“Don’t go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. They are ecstasy machines. Follow your eyes to wherever they lead you…and the world should begin to change for you.”

Jerry Saltz, Art Critic

I love museums and I was lucky enough to grow up in a city with dozens of world-class ones—New York City. My three favorites, the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art), the Guggenheim and MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art) provided hours of pleasure and whetted my appetite to seek out the treasures of other museums around the world. 

The Met on Fifth Avenue is my number one. Its neo-classical, Richard Morris Hunt-designed entrance is majestic. In the galleries, I love gazing at the oil paintings of Renoir, Picasso, Monet, Goya, Hopper, Pollock and so many other masters. I love walking through the Egyptian Temple of Dendur. It was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Augustus when Rome ruled Egypt and was gifted by Egypt to the United States in 1965. I enjoy the special modern art exhibitions which open onto a roof garden with an awesome view of Central Park and the Costume Institute where I was fortunate to attend a class in college and get an up-close and hands-on look at designer fashions through the centuries.

What I love most about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, about six blocks north of the Met on Fifth Avenue, is the building itself. The unique concrete, spiral-ramp architecture is a UNESCO World Heritage site designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Paintings and sculptures by Degas, Manet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and others are displayed along the quarter-mile-long ramp and illuminated from above by a giant domed skylight.

MOMA is noted for thought-provoking contemporary and modern art. Aside from the works of artists like Niki de Saint Phalle, Alexander Calder, Ai Weiwei, Jean Arp, ,Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and many others, the museum has a large photography collection featuring Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks and many more. Music plays a big role in some of the exhibitions and the museum also has an extensive film vault. One event I attended in the museum theater was an impressive sound and light show. 

New York is not the only place in the U.S. with interesting museums. Having lived in Massachusetts for many years, I’ve wandered through many of them in that state. Some of my favorites are in Boston, Cambridge and Salem.

 In Boston, one of the most enchanting is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, modeled after a Fifteenth-Century, Venetian-inspired palazzo. One of the highlights is the sculpture-rich and flower-filled courtyard in the center when sunlight shines through the glass roof and washes over the surrounding walls and arched arcades. Gardner’s collection of paintings is so vast, the walls are crammed with great works. I remember being surprised to find a glorious Botticelli almost hidden in a tiny niche. 

My other Boston favorite is especially great for kids but inspirational for adults as well. The Museum of Science on the Charles River is filled with learning experiences about biology, paleontology, technology, chemistry, physics and more and makes them fun. It also has an IMAX theater, a planetarium, a full-size T-rex model and a 23-foot-long triceratops skeleton.

In Cambridge, one of my favorite exhibits is the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, the “Glass Flowers,” at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Over 4,000 models are the creations of glass artisans from Dresden, Germany and they’re spectacular.

Salem has a number of museums related to the witchcraft trials of the late 1600s but the museum jewel is the Peabody Essex Museum. Visiting Yin Yu Tang, the reconstructed Chinese ancestral home there from the Qing Dynasty, gives a rare perspective on Chinese art, architecture, and culture. There is also a great collection of New England maritime art and I’ve enjoyed many special exhibitions, such as a collection of vibrant-colored photos from Havana, Cuba. 

In San Francisco, California, the copper-skinned M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (commonly referred to as the de Young) is a fine arts museum in Golden Gate Park that blends into the park landscaping. It’s easy to spend three hours browsing exhibits of American, African, Oceanic, Costume, Textile, Graphic and Photographic Arts. The museum café opens onto a great sculpture garden and the 360-degree view of the Bay Area from the tower rooftop is spectacular.

Some smaller cities and towns also have museum gems. Great Falls, Montana has the Charles M. Russell Museum, honoring the renowned painter, sculptor and writer, known for his Native American and cowboy themes. It’s an impressive complex with modern galleries, his original log cabin studio and his home.

Ridgway, Colorado, an old western town used as the setting for several classic western movies, including “True Grit” starring John Wayne, is home to the Ouray County Ranching History Museum. In addition to rooms depicting ranch life from the 1880s to the present, it showed me the impressive artistry of leatherwork used for riding saddles.

Now that I’m a Florida resident, I’ve uncovered some interesting museums here.

 907 Whitehead Street in Key West is the site of The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. The privacy and tropical landscape of his estate created a sanctuary for his writing and his six-toed cat, whose descendants still roam the grounds.

The Flagler Museum on Palm Beach Island was the Gilded Age estate (Whitehall) of Henry Morrison Flagler, the builder of railroads and hotels who brought tourism to Southeast Florida. A tour of the classical, Doric-columned building gives a glimpse into the luxury and lifestyle of the wealthy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The interior rooms are a mix of styles, including Louis XIV, Louis XV, and the Italian and French Renaissances. Exhibits often include historical fashions, footwear and jewelry, in addition to paintings and photography.

West Palm Beach is home to the newly-restored Norton Museum of Art. The stark modern façade was built to accommodate a humungous banyan tree outside the front entrance and a former parking lot was transformed into a 37,200-square-foot, lush, sub-tropical sculpture garden. A quirky touch to the outside front is a colossal typewriter eraser which I love. It’s by Claes Oldenburg, one of the founders of Pop Art. Indoors, the museum has large collections of American, Chinese, Contemporary and European art, as well as Photography.

Because of COVID, many, if not all of these institutions have been closed to the public, except virtually, for months. As cases decline and safe protocols are put in place, I look forward to the museums reopening soon.