Marbles.

For all of the beauty and history encompassed in the existing displays, they are incomplete. According to the AP,   

The Parthenon was built between 447-432 B.C., at the height of ancient Athens' glory, in honor of the city's patron goddess, Athena.

Despite its conversion into a Christian church, and Turkish occupation from the 15th century, it survived virtually intact until a massive explosion caused by a Venetian cannon shot in 1687.

About half the surviving sculptures were removed by Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 1800s, while Greece was still an unwilling part of the Ottoman Empire.

Most belong to a frieze depicting a religious procession that ran round the top of the temple.

Ok, so maybe sleeping in a zoo isn't your thing. Want to camp out in a museum instead? Then head to Copenhagen.

The Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum of contemporary art just opened a new exhibit this weekend featuring a work by artists Bosch & Fjord that is, in essence, a group of beds in a gallery space. Culture Camping is social experiment created to challenge your senses, and asks what happens when eight people are picked to live in a museum (overnight) and see what happens... (We can only guess that the guests will stop being polite, and start getting real.)

Those who are lucky enough to snag a bed will experience vertigo, thanks to the six-meter-long cords that are suspended from the ceiling above them, and there are other "nocturnal surprises" like bedtime stores and lullabies planned for the evening. Guests are able to walk through the exhibit, built art installations, record sounds, and play in an adult-sized sandbox. The following morning, the visitors will have a roundtable discussion over breakfast about their experiences.

In recognition of the anniversary of D-Day Amelia Mularz offers a glimpse of the new wing of the National World War II museum in New Orleans.

Tomorrow marks the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, and while most thoughts will be directed towards the shores of Normandy, I can't help but set my sights on a coastline a little closer to home, New Orleans.

As if you needed another reason to visit the Big Easy, the city's National WWII Museum is in the midst of a $300 million renovation. The massive project, which will quadruple the size of the current museum, is set for completion in 2015. But overanxious museum-goers (myself included) can breathe easy--the first three attractions will open as early as November 6th of this year.

One such attraction is the Victory Theater, a 250-seat space with a 120-ft-wide and 30-ft-tall screen. So what film could possibly be worthy of such an incredible theater? Beyond All Boundaries, a WWII documentary produced by Tom Hanks and exclusive to the Victory Theater, fits the bill. Hollywood's latest slew of 3D movies has nothing on Boundaries, which uses 4D technology. Beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor, the movie screen literally grows as the US plunges into war. Later, seats rumble and in-theater weather effects transport audience members from the jungles of the Pacific, to the blistering cold of the Battle of the Bulge...much more intense than a pair of glasses.  

Afterwards, decompress at the Stage Door Canteen, another feature set to open in November. Rock out to Big Band tunes and catch a glimpse of swing dancers in the new museum cafe, modeled after the original morale-boosting canteens of the 1940s. While Lauren Bacall won't be available for a jitterbug or Mickey Rooney for a joke, but there will be plenty of live performances, cocktails, and a bite to eat.

The corrugated tin roof of the House of Dance and Feathers slopes up like a jaunty cap over the glass-paneled building in Ronald K. Lewis' backyard. "Everything in this building has a story," says Lewis, as he pushed open the door to the museum he curates behind his Lower Ninth Ward home. Inside, the walls, ceiling, tables and floor are all lined with relics from the Mardi Gras Indian "tribes" that live in the area. There are intricately-beaded panels from Indian costumes, and huge fans and plumes of feathers dangling from the rafters. Photographs cover almost every available inch of wall space, and piles of books are stacked on the tables. You begin asking questions, and patiently, Lewis takes the time to share the stories inside.

House of Dance and Feathers has been Lewis' passion since 2000, when is started as a shed where he taught local children about the area's culture. A retired streetcar conductor, today Lewis is the president of the Big Nine Social and Pleasure Club and the former Council Chief of the Choctaw Hunters. His museum celebrates the history of the Mardi Gras Indians in the Lower Ninth Ward, and since Katrina, has become a small ray of hope within a community that is still struggling to recover. (When I arrived during my visit, the home next door to Lewis' was empty, and still bore the telltale cross that signified whether a body had been found by rescue crews).

"When Katrina came, I wanted to rebuild and become a beacon within my community," says Lewis. "It gave me a venue to tell the world what happened to us. Three and a half years later we're pushing forward. We're trying to do anything we can do to keep the glue within our community."

Amelia Mularz had an EXTREME weekend visiting the newest exhibit at New York's American Museum of Natural History.

