Museum of American History

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History collects and preserves more than 3 million artifacts of American history and culture, from the War of Independence to the present day. The Smithsonian's world class museum offers a wide range of exhibits that demonstrate the diversity of America’s history and culture. The National Museum of American History reopened its doors on November 21, 2008 after a 2 year and $85 million renovation. The remodeling provides a dramatic new presentation of the original Star-Spangled Banner, a chance to see the White House copy of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and a transformation of the museum's extensive collections. New exhibits and programs will reopen throughout the year.The National Museum of American History hosts a wide range of public programs, from demonstrations and lectures to storytelling and festivals. Music programs include chamber music ensembles, a jazz orchestra, gospel choirs, folk and blues artists, Native American singers, dancers, and more. Guided tours are given Tuesday–Saturday, 10:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.; other times as announced. Tours begin at the Mall or Constitution Avenue Information Desks.

Denver Art Museum

Denver Art Museum holds the largest art collection between Kansas City and the West Coast, with over 55,000 works of art. The Denver Art Museum collections include American Indian art, pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial art, as well as sculptures, paintings and other art works from around the world.The Denver Art Museum is housed in a 28-sided, two-towered, seven-story building designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti, who covered the Denver Art Museum exterior with more than one million faceted, shimmering gray tiles specially designed by Dow Corning. The new Denver Art Museum addition, a geometric glass and titanium design by Daniel Libeskind, will be an internationally significant work of architecture, making the Denver Art Museum a signature landmark for the city of Denver. This addition will nearly double the size of the Denver Art Museum, and is scheduled for completion in 2006. The Denver Art Museum is in the city Cultural Complex. Exit I-25 at Colfax Avenue and drive east to its intersection with Acoma Street. The Cultural Complex Garage, two blocks south and two blocks west of the Denver Art Museum, is the most convenient place to park. Enter from 12th Avenue, just west of Broadway. There are also unattended parking lots and metered parking spaces within walking distance of the Denver Art Museum. Meters are free on Sundays.

Museum of Art

The most famous Museum of Geneva has been built between 1903 and 1910 and was previously supposed to put all Geneva collections in one place.Nowadays, some of them have been moved to different spots, but the Museum still as three main sectors, which are Archaeology, Fine Arts and Applied Arts. There is a permanent exhibition which is free and temporary exhibitions for which you have to pay.Since March 18th to August 23rd, you can see a beautiful(temporary) exhibition on the Swiss (and genevois) painter Alexandre Perrier, who painted mostly néo-impressionist landscapes at the end of the XIXth century, beginning of the XXth. The exhibition will propose to make you see his evolution through his whole carear, thanks to the participation of the Kunstmuseum of Soleure, which gave a few of his masterpieces for the occasion.The admirers of art history will love to see the celebrated 15th century altarpiece by Konrad Witz, “The Miraculous Draught of Fish” and original stained glass windows, all formerly installed in Saint Peter’s Cathedral. It is quite impressive!The restaurant of the Museum, Le Barocco, serves sophisticated dishes. But you can just have a cup of coffee on the terrace in the inner courtyard.If you decide to go there on Tuesdays from 09:00 am to 15:00, the first-year art history students have their introduction classes in the basement.

Fine Arts

Fine art photography tips are not difficult to learn if you are a very attentive student way back in your college courses. If you are a diligent student and do well in all your photography, film and fine arts subjects, probably you are an old hand by now with this topic after graduation. However, for people who took fine art photography as a hobby or a second career later in life, then here are some of the fine art photography tips for you as tutored by Mark Raymond Mason.He discusses every detail for the would-be photographers in his website. He mentioned about the basic tips which includes basic operations and tricks of the SLR camera, how to explore creativity in photography and handling the many challenges of the photographer at work.Fine art photography tips from experts are easy to live by amateurs if the latter takes the initiative to internally learn the basic rules. In any learning endeavor, it is always tantamount to master the basic skills so that during the tutorial sessions, photography aspirants are able to relate to the subject.As neophytes, a certain amount of courage, diligence and perseverance is needed. The first try may not always be perfect. It demands constant practice and more practice. Great challenges will come ahead. These challenges will not only encompass financial matters but will include emotional and physical pressures.

Getty Museum

Designed for families to enjoy together, the GettyGuide Family Tour makes art come alive for kids. Hear stories, music, and sounds inspired by 19 objects in the collection. Rent a GettyGuide audio player for $5 at the Pick-Up Desk in the Museum Entrance Hall.The J. Paul Getty Museum, with locations in Los Angeles and Malibu, California, attracts a wide audience through its exhibitions and programming in the visual arts. Its collection is quite dynamic thanks to its educational programs, special exhibitions, publications, and conservation and research programs.Before choosing to visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles, I asked a friend who had been there recently if it was worth traveling there. Sometimes things are just hype, after all.

