Our last hoorah

Today, I went to Beacon, New York for my last day in New York City.  Yeah, that's right, for my last day in the city, I left the city.  We spent our last Guggenheim museum culture seminar at Dia: Beacon, an art museum located about an hour and a half north of New York City.  The building was originally a Nabisco box printing factory so it is huge.  The art in the collection makes use of the massive amounts of space offered in the galleries with rather large pieces as well as wide open spaces.  Beacon itself was quite nice as well, and the weather was wonderful.

After touring the museum and having lunch, I bid farewell to all of my fellow Guggenheim interns and new friends and headed back to the city to pack for my trip home.  My glorious trip home!  I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time and it appears it has finally arrived.  I have already booked a car to drive Genevieve and me to Laguardia in the morning.  It's been real, New York, but I think we need a break.  It's me not you, really.  You're going to make someone really happy one day, but for now, I just need my space, ok?  I hope we can still be friends.

Today's mileage: 2.79 mi.
Total New York mileage: 222.77 mi.

Getting away from the city without leaving Manhattan

Because the weather was slightly nicer today than it has been the past few days (it was a mere 90 or so degrees), Anu and I took the opportunity to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters Museum & Gardens.  Although it took us a 45-minute subway ride to get there, it was totally worth it.  The air was wonderfully breezy, it was gloriously quiet, and fantastically beautiful.  It was as if we had been transported from the mean streets of Manhattan to a wonderland of peace.  And that was just the gardens!  The Cloisters themselves were fabulously air-conditioned and a treat to enjoy as well. 

After our lovely trip to the Cloisters, Grace and I ventured out to see the movie Horrible Bosses to escape the now-tolerable-but-still-unpleasant heat.  It was very funny and a good end to the day.

Today's mileage: 5.12 mi

Yay for air conditioned museums!

Yes, my appraisal of museums has been reduced to my enjoyment of their air conditioning.  I met up with Anu today for a trip to the Whitney.  We had a good time, mostly soaking up the a/c, I'm not gonna lie.  My supervisor mentioned to me a few weeks ago that the Whitney recently got a new library and the librarian offered us a tour, which we are in the process of arranging.  But back to my Whitney experience.  As I always do when I visit a museum , I took a quick poke around the gift shop and this time I found something worth buying.  It was a book called I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York.  While both Anu and I are currently learning more toward the feeling-negatively-about-New-York-City side at the moment, especially considering the heat wave, we do recognize the good things that the city has to offer...like its awesome museums.  In any case, I purchased the book as a rather telling reminder of my time here.

As I just mentioned, New York does amazing museums, but there is one that I have a bit of a beef with at the moment: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  As you may or may not know, one of my primary missions in New York has been to see Madame X at The Met - a wish that I have been unable to fulfill thus far as the wing in which the painting resides has been under renovation.  Said renovation was slated to be completed July 22nd - yesterday.  However, upon my visit to The Met today for the explicit purpose of seeing my dear painting, I found that the wing was still closed.  I am quite frustrated.  And needless to say, the heat did not help.

In another attempt to seek shelter from the sweltering heat, Anu, Genevieve, and I went to see the final installment of the Harry Potter saga: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.  It was pretty epic.  I cried...kind of a lot.  I mean, not full-blown sobbing, but tears definitely came to my eyes quite a few times.  It's the end of an era, man. 

Today's mileage: 3.30 mi

Beating the heat with museum field trips

This photo is actually from our museum culture seminar to the MTA Arts for Transit program last Friday.  It's a sculpture of a tree hanging upside-down from the ceiling, dripping with Swarovski crystals in Grand Central Market.  You can learn more about it and see more photos of the sculpture here.  (Also, I just uploaded the other photos from that trip as well as my second trip to The Met in case you're interested - see the link to my New York photo album in the left sidebar of the page.)

As for today's museum culture seminar, we learned about the Guggenheim's exhibition management department.  In addition to the exhibitions installed in the Frank Lloyd Wright building, the speakers also discussed the international (and a couple of domestic) exhibitions and satellite endeavors pursued by the museum.  They are currently working on establishing an institution and collection in Helsinki.

