It was pretty good. We happened to go when they were having some special things for kids so the kids got to do a drawing class and see a marionette show that was cute. We were very disappointed to learn that the exhibit with the DaVinci notebook was an additional cost and would have cost our family 28.00. Also, the kids section, Art Sparks, is an additional 5.00 a person. So the "free" museum could have cost my family up to 48.00 (just for the 4 of us that were there.) I had visited the museum's web site, but on the main page where the Medieval and Renaissance treasures are mentioned, there is no mention of the additional cost. It's also not mentioned on the Planning a Visit page. If you look up each exhibit individually, you can see it listed there, but I didn't hunt for it before we went, only after. My youngest son was the one who really wanted to see the notebook so I asked him if he'd rather see the exhibit or go to Art Sparks and he chose Art Sparks, so the "free" museum visit only cost me 20.00 plus 6.00 parking.
We appreciated the real art that was there, but in my opinion, some of the things on display really aren't art. For some of the artists, the hardest part of their job is convincing other people that their efforts are, in fact, art, and getting someone to pay for them. I kind of think it's like the Emperor's New Clothes and they are afraid to say "but that's just a pile of trash!" in fear of being thought a fool. My kids totally got this. My youngest said he was now seeing "art" everywhere. Of course, a lot of the art we saw was astouding either for beauty or technique or both. They have artists that even I've heard of like Rembrant and Monet. Hopefully seeing some of this was inspirational for my artistic kids.
I also was not so impressed with the Speed Museum when we went last summer. The "pay for" exhibit was photography then and we opted not to see it. The only other art museums I had been to before was the Smithsonian in DC in high school and the Prado in Madrid in college, so I guess I had high expectations. We will probably visit again, but maybe not before we hit some of the other local attractions (like Locust Grove, Slugger Museum, Frazier, etc).
ReplyDeleteDid you know Locust Grove is having a big event this weekend, April 12 and 13, a Revolutionary War Reenactment Camp? Should be cool. I don't think we're going to have time for it, but we might.
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