Well, I’m happy to report that the Getty Center is absolutely worth visiting (as my friend said). Especially the buildings, which are works of art themselves.Arriving from the 405, which can be backed up with typical LA traffic, the Getty Center is reached by a tram from the parking garage. Even the tram ride is an efficient, clean and scenic experience.It takes only a few minutes for the tram to shuttle visitors to the Getty Center, a private art museum and architectural wonder housing John Paul Getty’s collection and works added since his death. Parking is the only required expense ($15 per vehicle), as all visitors may access the collections for free.

Guggenheim Museum

World-famous architect Philip Johnson called the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao "the greatest building of our time." It is "a miracle," said The New York Times. Certainly, few buildings in history have generated so much praise or have so greatly changed a city as Frank Gehry's museum on the industrial riverfront of Bilbao.The city, once the culturally moribund commercial center of Spain's Basque region, was revitalized by the 1997 opening of this radically unconventional museum -- an irregular fusion of limestone, glass, and a shell of thousands of lustrous titanium sheets.Located on the northern coast of Spain, in Basque country, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a contemporary art centre housed in a unique building, designed by the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry and built by Ferrovial, which stands alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the centre of the city.An official agreement to this end was signed in February 1992 by Basque President José Antonio Ardanza and the Foundation. TheGuggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997.

Wax Museum

With a showman's flair, Parkinson opened Movieland Wax Museum in May 1962 with all the hoopla of a Hollywood premiere: searchlights, bleachers holding thousands of fans and the arrival of stars in long black limousines.No less than Mary Pickford cut the ceremonial ribbon at the Beach Boulevard museum, which included a wax likeness of America's Sweetheart and dozens of other film greats ranging from Rudolph Valentino to James Dean.At its peak in the 1960s, Movieland drew as many as 1.2 million visitors a year, and Hollywood superstars considered it an honor to be selected for enshrinement in wax.With the addition of each new star's wax likeness to the museum, Parkinson would send a gold Rolls-Royce to bring the honored celebrity to Buena Park in style."He was a man with tremendous imagination," recalled Beebe Kline, a former vice president of the publicity firm Rogers & Cowan, who represented Sophia Loren in 1962 when she was included in the museum in a scene from "Two Women."Kline recalled that Parkinson flew to Loren's villa in Italy, where the actress presented him with the dress she had worn in the film, for which she won an Oscar."Whenever he did anything, he always met with the people," said Kline.

New Museum

The New Museum is the only museum with a mission to promote new art and new ideas, and the only museum in New York City devoted exclusively to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the Museum was conceived as a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists whose works did not yet have wide public exposure or critical acceptance. It has a unique history of being founded by a curator—Marcia Tucker—who had neither personal resources nor a collection, just abundant resourcefulness and a passion for living culture. At its inception, the Museum lay somewhere between a grassroots alternative space and a major museum devoted to proven historical values. The deliberate paradox was embodied in the name “New Museum” and Tucker’s daring vision and combative idea to present new art in a critical and scholarly context.
The New Museum has evolved over the past thirty plus years, from its humble beginnings as a startup in a one-room office on Hudson Street in 1977, to a gallery space in the New School later that year, to its expansion and relocation to SoHo in 1983, to the inauguration of its first freestanding, dedicated building in 2007. Our culture has also evolved over this period of time and contemporary art is more widely embraced today. The New Museum has an important and influential legacy and role to keep breaking new ground. A site of ongoing experimentation and questioning of what art and institutions can be in the 21st century, the New Museum continues to look to the future through programming that is open, fearless, and alive.

Children's Museum

Today's guest post is by the National Children's Museum. When it opens in 2012, The National Children's Museum (NCM) will be a world-class cultural and educational center dedicated to engaging children and empowering them to make a difference. Limit your experience to about 2 hours to allow children to really absorb the content of that particular environment, so they can learn more and better remember their experience.

Museum of Modern Art

The New York Museum of Modern Art has a rich and sentimental history dating back to 1929, when Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., along with two other influential arts patrons--- Miss Lillie P. Bliss and Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan---found the conservative museums and collections to be lacking. They wanted to offer something more to the community of New York art museums, something inclusive of modern art (which includes any work from the late 19th century to the present), and together founded The Museum of Modern Art New York, a tradition-breaking institution among New York art museums.From its humble beginnings as recipient of eight prints and one drawing, The New York Museum of Modern Art has grown to include over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects.An impressive lineup of modern artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, and Andy Warhol are featured here. This world-class museum includes a special emphasis on film media, and owns more than 22,000 films, videos, and media works, as well as film stills, scripts, posters and historical documents. The New York Museum of Modern Art also rotates its expansive collection on a regular basis to ensure as fresh a viewing experience as possible, even for regular museum-goers.