How to Visit an Art Museum | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios 

My biggest tip is don't be afraid to go to a museum by yourself. I have visited a few art museums alone, and each time has been incredibly enjoyable. You get an opportunity to just go at you own pace, and you don't have to worry about the other people in your group moving on without you. I actually spent an entire Saturday at the Minneapolis Institute of Art by myself, and it was, hands down, my favorite museum trip.

I always ask the museum guards for their favorite pieces. Not in a super assuming way, just in a chatty making-conversation kind of way. They are there all day, most of the time just standing quietly and keeping art safe. They spend so much time surrounded by art, but don't usually have a formal background in it. That's why they have the coolest opinions.

I work at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto as a security guard, and I can a hundred percent confirm that guards love it when you ask for directions about gallery etiquette ("Can I take photos in here?" "Can I touch this?"). Please try to remember that we are there for your protection and that of the gallery.. so even those of us who are a bit grumpy do not mean any harm if we ask you to correct a certain behaviour. Also, really don't be afraid to ask us questions! Most of us are friendly people who incidentally are incredibly bored. My favourite days at work are ones where patrons ask questions and engage with me about the art. I have a lot of time during the day to think about them, and always love hearing other people's thoughts.

Whenever I go to a museum with people, such as with my wife, there is this unwritten rule where we don't follow each other, and we don't wait for each other. We might meet up later on, or keep a check on which room we are in, but we never try to wait for each other, and we don't let each other's route influence our own. Sometimes we can end at completely opposite ends of the gallery, accidentally meeting in the middle. It's not something we decided about before hand, but rather it's that we mutually respect that we focus on different things and one of us will find something more interesting for different reasons than the other one. We may discuss this sort of differences later. But while we as individuals are enjoying the piece, we don't allow it to get in the way of the others enjoyment. Also another thing I really enjoy when visiting art museums is hearing how other people comment on the art, especially contemporary art. Hearing some people go into lengths on how its a very clever comment on a specific movement, and others just looking at it and laughing it even being considered art. And then there's those who just invent their own story to it, completely decontextualising the work and forcing a completely different angle on it.

If you are allowed, get close. See the hairs left in the paint from the brush, the strokes, the effort and texture!

Please take guide tours (most of them are free)!! A lot of people don't realise the wonderful stories and and interesting connections docents/gallery guides can help you make. I always get the most fulfilled experience at museums when I take tours. I am also a museum gallery guide myself and I promise it'll be worth it!

Don't be afraid to split away from the friends/family you came to the museum with if you want to stay longer or shorter at a particular piece than they do. Social viewings can be fun, but so can going solo.

I've finally visited my local art gallery and I just had the most rewarding experience ever. I took all your advice to heart and managed to meet the curator, who was just so lovely and humorous, meet one of the artists and talked about his work, and I got an invite for the opening of their next exhibition. It was all so un-real and inspiring :D

My sister is an artist. One of her paintings is in a near by museum, but it costs money to go and see. So instead I go visit her house. Her paintings are all over the place. It is her own private museum that I am lucky enough to visit.

This may be dumb, but I'd like a video or possibly series on interpreting contemporary art. I don't "get" a lot of it and I'd like to be able to, at least, have a better idea as to why certain pieces are interesting.

I have a suggestion for a continuation of this topic: art crawls. The assignments done on this channel are kind of the online version of the art crawl, but I would love to see Sarah and John and other Art Assignment people attend an art crawl. Essentially, an art crawl is where you go to both look at, admire, experience, and CREATE art. One I went to had metalworking demonstrations, a collaborative painting, printmaking lessons, and TONS of live music.

In my opinion, one of the most important points in this video was that you don't have to look at everything. Experiencing everything the museum has to offer in one visit sounds great and efficient but if it means you having to run through the different exhibitions with no time left to really study closely something that interests you, it probably won't be an enjoyable or inspirational experience. Just take your time, let your mind wander, write down any interesting ideas that you come across (do write them down, otherwise you WILL forget them) and leave when you feel like it (as long as it's before the museum closes its doors).

