August 10, 2010

Favorites and Surprises

Do you ever walk into a museum and feel completely overwhelmed? Not by the beauty or the amazing exhibits but by the sheer volume of them and the complete inability to decide where to begin?

It happened to me recently in Washington D.C. I was on a mission, along with other members of my travel company, to see as much of the area as possible and to visit many of the attractions we often include on itineraries for Washington DC group travel tours, student tours, etc. This, of course, included many of the Smithsonian facilities as well as other amazing museums in the area.

One day we spread out with a list of Smithsonian museums. We hit several in a short time period, just trying to get an idea of what they had to offer and how they were unique. (For instance, many of the museums offer food courts, and we wanted to compare the space available in each and the menu available.) We had already visited a few other museums of course, and by the time I walked into the first on my list of Smithsonian facilities, I was a little fried.

It was the Air & Space Museum, the most visited museum on the planet, so I knew I should be impressed. And I was. But I was overwhelmed by the many exhibits, most of them larger than life. And there were so many ways to take in all the information – literature, video, photographs, artifacts, even walk-through pieces from air and spacecraft. I didn’t know where to begin, especially knowing that I had a limited amount of time and should only hit the highlights.

I finally just moved forward and walked through several of the displays, reading bits and pieces here and there. I saw enough to know the museum was amazing, simply wonderful, and that our student groups would love every minute there. Even the souvenir shops were bigger and more amazing than those I’d seen elsewhere. Still, I didn’t feel like I really took it in. And the overwhelmed feeling never faded, compounded by the knowledge of too little time.

Next I zipped across the Mall to a large, glorious building and stepped inside The National Gallery of Art. Walking inside was like breathing again. After the hundreds of exhibits and variety of media in the Air & Space Museum, I relaxed around the wide open space and simple display of art around me. I walked through room after room, simply designed, almost no furnishings, and just viewed one painting after another – with nothing but the art to speak for itself.

My experience was definitely due to several factors. One, I was overwhelmed. Never try to take in that many museums in such little time. Choose from among your greatest interests. Go online and view the museum descriptions – you can even see some of the exhibits. Put on your itinerary the museums whose themes interest you the most. Then maybe throw in one outside your normal area of interest – it could surprise you.

For me, the National Gallery of Art was both of those things. It wasn’t on our itinerary, so it was a pleasant surprise. But art is also the subject I’m most drawn to, so it fit that I felt most in my element there. Find a combination that works for you. spread out a few great museums in a two-day time period. Give yourself plenty of time to enjoy them, and you should have the perfect experience.

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