Category Archives: Museums

Iceland Comes to NYC

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

If you are considering a visit to New York City, and if you love music, you should know that next month NYC’s fantastic Museum of Modern Art is launching an extraordinary retrospective on the work of Iceland’s greatest export, Bjork. … Continue reading →

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The Traveler’s Eye

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

Hand-tinted tourist postcards are just a sample of the delightful items that make up the current exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Asian Art  in Washington, DC.  Titled “The Traveler’s Eye”, the show includes travel souvenirs, maps, photographs, … Continue reading →

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French Kiss

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

Within 24 hours of the horrific terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, a group of Parisian artists came together to create a memorial mural at the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum in Paris. Calling themselves “French Kiss”, the collective (which … Continue reading →

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Art POV

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

After spending an afternoon at New York City’s magnificent Metropolitan Museum of Art this week, I had the odd experience of stumbling across artist/filmmaker Masashi Kawamura’s new blog “What They See”, which invites an encounter with the museum from a … Continue reading →

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In Praise of Rarity

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

In case you needed another reason to visit Paris this holiday season, the Bibliothèque Nationale has opened a special exhibition to showcase treasures from its enormous collection. E’loge de la rareté: Cent trésors de la Réserve des livres presents one … Continue reading →

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A New Light on Michelangelo

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

After five centuries, the magnificent frescoes on the walls and ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel can now be seen in all of their glory thanks to a new LED lighting system. The unobtrusive 7,000 LEDs provide a surprisingly subtle, … Continue reading →

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Set the art free

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

French artist and filmmaker Julien de Casablanca has created a brilliant interactive project for art lovers everywhere. Participants in Outings are encouraged to visit museums and use their phones to photograph “small, secondary and forgotten” paintings and to print out … Continue reading →

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London Obsessions

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

I’m a fanatical museum goer, and I’ve visited all of London’s important cultural institutions, but I’m a lazy slacker compared to Jo Hunt, Mary Rees and Linda Smither. These three Londoners share an obsession to visit every museum in London. … Continue reading →

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Fall of the Wall

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

Germany’s capital city is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with numerous events both solemn and celebratory. I particularly like the planned trail of thousands of luminous white balloons that will follow the route of the … Continue reading →

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Paris Museums

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

There’s good news for Paris museum visitors; starting in 2015 some of the most popular attractions are expanding opening times to seven days a week. Instead of closing one day each week on Mondays or Tuesdays, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay … Continue reading →

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