After our time at the Guggenheim, I sought refuge from the heat in another exhibition space: The Center for Book Arts.  It was not really what I expected, though I couldn't tell you what exactly it was that I expected.  It seems that their primary purpose is to provide a space and materials to those pursuing various books arts and print-making techniques.  But it was air-conditioned so I'm not complaining. 

And speaking of air-conditioning, I am currently planning my life around the pursuit of it.  It's no wonder as the temperature today was in the triple digits for most of the day.  It's sad when it's so hot that I long to return home to Florida.

Today's mileage: 3.36 mi

Museum bonus trip

As you may know by now, Wednesdays are not my usual days for museum culture seminars.  However, we had an optional museum field trip after work today, mostly due to the schedule of the museum in question.  We convened at El Museo del Barrio, an institution dedicated to promoting Latino culture and displaying the works of artists of Hispanic heritage.  Mid-week, the museum hosts WEPA Wednesdays, which we were attending.  We were given a lovely tour of the galleries though our tour guide was a bit more interested in having a conversation about the works than we were, having come from a full day of work - and the oppressive heat outside.  This led to quite a bit of awkward silence moments.  It was kinda like when you have class first thing in the morning and the teacher wants to discuss last night's reading assignment, but no one did it, nor is anyone awake enough to form cohesive sentences anyway.  In any case, it was a charming, if not a bit curious, museum and certainly worth the trip.

Today's mileage: 2.43 mi

Computer troubles, original cataloging, art on the subway, and weekend fun

Thank you, dedicated reader, for staying tuned for the exciting continuation of my New York adventures.  As you may know, last week my computer decided to be very uncooperative and has left me pleading with it to work.  Although it is still not yet functional, I believe I have isolated the problem and intend to get it back in top shape as soon as the necessary components arrive (fingers crossed for Tuesday).  Thus, please excuse my lapse in posting - it has not been for lack of excitement or interest.

I suppose I will work chronologically as I always do.  Thursday, I learned to do original cataloging!  I have been doing a great deal of copy cataloging in my internship and in the process ended up large piles of books in need of original cataloging so I decided it was time to expand my skill set.  It is a very tedious process but I am slowly but surely chipping away at my piles of books.  There are certainly some that I am still unable to do as they do not have enough English or another language using the Latin alphabet for me do be able to describe them properly.  But there are plenty of other books to keep me busy.

Friday was another museum culture seminar in which we learned about the MTA Arts for Transit program.  This is the program that commissions and maintains all of the wall murals, sculptures, and other art manifestations in the subway stations as well as some of the posters in the subway cars themselves.  It was interesting to learn about the mediums that they favor as it is necessary to have art that is very durable and able to withstand the daily interaction of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.  A particularly popular medium is the tile mosaic and I found it interesting that they commission both an artist who creates the work and then a fabricator who translates it into tile. 

My friend Phil arrived for a weekend visit on Friday!  On Saturday morning, we met up with one of his friends for a trip to The Met - they went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibition and I took the time to see the rest of the museum.  Unfortunately, the exhibit with my beloved Madame X is still under renovation but it should be open again later this week so I should be able to see it soon.  But back to my visit from Phil - he has been quite helpful in the moral support department in terms of my computer issues.  I am very grateful for his visit, indeed.

Thursday's mileage: 2.31 mi
Friday's mileage: 2.28 mi
Saturday's mileage: 3.81 mi
Today's mileage: 2.50 mi

Journal Entry #3

Forgive me for my delay in posting.  My computer has incurred some technical difficulties.  It insists that it is unable to locate the hard disk drive, however I am quite secure in my belief that it is indeed there.  I have found some battle tactics to take on the issue so hopefully it will be resolved soon...and at little to no cost.  In the meantime, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  Also, should my posting be intermittent for the next week or so, you now know why.

