Happy nice ask week! What's your favorite museum you've visited? Or top five if you can't pick.
Oh we are definitely doing a top 5 here, no way I could pick just one. And, I am not counting anything that might be considered a site vs a museum (so, none of the Gaudi houses, or the Alcazar in Sevilla, or the Newport Mansions, and definitely no religious sites or castles).
1 - The Musee d'Orsay in Paris, because not only is it dedicated to a period of art I particularly like, but also the museum itself is gorgeous - they reimagined the old Gare d'Orsay and turned the train station into a museum.
2 - The Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh - partly because I did my Junior Year Abroad in Edinburgh and the museum was near the Divinity School library and I used to like to stop by in between classes and research and just pick a painting to look at for 15-20 minutes and destress. But, also because it has one of my favorite deeply random paintings - Portrait of a Young Woman as St. Agatha with her breasts just hanging out on a plate (because St Agatha's martrydom involved having her breasts cut off, so they became her symbol) and sometimes the Renaissance was just weird.
3 - The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. It is fairly small, and has a very niche subject matter. But, the museum is in the shape of a shoe box (form meets function!). And, as an example of stellar exhibit design it's hard to beat. Also - shoes!
4 - The V&A in London, both because the collection is amazing, but also because they are always doing interesting exhibits on the history of fashion and textile. Also, if you go, be sure to stay for lunch in the cafe - the food's pretty good, but you're really there for the architecture.
5 - The Isabella Stewart Gardner in Boston - look I get why they put an extension on the museum, and moved the entrance, but I'm not going to stop being bitter about it any time soon. You used to come in this dark corridor and then you'd suddenly emerge into the courtyard and it was spectacular. TK's opinion on the ISG in Knave2 is very much my love affair with the ISG.
thank you for the ask!