The last museum I visited was the Getty in LA and i loved how the engaged children as well. My niece was 6 months old at the time and they even had a playroom that had play areas modeled after works of art that the kids could PLAY on. I loved it so much. Now I have two little ones and I can't wait to take them. My favorite museum experience was seeing the Sistine Chapel (of course). I knew little about art at the time, but I (and everyone else) couldn't help but stand in awe of the whole work. Now with more art education under my belt, I need to go back!!

The Security Guards can be super nice. At the museum I volunteered at most of them were artists and that was how they made sure the bills were paid. Also little trick to put them more at ease put your hands behind your back when you want to look closer.

I love visiting the art museum with children. Seeing things through their eyes is always enlightening! For the majority of my students it was the first time they had ever entered an art museum. What I learned was these students needed a pre-trip discussion about proper behavior. You might guess that they needed to understand things like not touching, being quiet and the need to not run through the galleries. But what we also found needed to be added to the list was that artists show people without their clothes. As adults we see the beauty of the human body but 7 and 8 years just get the giggles. So if we wanted them to remember anything other than breasts and penises we needed to explain art at its basic core. This talk helped them experience the museum with a maturity that was missing without it. Our kids loved this trip. We were lucky to have volunteers take us through to share lessons but we always allowed time for small groups to just wander through to see and stop at the art that caught their eyes. Many of the children went home and from their enthusiastic descriptions would make return trips with their families.

WOW! You're truly amazing. I've been working as a guide in a museum for 7 years, and today I was talking with my colleagues about doing a video just like this one! The Art Assignment is the best!

My absolute favorite art museum experience was taking my son who was 3 or maybe 4 at the time to the modern art museum. He is a highly active boy but the whole trip he was quiet, well mannered, and interested. He asked amazing question and showed off his large vocabulary describing what he liked or didn't like and why. We were there for almost the entire day. We even had a picnic lunch in the sculpture garden, where he tried to bend his body to look like the art he had seen. Art is for everyone. :)

asking questions in gallery spaces almost always leads to interesting discussions. My relationship with the Art Gallery of Ontario is an interesting one in its self. I attend the art university that sits on the same street as the gallery, and we have free access to the general gallery as part of our school tuition. For this reason the gallery has become an extension of my classrooms, but also a great place to go when I have time to kill or need peace and quiet. I find my relationship with the art has changed as I see it more often, and I am drawn to new pieces

I always love to take a moment as I enter a gallery and absorb all the works together in the space before viewing them independently. I think it's important to understand the tone and melody of a gallery before examining each of its notes. Also, I love to be accompanied by a friend. I often think aloud in galleries, and having feedback on my mumbled impressions of a piece can often trigger a discussion. Plus, I always have a granola bar or light snack in the bottom of my purse. Lots of museums have huge grounds and expensive cafes with not-so-yummy offerings. A spot on a bench outside the museum is much better anyway.

I LOVE this video so much. I intern at my campus art gallery, part of which includes a guarding shift, and it's so quiet and lonely most of the time. It's rather small and little known since it's new, but it has such amazing pieces that so few take advantage of seeing. (I might be a tad biased.) I definitely agree that asking questions is really nice. Not only do the guards get to explain whatever is you ask about (and maybe show off a bit for a boss or professor if they're there with family, which has happened to me before), but it also a good way to gauge what people are getting out of the exhibitions! We want to know what you think, which is shown in what people ask about. If they are guarding at a museum, they have some knowledge base that put them where they are. There is a reason a guard is in a particular gallery, and no one should be afraid to take advantage of that! Also, don't be scared or put off if a guard corrects your behavior. Some pieces are more fragile or sensitive than others. Sarah's basic etiquette rules are a good place to start, but also pay attention for any signs - many museums have lines on the floor that stop viewers from getting too close to a piece - and ask questions if you're not sure about something. This goes back to the asking questions recommendation, but asking about gallery rules is a sign of respect for the space that I know I appreciate.