Much has happened since my last journal entry.  In the library, I am mainly been copy cataloging the backlog of books that need to be added.  I also asked my supervisor if I could learn to do original cataloging as well and she said that she would show me how later this week.  And because I have been doing a lot of cataloging, I suggested to my supervisor that I complete the free online MARC training through OCLC.  The class was called TMQ MARC21 in Your Library Part 1: MARC & Bibliographic Info Fundamentals and the last couple of modules were helpful but most of it was really basic review.  I was also able to try my hand at some archiving.  There was a major grant-funded project that I was recruited to help with in order to complete the project on time.  Primarily, I was numbering folders and confirming their place on the finding aids, but this also let to a decent amount to finding aid editing.  In addition, my supervisor and I have been working on weeding the collection of duplicate items as well as consolidating records to clean up the catalog a bit.

I have also been busy with museum and non-library internship events.  There have been a number of museum culture seminars since my last entry including trips to exhibition spaces, public art programs, and an in-depth explanation of the Guggenheim’s current exhibition.  Speaking of which, I attended the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan a couple of weeks ago and while I wasn’t particularly taken with the exhibition itself, the event was certainly something I was glad to have experienced.  There was also a program put on by Sotheby’s Institute of Art featuring the director of the Andy Warhol Museum which a number of us interns attended.  Finally, I went to the recent all-staff meeting for the museum.

As for extracurricular New York City activities, I have been visiting a lot of museums.  I have been taking advantage of my free pass to all of the museums in the city – otherwise I would be spending a fortune on admission.  I have gotten in the habit of visiting a different museum almost every day that I am not at work.  I am still blogging daily and more details of my adventures and daily happenings can be found on my blog (here).  I am greatly enjoying my internship but I think I have determined that New York City in general is not for me.

Wednesday's mileage: 3.03 mi

More museum madness

I met up again today with my good friend Anu for a trip to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Vishnu: Hinduism's Blue-Skinned Savior exhibition.  Having a bachelor's in Religion and a minor in Art History, I am always up for a trip to see the two combined.  The avatars of Vishnu with which I am most familiar are Rama, Krishna, and the Buddha.  Thus, I was best able to appreciate the pieces featuring them.  All in all, we both enjoyed the exhibition greatly.  There were, of course, other exhibitions as well.  One piece that I particularly liked was Portrait of a Lady by Giovanni Boldini.  I took a photo but the painting is under glass so the picture has an awful glare to it.  But I was so very happy to spend the day with a friend from home, though I'm not exactly sure if that is good or bad for my homesickness.

Today's mileage: 2.97 mi

Ah, predictability: museum field trip Friday!

I took a break from art museums and made it over to the American Museum of Natural History today with my roommate Genevieve.  We kinda turned into little kids over the dinosaurs.  I think there must be something about the reconstructed bones of enormous, extinct creatures that is somehow alluring to everyone.  I also managed to peek into the Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians to get a quick shot of me doing the good ol' Gator Chomp with a real alligator carcass. (I love that there's a Wikipedia page for the Gator Chomp.  I guess the Gator Nation really is everywhere.)  I will probably get some flack from my mom for not finding an exhibit of the Seminole Native Americans for a photo op of me doing the FSU tomahawk chop (I would like to note here that there is not Wikipedia page for that gesture, I'm just saying.). 
And in true female fashion, we made a point to visit the Hall of Minerals and the Hall of Gems.  It's all just so shiny and pretty and colorful.  But anyway, this museum was a rather different experience because it is so kid-friendly and visitors are not simply allowed to touch portions of the exhibitions but encouraged to do so.  Needless to say, hands-on experiences are generally frowned upon at the average art museum.

In other news, I finally got Google+, Google's developmental social networking service.  It's still in its testing phase so it isn't open to just anyone.  You have to be invited by someone who already has Google+ and even if you know someone with such a hook-up, you have to wait until they open the invitation option, which seems to be rather random and very fickle.  In any case, I am still figuring it out and the funny thing is that my friends and I have been discussing it all via Facebook and Twitter (and now Blogger) rather than Google+ itself.  I feel like I need a crosswalk from Facebook to Google+.  If anyone happens to know of such a thing, please share.  Also, should anyone like an invitation to Google+, let me know and I will do my best to make that happen the next time an invitation window opens up.

