Museums are lightning rods for criticism. The most public of all buildings, they’re also the most vulnerable, and even long-accepted classics faced scorn in their infancy. Today we’re taking a look at vintage photographs of New York City’s famous museums while under construction.
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Growing outrage against the Guggenheim’s new museum in the United Arab Emirates kicked into high gear this week: Protesters stormed the Guggenheim’s New York location for a second time, and a fake website launched claiming to solicit new, "ethical" ideas for the museum’s design.
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Machines fill the floor of the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s beloved interactive science museum. Over there is a contraption called Bicycle Legs, in which visitors manipulate air pumps to replicate muscles we use when pedaling (it’s trickier than it sounds). A few hundred feet away is a perennial favorite, the Wave Machine, which demonstrates transverse waves with the turn of a crank (even I can manage that one).
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Check it out: This print features the notable profiles of some of the world’s most recognizable museums. There’s a key, but quick, without peeking—how many can you name by sight alone?
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It’s already a pretty great time to be a couch-bound art lover
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About 1.5 miles southwest of the Downtown Project’s cluster of development in Las Vegas is another creative neighborhood going through changes. It’s named 18b.
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Well, wowza. On Friday, we posted about museums that host sleepovers
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Have you ever slept beneath the bones of a T-Rex? What about next to the Declaration of Independence? It’s been nearly three decades since I read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but the plot—two kids run away from home and take up residence at the Met, eventually solving a mystery, natch—has stuck with me. It’s also totally possible to make that dream come true.
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Anyone trying to make a gingerbread house for the holidays this year can pretty much give up right now. Just eat everything instead because no matter what you do, you can’t possibly top the artistry of these gingerbread museums. Designed by Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves for Dylan’s Candy Bar, they capture the world’s most famous museums in all their delicious beauty.
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The Smithsonian’s design museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, is taking a different tack with a new website: it wants you to explore its digital collection by color.
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