NEW YEAR, NEW ME, NEW MUSEUMS

MUSEUM MONDAYS

BY: EMMA HOFFMAN

Something you all should know about me is that every single year my new year's resolution is to "eat a sandwich". Why, you ask? Because sometimes it feels good to achieve a goal with minimal effort, to check something off your list or pat yourself on the back for completing that ONE thing you've set out to do. I have high expectations and goals for pretty much every other aspect of my life so I like to keep things ~chill~ when it comes to my new year's resolution.

However, for me a new year usually means reflecting back on the 365 calendar days that have just passed, and planning for the year to come. Since 2017 might be one of my last years to travel without having to consider vacation days, I'm thinking that I should take advantage of that fact. It almost feels sacrilegious for me to visit a new locale without checking out a local museum, or three, so I want to share a short-list of potential museums I'm hoping to visit in 2017, or hopefully sometime in the near future. Here's a special song to guide you through this journey of museum wanderlust with me:

Let's belt this out together. Source.

1. The National World War II Museum, New Orleans
I've encountered the WWII Museum in N'Orleans on several lists of the top museums in the U.S. and I've always wanted to go. As much of my research is based on Holocaust museums and I'm interested in how museums use empathy and testimony to immerse audiences in an historical narrative, I'm curious to see what this museum has to offer in terms of visitor immersion. It doesn't hurt either that my post-museum meal would inevitably consist of some Louisiana jambalaya and perhaps a beignet to top it all off.

The WWII museum's facade. Source.

2. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
I've sadly never visited Canada's West Coast. That's why the next stop on my museum tour of 2017 will be Vancouver, B.C. where I'll take in the sights and sounds at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I'm hoping to make it there in time for the show We Come to Witness: Sonny Assu in Dialogue with Emily Carr: a series of digital works that Assu has appended onto pieces in the Art Gallery's collection of works by the Group of Seven West-coast painter.

Spaced Invaders, 2014. Source. 

3. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

I've been to Venice once before, but it was only for a day-trip and I didn't get to see any museums (I know, it's a real sob story). Since the collection named for this enigmatic 20th-century woman is located in Venezia, I wouldn't mind taking a closer look. Upcoming exhibitions of note include a showcase of Picasso's beach-themed paintings and another exhibition later this summer examining the late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century French mystical symbolist artists. 

A very casual view of the Peggy Guggenheim museum. Source. 

That's all for now, folks! Please share any museums that you're planning to visit, or wish that you could visit in 2017 in the comments below, and stay fabulous!