Today's mileage: 3.02 mi

I'm smack dab in the middle of my trip

Yep, that's right, I'm halfway through my stay in New York City.  And in light of this landmark occasion, I'd like to reflect on some things I've learned and some musings I've been having lately.  First, this is the longest I have ever been away from home.  That sounds so very sheltered, but I don't think that's really the case - I've been to Europe twice, visiting 6 countries altogether, and, obviously, I've lived in Manhattan for over a month now.  I think it's just that I haven't seen much reason to leave home aside from simply exploring the world.  I'm finding that sometimes the best part about traveling is coming home.  Can you tell I'm a bit homesick?

As for a few things I've learned about New York City:

• The essence of New York City is, apparently, waiting is horrifically long, chaotic lines.
• Customer service is not a top priority for most businesses here.
• I don't think I will ever get used to having to pop my ears because the elevator goes up just that high (I work on the 12th floor).
• Building numbers do not coincide with street numbers - a fact that I find quite frustrating.
• There are some really cute dogs up here.
• As much as we complain about the price of gas, taking the subway is way more expensive (It's $2.25 every time you get on the subway or a bus which would equate to driving about 15-20 miles in terms of gas prices, yet I rarely take the subway more than about 4 miles.).
• It is really easy to find a sandwich with brie in it here (!!).

And speaking of mileage, if you've been following along like the dedicated reader I know you are, you've noticed my daily mileage counts at the bottom of each post.  So far, I have walked a total of almost 120 miles and I average about 3.3 miles per day.  For all my fellow Gainesvillians out there, that's like walking along Archer Road from I-75 to 13th Street, everyday.  Yes, yes, it's good for me, I know, but I can't say that I'm enjoying that part of my stay here.

In an attempt to end my rant of a post on a positive note, I would like to express the fact that I am indeed enjoying my internship, as well as the benefits it has to offer.  As I hope you can tell from previous posts, I do take great pleasure in visiting the amazing museums that the city has to offer, made possible in part by my internship and its free-admission-to-any-museum-in-the-city(-except-the-Museum-of-Sex) benefit.

Today's mileage: 3.33 mi

Keeping it rollin'

My primary goal of the day was to visit and explore the Morgan Library & Museum which just so happens to be located near a number of other New York City landmarks.  So I took the subway to Grand Central (landmark #1) and wandered from there to the New York Public Library (#2) which wasn't open due to the holiday weekend, but I figured the facade is enough of a landmark to count.  I continued west past Bryant Park (#3) to Times Square (#4) mostly just to say I'd been there - being a dreary Sunday, there wasn't much going on outdoors.  And speaking of the dreary weather, I've found that New York City weather has somehow figured out a way to be both cool and disgustingly humid at the same time, which makes for difficult decisions in the attire department.

But anyway, I finally made it to the Morgan Library & Museum which was fantastic.  This is another small museum like yesterday's Frick Collection which I quite like.  There were a number of things I took note of while there.  First, in the Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands exhibition, there is one illustration described as "Saint Julian accidentally kills his parents."  Now, I don't know about you, but at this point I'm thinking, "This kid accidentally murdered his parents and he still became a saint?  Really, Catholic Church, really?"  I did some investigation and found that the story of Saint Julian the Hospitaller is somewhat similar to that of Oedipus.  That being said, I still don't quite understand what got him sainted.

The next item that sparked my interest was in the Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art exhibition.  One of the lists was written by one Robert Smithson with notes for his Spiral Jetty piece.  And why might this have caught my attention, you ask dear reader?  Well, both Robert Smithson and his Spiral Jetty are mentioned in a song by one of my favorite bands, Vampire Weekend.  The song I reference was not officially released except on the internet so you may not recognize it, even if you are a Vampire Weekend fan as well.  It's called "Giant" and you can listen to here (you can ignore the accompanying slide show/visuals). 

Finally, once I made it to the library portion of the collection, I spent quite some time browsing the shelves for titles that I recognized or seemed interesting.  The books are beautiful, or their spines are at least - everything is behind glass so it's not like I could actually look at anything.  But anyway, one book that made me chuckle a bit read "Heywood History of Women 1657" on the spine.  After a bit of research (I am almost a librarian, after all), I found that the book's title is actually The generall history of women: containing the lives of the most holy and prophane, the most famous and infamous in all ages [sic].  Sounds interesting, does it not?

