Any cool museums in your area?

I have the Art Gallery of NSW, the MCA, the Powerhouse Museum, and the Australian Museum in my area.

Which neato museums do you live in proximity to?

I have quite a few, living in Amsterdam. There's the Rijksmuseum with a large collection of Rembrandt and there's the Van Gogh museum. Those are the two most wellknown. :-)

The Art Institute of Chicago, the David and Alfred Smart Gallery, the Spertus Museum, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the Chicago History Museum, the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Children's Museum, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the Swedish-American Museum, the Oriental Institute, the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, the DuSable Museum of African-American History, and I'm sure I've missed some . . .

I've got so many world-class and...um...country-class? nation-class? museums within a couple of hours' drive, that I don't think of it as going to museums any more so much as going to exhibitions.

I'm wondering if anyone knows if the museum at the Eric Satie house is still running. I visited it a few years back, and was completely fascinated by the mix of audio, automatons and (difficult to read) text. It was in Honfleur, France. Anyone know?

(edited to correct touchstone)

I would have say that the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto- is my "cool museum." The space is beautifully designed and the exhibits well staged and interesting.

> 7

Oh, I loved my visit to the Bata Shoe Museum. Of course, I'm a shoe maven, but I think that even if you're not, it's a fascinating place to go.

Pickerington (Ohio) has the Motorcycle hall of Fame does that count?

The WORLDS GREATEST CHILDREN"S MUSEUM is in my area.

Columbus has COSI
(Center of Science and Industry)

Its pretty cool

Rochester, New York, has the absolutely wonderful International Museum of Play which completely captures the sense of fun and imagination of both children and adults. In addition, the George Eastman House is the beautiful site of the preeminent museum of photography in the world.

#2 I was in Amsterdam last spring and went to the Van Gogh museum...beautiful! The Rijksmuseum was under construction so we skipped that...if I ever go back that will be my first stop!

The Van Gogh museum had a joint venture with the Rijksmuseum though, of Rembrandt and Caravaggio's works. That was absolutely amazing. Caravaggio is one of my favorite Dutch painters.

I work in the Baltimore MD region...we have lots of interesting museums!

If you are ever in the area, you must see the Visionary Art Museum. Words cannot describe how amazing that place is!

We also have the Walters Art Gallery (great selection of ancient Greek/Roman works), The Baltimore Museum of Art (the Cone Collection alone is worth making the trip), and the Peale Museum (I've never been, not 100% sure it is still even open), among the other smaller privately owned galleries.

I'm a short walk away from The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY...not to mention my all-time favorite museum just over the river, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I work near the main branch of the NY Public Library, which has great exhibits. Once they had a whole feature on female writers in Pre-Victorian times. I loved seeing a sample of Jane Austen's handwriting.

On Long Island near where I work there is the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The streets in this area (Garden City East) have names like Charles Lindbergh Blvd, Quentin Roosevelt Blvd, and Earle Ovington Blvd. The "Museum Row" also includes a children's Museum and a Firefighter's Museum. Not too far away is Hofstra University, whose library frequently has exhibits.

Of course the D.C. Area has The Smithsonian.
I love going to the Air & Space Museum, National Gallery of Arts, American History & Natural History. When I was a kid and we would go see the Natural History Museum they had a huge Sperm Whale hanging down from the ceiling and when we would go see the American History Exhibits there was an old Locomotive Engine. Back in '95 I went with my younger brother and a friend of his to see The Treasure Houses Of Britain Exhibit on the last day
it was there. I still regret to this day that we missed going to the King Tut Exhibit back in '76.

Librarianwannabe

Recently I stumbled upon what I do think is one of the most beautiful museum buildings in the world. No, not that thing in Barcelona, either, and not even the Miho museum, which is not far from where I am staying: http://miho.jp/english/index.htm but no, a small museum incongruously founded by the owner of a rapid transport company, Sagawa. The contents of the museum are not major, but the building! Unfortunately, there are not many good images of the building on the web (and the poor images don't get across the effect, especially in the interior), but try a google image search for 'sagawa art museum' and you'll see some.

Nycticebus, don't miss the Hakone Open Air Museum while you're in Japan. It has some big Henry Moore sculptures among many others in the lovely setting. It's worth the trip for the collection of Picasso ceramics.

Hey, thanks. Boy, that Footbath Spa looks like a great idea! There are many museums that would benefit from that amenity.

Anyone else have opinions about the best chairs, benches or rest spots in various museums?

We have the Radar Museum at RAF Neatishead, which is only open on the second Saturday of the month. It is staffed by ex-RAF personnel and its as fascinating to talk to them as to see the exhibits.

http://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/

#13: Carravagio was Italian. Rembrandt was Dutch. The exhibition was to show the influences of Carravagio (and painters like him) on the early work of Rembrandt. Carravagio died when Rembrandt was 4.
Apart from the Rijksmuseum (classic art), Van Gogh (impressionists, etc.) and Stedelijk (modern art) we have some other cool museums:
The Sex Museum: Sex in the centuries past
The Torture Museum: All about torture in the middle ages.
The Ajax museum: About the famous football club (that is soccer for you Americans)
The Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum: About Hash and Hemp
The Cat Cabinet: Art with cats pictured in it
Tassenmuseum Hendrikje: A museum about handbags
The Vrolik museum: Lots and lots of dead stuffed animals
The woonboot museum: About canal boats

and about 50 other museums with art, dead things or other memorabilia. You can sit where Renbrandt was painting or where Anne Frank wrote her diary, etc.

>22 Papiervisje: "The Ajax museum: About the famous football club (that is soccer for you Americans)"

Also in America, Ajax is best known as a bathroom cleaning product.

Ajax is also a brandname for a cleaning product in Europe, but there is no museum dedicated to it.
Anecdote: Ajax is also a name for fire extinguishers. When competing for a contract to put fire extinguishers in the Feyenoord stadium (one of the main competitors of Ajax, the football club), the fire extinguisher company proposed to remove the Ajax name from its products. It was the main reason they won the contract. The cleaning product company lost its contract, due to its name, in several football stadiums.

When I'm in London I am five minutes' walk away from the National Maritime Museum, The Queen's House and the Royal Observatory - all world-class museums within Greenwich Park. They're all free to visitors, too! We used to have the beautiful Cutty Sark tea clipper, but it burnt down last year - a tragedy. Five stops on the train I have the British Museum, The National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery and innumerable others: all are also free and quite excellent. Also, the Imperial War Museum is brilliant: I could stay there for hours, it's incredible.

Amsterdam's museums are wonderful, but not free. My favourite is the 'hidden church' at Oude Zijds Voorburgwal: it's amazing. The Barcelona exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum is well worth a visit, really interesting and beautifully laid out.

I was just reading the paper this morning and was reminded of this thread...

10 unsung UK attractions:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/mar/05/uk.touristattractions?page=all

I have been to Erddig and Housesteads, and can confirm that they are superb and filled with fascinating information.