Some Jewels in the Cultural Crown

Some Jewels in the Cultural Crown

Museums are no longer the dusty fusty repositories of fine arts that you may remember visiting as a child. Now the walls are coming down as museums increasingly take note of developments in the outside world. Multi-cultural, high-tech, and « pop » are today's watch words on the cultural beat, and new museums have clearly heard the call, From new high-tech kiosks where one can see how an artifact such as a ceremonial Indian flute was used in its original context to grain elevators that one can climb into, the new museums are offering fresh perspectives on the historical and the everyday. Here, Donald Garfield, senior editor of Museum News, the official news magazine of the American Association of Museums, recommends the following recently built museums. Also included are outstanding additions to existing museums.

American and Modern Art

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design: Kansas City, Montana. The museum, a block from the beautiful campus of the Kansas City Art Institute, features works by such artists as David Hockney, Bruce Nauman, Nancy Graves, Georgia O”Keeffe and Thmas Hart Benton. It is strong on interaction between artists and community and offers many discussion groups with contemporary artists.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: San Francisco, California. One of the two most significant post modern museums of the last five years – the other is in Seattle. Designed by world-renowned architect Mario Botta, the modernist structure doubles the current exhibit space in the Veterans building.

Seattle Art Museum: Seattle, Washington. Designed by the celebrated post-modern architect Robert Venturi, this is the other most significant museum built in the last five years. It does not have an encyclopedic collection of art like New York<s Metropolitan, but its African American and Native American collections are among the most impressive in the country.

Andy Warhol Museum: Pittsburgh, Pa. A fabulous example of what can be done when a seven-story warehouse is turned into a museum. Architect Richard Gluckman also designed the avant-garde Dia Foundation in New York. The museum features the history and creative works of Andy Warhol, the father of pop art.

Wexner Center for the Visual Art: Columbus, Ohio. And important and controversial museum due to architect Peter Eisenmann's post-modern aesthetic. This architectural marvel mimics the street grids of Columbus, as well as the streets on the Ohio State campus. Following the grids, the structures inside the museum have no 90-degree angles – even the stairs are slanted. Although there are no permanent collections, many rotating shows visit here regularly. 

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum: Minneapolis, Minnesota. A visionary metallic museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota, the only one in the United States designed by celebrated architect Frank Gehry. It continues the tradition of the private collection, in this case, Frederick Weismna's. It is especially strong in American art between 1900 and 1950.

Barack Obama exposed in the Museum Grevin of Montreal. Photo by Elena.

History

American Heeritage Center and Art Museum: Laramie, Wyo. On the campus of the University of Wyoming, the center is housed in architect Antoine Predock's new conical-shaped centennial complex, which is reminiscent of an Indian teepee. The arrached art museum is a Pueblo-inspired design. It contains a variety of fine arts exhibits and features Native American and cowboy art and artifacts.

Beit Hashoah Museum of Tolerance: Los Angeles, California. This museum explores the horrors of the 20th century: genocide, the Holocaust, racism, through audio and visual displays.

Michel C. Carlos Museum: Atlanta, Georgia. Part of the Emory University Museum of Art and Archaelogy, first-rate collections of art and artifcats from classical antiquity, including the Egyptian, Roman, Grecian, and Pre-Columban periods. In the forefront of technology, this museum by architect Michael Graves is developing interactive kiosks in the galleries, where one can call up the history of an artifact and see in a video how it was used in its original context.

Holocause Museum, Washington, D.C.: Based on an idea rather than a collection, this museum chronicles the Holocaust through many extraordinary audiovisual displays.

Minnesota History Center: St.Paul, Minnesota. More than just a museum, this is also a library, an archive, and a research center. The museum explores all aspects of Minnesota history. Among the various interactive exhibits is a model grain elevator you can climb into, the better to understand how grain is processed. It also features an important collection of Native American art.

National Civil Rights Museum: Memphis, Tenn. The museum makes use of audiovisual displays to document the Civil Rights movement. It starts with the slave revolts and ends in the motel (now part of the museum) where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Valentine Riverside Museum: Richmond, Vs. Associated with the Valentine History Museum, the Riverside Museum is geared toward the family. It has a Colonial Williamsburg quality to it, along the lines of a theme park, but with a strong historical basis.

The Warm Springs Tribal Museum: Warm Springs, Oregon. The magazine American anthropologist described the museum as having just about the finest exhibitions in the United States. It tells the story of three tribes, the Paiute, the Wasco, and the Warm Springs. The narration along the way is by tribal elders.

Miscellaneous

Children”s Museum of Houston: Houston, Texas. Where does the food on the dinner plate come from? How do televisions work? What is gravity? The answer to these and other questions can be found at hundreds of interactive exhibits at this award-winning children's museum designed by architect Robert Venturi.