Today's mileage: 2.89 mi

Museum field trip weekend!

Today's wanderings took me to the Frick Collection which holds older, more classic works in a domestic setting.  The collection is held in the former home of Henry Clay Frick who was an avid art collector.  The museum is a mix of portraits, landscapes, and various other paintings by the Old Masters.  It is always exciting to see artworks that I have learned about in my art history classes and such.  One painting in the collection is the Sir Thomas More portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger which is at the center of the novel I am currently reading, Portrait of an Unknown Woman.  The museum was small and not terribly crowded which was nice as I was able to see the entire thing in about an hour and at my own pace.

Being so close to Central Park, I decided to wander around that for a bit.  I found my way the the south end of it where there was some sort of Bollywood thing going on or something.  I honestly don't know what it was, all I could tell was that there was a mass of people, some dressed in traditional Indian garb and others wearing tuxedos or fancy dresses, dancing around to Indian music.  If I discover the meaning of any of this, I'll let you know.

Today's mileage: 3.79 mi

Another museum field trip Friday

I am finally getting around to visiting various museums on my days off and today's locale of choice was the Museum of Modern Art or MoMA.  My roommate Genevieve and her friend Tony came with me and we wandered about the museum for a couple of hours.  We came across a piece that was just pieces of individually wrapped candies piled in a corner - candy that we were encouraged to take and enjoy.  Something about when the artist died, his wife was overweight so she resolved to lose 25 pounds and whenever the candy runs out, the museum sends a photo to her of the empty corner and she sends a photo back of her weight loss.  So far she has lost 5 pounds, the guard told us.  Coincidentally, it is a rather festively colored piece, considering the upcoming holiday.  On the third floor is the Architecture & Design Gallery which is reminiscent of an IKEA.  And I do love IKEA.  The fourth and fifth floors hold the museum's Painting & Sculpture collection which held much more familiar names and pieces than the rest of the museum - I could list them off but just think of just about any big name in modern art and chances are they had at least a piece or two up there.  I mean, it is MoMA after all.

After our MoMA excursion, I dragged my cohorts a few blocks north to see the Ai Weiwei Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads installation.  Maybe you remember me mentioning it a couple of weeks ago?  Anyway, it was pretty neat and it will be taken down on July 15th so I made a point to go see it before that.  There I am, standing near my Chinese zodiac sign, the tiger.  This is, of course, slightly different from one's astrological sign which is based upon the time of year one was born.  Below is a panorama of the entire installation:

Today's mileage: 4.02 mi

All-staff meeting excitement

As today's title indicated, I went to the Guggenheim all-staff meeting this morning.  The meeting was in the Peter B. Lewis Theater in the basement of the museum and had comfy seats and dim lighting - two things that are not particularly conducive to keeping one's eyes open in the morning.  I mean, not that I would have first-hand experience of such a condition, it just seems like a potential situation for the average person.  Anyway, after the meeting, I took the opportunity to stroll around the museum to see the permanent collection as these works were roped off during Friday's exhibition opening.  I think I have finally seen the entire museum now.  That being said, I wouldn't put money on me not saying that exact same thing again at some point in the near future.

Afterward, my boss Becky and I walked across Central Park to take the subway to the downtown offices.  Becky needed to return a couple of books to the public library, so we stopped at the Hudson Park branch on our way back.  It is a small but sufficient branch and reminded me of my mom's library.  We chuckled about how, as librarians, it is not a rare occasion to visit two or three libraries in one day (one's own library plus another location where we might act as a patron and indeed a third study location).

As I'm sure you know, this a holiday weekend coming up and I currently have no plans for said holiday.  If anyone knows of anything particularly awesome going on this weekend, I am open to suggestions.  That being said, please do not say something like, "Go see fireworks!"  I mean, I love you guys, but yeah, duh - I'm shootin' for specific events here.  Thank you!

Today's mileage: 3.97 mi

Library training, Madison Square Park, Guggenheim opening party, the list goes on and on...