Heading to the American Museum of Natural History always makes me feel like a kid again. Within minutes of stepping foot in the museum this past weekend, my friend and I had already challenged each other to a T. rex impersonation face-off and battled for the greatest--or most annoying, judging from one woman's expression--pterodactyl cry. His take on the prehistoric call sounded oddly reminiscent of 21st century screeching car brakes, while mine was more of a wounded animal sob--either way, music to our ears. We exchanged obligatory high-fives and headed towards the latest exhibit at AMNH, Extreme Mammals: The Biggest, the Smallest, and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time.
   
If the entryway of the museum can excite two full-grown adults to the point of shameless dino shenanigans, you can only imagine what an exhibit with a name like EXTREME MAMMALS did to us. The exhibit, which opened this past Saturday, takes a look at some of the most incredible creatures, extinct and living, to ever roam the planet. Extreme Mammals packs a punch from the moment you enter--through the legs of the largest land mammal ever (the Indricotherium, which weighed as much as four adult African elephants)--until the moment you exit--near the interactive web activity.
   
One look at the Indricotherium, and our child-like excitement once again took hold of us: "Whoa, look at this unicorn thing!" (actually a narwhal whale with an eight-foot tusk). "Oh my god, this elephant has a shovel for a face!" (actually a prehistoric elephant with oversized incisors). "Dude, this squirrel ate dinosaurs!" (actually, the Repenomamus).

At one point, between pointing excitedly at the fossils of a massive horned creature and peeking through a glass window at live sugar gliders, we realized we were just steps away from one of the curatorial assistants for the exhibit, William Harcourt-Smith. I had the pleasure of speaking to Harcourt-Smith and learning about the process for determining what qualifies as "extreme."

This afternoon, I feel like I could easily spend several hours wandering through the galleries of SFMOMA. But alas, I live in Washington D.C. But wait! Late last year, they launched the ArtScope project, which allows you to search through the 3,500 items in their collection. It's a beautiful tool, and presents the works in a form that's almost as comtemplative as being in the museum itself. Check it out.

Read More: More and more museums are rolling out new tools to share their collections online. Know of another great tool? Tell us below.

I've just returned from my visit to Israel, and since I finally have some time to actually blog, I'm going to be catching you up on many of my favorite experiences from the trip:

I already mentioned how fabulous the markets were in Tel Aviv, but there's something particularly interesting about arriving at the Mahane Yehuda street market on a Friday afternoon right before the start of Shabbat. To put it simply, it was frantic, as people throughout the city were doing their last-minute shopping before sundown (5:07 p.m. that day). In the midst of the madness, I was thrilled to find a moment of quiet, in the form of the Tower & Story Museum, a small gallery space that's tucked between market stalls. Photographer Yoram Amir has photographed scenes from around Jerusalem, and hung them in distressed window frames that are scattered throughout the apartment/gallery. But what's even better is that the second story balcony provides a great photo op of the market below. Check it out, along with other photos, after the jump.

In a newly announced program, the BBC says it will enable more than 200,000 paintings in the U.K. to be viewed online.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about how Google was collaborating with Madrid's Prado Museum to allow viewers to get an up-close glimpse at the artworks on display. Well the Guardian recently reported that the BBC has similar plans. The Beeb announced that it would put over 200,000 oil paintings owned by the U.K. up online - only 20 percent of which are currently on view to the public. The need for the plan, overseen by a organization called the Public Catalogue Foundation, is explained on its website (my emphasis added):

The United Kingdom holds in its galleries and civic buildings arguably the greatest publicly-owned collection of oil paintings in the world. However, an alarming four in five of these paintings are not on view. Whilst many galleries make strenuous efforts to display their collections, too many paintings across the country are held in storage, usually because there are insufficient funds and space to show them. Furthermore, very few galleries have created a complete photographic record of their paintings, let alone a comprehensive illustrated catalogue of their collections. In short, what is publicly owned is not publicly accessible.

Right now, the Smithsonian Institution museums are facing a similar challenge (only one percent of its massive inventory is currently on display), and last month, they convened a panel of digital experts to discuss how they too can make more of their extensive collection available to the public via the Web. Dubbed Smithsonian 2.0, the event included keynotes by Flickr founder George Oates and Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, and the entire group discussed ways to have the public become more involved with documenting and cataloging the vast archives that have been gathered over decades. It's a fascinating idea, one that we're looking forward to seeing come to fruition.

What's your take? What more can museums do to share their collections with the public?

Read More: See a gallery of images from the Public Catalogue Foundation. And read the Guardian's Art and Design blog for more information and reader responses to the plan.

Photograph: by Dan Chung, via the Guardian.