Brooklyn Museum
Joining other New York City cultural institutions that are once again welcoming visitors, the Brooklyn Museum plans to reopen on September 12th. The long-awaited event brings with it exhibitions we had prematurely bid goodbye to in March, including JR: Chronicles. This is the first major North American exhibition of the work of the French photographer known only the initials JR. The show charts his career as an artist from his early days in Paris to his treks all over the world, capturing images for his singular photo-collage technique. Before you head out for a day at the museum, make sure to book your tickets online here and, remember that admission for anyone 19 and under is free. Don’t forget to check here to see what else the Brooklyn Museum has on view.
The Met Cloisters
Just in time for New York weather to start to cool down, the Met Cloisters is reopening on September 12th. The Cuxa Cloister is a beautiful and socially distancing-appropriate place to see flora and catch some sun. If it’s chilly outside, the permanent collection inside the museum features European medieval art and architecture. Before you go, make sure to check here to book the tickets for your visit and check here to see a map of the museum with a brief description of each room to see what’s in store for you.
Honolulu Museum of Art
While the Honolulu Museum of Art is not yet open for visitors, they do have exhibitions available online including their extensive collection of Japanese woodblock prints, which boasts over twelve-thousand prints examples dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. In addition to this hearty collection, the Honolulu Museum of Art has a few other online exhibitions well worth your while that you can browse through here.
Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, California
While we await the reopening of the Crocker, they have plenty of online exhibitions for us to peruse including Scheherazade and Her Sisters, inspired by the heroine of the book One Thousand and One Nights. The show features fantasy images of powerful, seductive women s well as portraits of real-life women of the Gilded Age. You can poke around the exhibition online here and if you’re looking for a more in-depth tour, you can watch both a short introduction to the exhibition and a 40-minute video hosted by the curator of the show. In addition to this thorough tour, the Crocker Art Museum has other online exhibitions that you can check out here.
Monticello Charlottesville, Virginia
If you’ve never been able to make it out to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home offers several extensive tours available through their website, both guided and unguided. In addition, you can book a ticket to join a live virtual tour with a guide who can inform you about all the little things you might overlook. For any teacher in your life seeking ways to enrich their students’ zoom learning schedule this year, have them take a look into the virtual field trips that Monticello has available. However, if you’re nearby or you’re just looking for a way to get outside and learn something, Monticello is open! Don’t forget to book your ticket online here before you go.
University of Alaska Museum of the North
If you won’t make it to Alaska any time soon, we urge you to check out Alaska’s Digital Archives, which offer bits of regional history in almost any form you can imagine. One of our favorites is the University of Alaska Museum of the North, which has an extensive collection that ranges from Army posters to landscape paintings to arrowheads. For those of us who know little, or would like to know more, about Alaskan cultural history, you can take virtual tours of the museum and their exhibitions here and here. But, if you’re able to make it, the University of Alaska Museum of the North is open! Please make sure to check their guidelines here before visiting.
The Victoria and Albert Museum London, England
Patchwork was an important and common pastime in English society, yet a certain quilt finished in 1820 has beguiled its viewers for 200 years. The maker was Ann West, though little is known about her beyond her name. What we do know is that West’s excellent craftsmanship and her humor has rendered her work priceless. To see Ann West’s Patchwork you may click here and here. The Victoria and Albert Museum has plenty of such exhibitions available to view online here as well as here. If you’re able to make it in person, the Victoria and Albert Museum is offering free timed entry through September 27th.