Such a long day!  I shall start at the beginning.  This morning, we interns had library and archives training at the Guggenheim.  You're probably chuckling to yourself, "Ha, but Katy, you are the library and archives intern, certainly you don't need that training" and while you may be right that I didn't need the training, it was nonetheless rather informative, particularly in respect to archives.  My background is mainly in libraries so archives are kind of new territory for me. 

Following our training, we had a break before meeting back up at Madison Square Park to learn about their public art program.  Along with a number of historical statues scattered throughout the park, they are currently featuring Jaume Plensa's Echo sculpture on their main greenspace (see right). 

We then dispersed again only to be reunited later in the evening for the Members' Opening Party and Private Viewing: Lee Ufan back at the museum.  Yep, that's right, I got to go to an exhibition opening, I am awesome.  And I got to bring a guest - my former London study abroad classmate, Lynn!  Back in London, Lynn and I were museum buddies, always up for a trip to some exhibition in our off time.  And she is in the city for the weekend so I invited her along.  We both found the Lee Ufan exhibition to be...interesting but we were just as excited to simply be at such an event and to people watch and play fashion critic.  Yes, our night boiled down to, "I bet that suit was ridiculously expensive...That dress is just a tad too tight for her...Check out the guy in the flannel...."  And that, dear reader, was my day.  A rather long one, as inferred from the sheer number of photos included in this post and today's mileage (see below).  So I leave you tonight with a neat-o vertical panorama of the Guggenheim that I created before promptly passing out:

Today's mileage: 5.84 mi

So. Much. Walking.

Oh my goodness.  So today, our museum culture seminar took us to AW Asia and the Rubin Museum.  Sounds good right?  Yeah, well first I had to get there.  AW Asia is 2 miles (ok, so technically it's only 1.8 miles, but I'm going for drama here, alright?) northwest of my dorm.  Most of the subways run north-south.  So I ended up walking there.  I mean, it's not a big deal, but I wasn't psyched about it.  Ok, let's face it, I miss my car, Henry.  Anyway, enough of my complaining, I will get to the good stuff...

First we visited AW Asia which, as the director explained to us, is not a gallery...though there is art on the walls and such.  They promote the acceptance and advancement of contemporary Chinese art.  There are a lot of political issues surrounding Chinese contemporary art and currently at the forefront of these controversies is artist Ai Weiwei (pronounced Eye Way-way).  As it so happens, Ai Weiwei currently has a public art exhibition in New York City: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.  The director of AW Asia was very insistent about us going to see the art before it is taken down next month.  I will probably go sometime soon.

We then headed over to the Rubin.  Now this place was more my style.  The Rubin Museum is dedicated to displaying the art of the Himalayas (which, as our tour guide informed us, is actually pronounced Him-awl-yaas).  Thus, it was primarily Buddhist and Hindu art, and you know how I love it when you mix art and religion.  What is interesting about this art, especially Buddhist art, is that it is often meant to be seen by only those who had come so far in their practice of Buddhism.  This made me think of an article I included in a paper I wrote last semester about religious information seeking.  The article, "Some Remarks on Information and Religion", discusses the way religious information has changed and that information that was once privy only to those serious about and had reached a certain point in their religious training is now available to the masses - something that is even more true now with the access to knowledge that the internet lends (the article was written in 1989).  At one point, our Rubin tour guide took us into an exhibit of the museum and told us that we shouldn't really be seeing this, that these murals were not meant for our eyes but for those of high rank in the Buddhist community.  He said that a few years ago, a man went in and secretly photographed all of the murals and the Rubin made the high-quality facsimiles upon which we were gazing.  I found this to be terribly disrespectful (don't worry, it gets better).  Not only that this man had gone in and taken photographs of sacred art which he was not supposed to do, but also that the Rubin, a seemingly upstanding museum which otherwise appears to have a great respect and reverence for this art, would display it (and specifically prohibit the photography of, which seemed quite hypocritical).  Thus, my friend and I took it up with one of the other museum employees that we met and she assured us that that one guy did actually have permission to photograph the art and that it is very different for people like us (read: not Buddhists) to see the art than it is for it to be revealed to a practicing Buddhist.  We were greatly relieved to hear this.  Apparently, our tour guide was trying to make the exhibit a bit more interesting but I was actually a bit upset about the seemingly insensitive nature of it.  In any case, I hope to go back to the Rubin soon to see all of it at my own pace...and when I haven't already walked 3 miles.

Today's mileage: 5.80 mi

An evening at Sotheby's

Tonight, I went to this program/reception put on by Sotheby's Institute of Art.  The institute is indeed linked to Sotheby's auction house, in case you were curious - the auction house created the institute as a way to fill in the educational gaps of their employees as well as other interested in the art business.  Anyway, the speaker was Eric Shiner, the curator and director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  He began by telling us about his varied background in the art world and then went on to talk more about Andy Warhol and his museum and foundation.  I hadn't paid much attention to Andy Warhol prior to tonight, but this program has sparked my interest a bit in both his work and the man himself.  I don't mean that I now love every piece of work he's done, but simply that I will probably read the Wikipedia article on him in the coming days and pay attention if I see an article that references him or something.  And I would like to visit the museum but Pittsburgh is kinda far, so maybe not.  Anyway, it made for an interesting night.

Today's mileage: 1.98 mi

Museum field trips, continued.

After sleeping in rather late and trip to one of our new favorite eateries, Eva's Restaurant, my roommates and I stumbled upon Festival of India in Washington Square Park.  It turned out to be primarily Hare Krishnas but I was just fine with that - as you may or may not know, I actually did a whole project on them my senior year of undergrad.  We then journeyed through the blustery mist that was today's weather (don't get me wrong, I am not complaining) to the Museum of Sex.  Unfortunately, we found upon arrival that my Guggenheim ID would not allow us free admission, though we did get a discount.  The museum was quite interesting to say the least.  One of the exhibitions was The Sex Lives of Animals with feature familiar to any librarian with an interest in banned books:

Click on image to see larger and read the text

And Tango Makes Three!  I was so excited to see this was included in the exhibit.

I finished the day off with a trip to another new favorite dining locale of mine, Space Market (Oh my goodness, and they deliver?!  I did not realize this until creating this link!) which sounds a little out there but is really just an awesome grocery store/deli.

Today's mileage: 4.26 mi

Museum field trip Friday!

Today was action packed!  This morning a lot of us Guggenheim interns met up at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, Savage Beauty.  It was a really great show and I recommend it to anyone halfway interested in it.  The exhibit was full of great and interesting fashion and the atmosphere went along perfectly with pieces: a mix of creepy and novel.  The fashion aspect reminded me of the Grace Kelly fashion exhibit I went to see last summer at the Victoria & Albert Museum with Lynn.  

After the Alexander McQueen experience, I set off with Genevieve to find one of my favorite paintings, Madame X by John Singer Sargent, which happens to be held at The Met.  So we trek off in the direction of the American Wing of the museum only to be informed that the object of my journey is, in fact, under renovations and closed until July 22nd.  Fortunately, I will still be here then but that means I will have to wait all summer to see it!  It's a tough life, you guys.  So we settled for a trip up to the rooftop for a lovely panoramic view of the skyline:

Genevieve and I ended up leaving the museum a bit early since we were in such an Alexander McQueen state of mind and couldn't really appreciate the rest of the art.  So, we got some lunch and sat in Central Park to enjoy the weather and people watching.

Eventually, it came time for me to mosey on over to the Guggenheim for our first proper Museum Culture Seminar.  We met a few of the gallery guides who are part security, part educators for the museum.  The informed us about the gallery guide program, the Frank Lloyd Wright building, and some of the exhibits.  In particular, we saw and learned about the Guggenheim's current feature exhibition The Hugo Boss Prize 2010: Hans-Peter Feldmann which is basically a room with 100,000 one-dollar bills nailed to the walls in a uniform, full-coverage fashion.  This is a one-time exhibit, it will never be seen again after it is taken down later this year so if you want to see it, let me know.  Also, the money is all real and will go back into circulation after it is taken down in November so should you happen to come across a dollar bill after that with a small nail-hole in it at one end, take note: you are in possession of fine art.  (Ok, whatever, but I plan on taking a photo of it if I get one.)

Today's mileage:  2.77 mi