This is my favourite video on this channel so far. Sarah your comic delivery of the last line was wonderful.

I like to listen to classical music while I walk through a museum on my iPod. It allows me to be in my own bubble and enjoy fully what I'm seeing.

I have a nice museum in my town, which I've been to many times since a little kid. However, it was when I had a broader relationship with art that I realized I totally took it for granted. I recently went back with a fresher pair of eyes and it was a whole new experience!

Random thought, Sarah you're a really good video narrator! Your intonations never sounded wrong or contrived, it was perfect :)

I have been lucky to visit a lot of museums during the nine months I have been in the U.S. I prefer to read (almost) every label about the art giving context about how and why it was created. And I never tire of looking at a Rothko or a Pollock.

The kids from From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler really should have watched this episode first.

I always get to the museum at the same time that every primary school field trip in the tri state region arrives.

I enjoy going to museums, but I find it much more rewarding to follow particular artists I like online. Even though I'm physically far away (often in a completely different country), I feel somehow closer to their work by virtue of the fact that I'm exposed to it in real time.

Once, I made out a bucket list and on that list was to see a Monet in person. After having the list for over a year (and doing nothing on it), I realized that there was Monet exhibit in the museum in the town I was living in. I wanted to slap myself in the head. So, of course, I went to the museum as soon as possible. I forced myself to look at all of the other galleries before heading to the Monet section. Then, when I walked in, I found myself alone, surrounded by beautiful pieces of art by my favorite artist. I sat on the bench in front of the paintings, and found myself struggling for breath as I was so overwhelmed. I may have even shed a tear, if I'm honest. It was such an amazing experience!

Every single time I went to a museum as a kid with parents, I'd get hopelessly lost in less than twenty minutes, art museums especially. When I see something beautiful, I have this habit of just fixating it and walking toward it no matter the obstacle. And yeah, I can tell you first hand they frown upon you trying to stay there over night :D

I feel like a lot of people forget the ask questions part. To me that's the best part of museums plaques on the wall don't usually tell you much except general information and museum employees always have interesting things to say about all of the things even if you aren't particularly interested in things like plants if you go to a carnivores plant exhibit at a museum you will find a botanist who can tell you a lot of interesting things about a pitcher plant.

Take the tours (particularly at smaller museums). I visited a Russian art museum once that I was not overly impressed with at first, but the tour really helped give the museum context and meaning.

When I visit museums, I search for art that I can imitate, literally or conceptually. This has led to color-matching my outfit to pieces, some surreptitious gymnastics, and some great facial expressions. This is not mocking (usually). I am encouraging myself to think of the art as a material thing with shape and form, with a true existence in time and place, and as an object to be interacted with, as opposed to a static image placed for my viewing some time ago. I encourage my fellow visitors to pick pieces to interact with also, which leads to discussions of what spoke to them or grabbed their attention.

I usually avoid going on free days as its always crowded. I make inquiries about the least popular times to visit and try to go then. I find too many patrons distracting. It was nice you were able to film this when no one was around. Really well done video !

My advice is a bit specific, but still good: if you happen to know someone who works in the industry, take them with you and see what kinds of cool stuff you can find! A friend of mine is the collections manager of a museum in Illinois, and when I took my family to see the museum she took us behind the scenes and showed us some items in the collection that weren't out on display. Then, later when I took this same friend to see the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, we met up with another friend's wife who is a conservator at the Carnegie. Between the collections manager's credentials and the conservator's friendship, we were able to go behind the scenes there too, and see where they were refurbishing a wooly mammoth skeleton and talk to the preparers about it. I've always loved that particular piece, ever since I was little, and getting to be literally six inches from it was pretty surreal.

I'm glad you had a chance to visit Kansas City! I love visiting the museums, but I never feel like I have enough time. And the pictures never do the art justice!

The comment about not being annoying in the video room applies to art on the walls too. It's great to see art up close to see brushstrokes, but be aware of others that are standing back and trying to take the entire piece in at once (especially for large works).

A few days a month I work as a guard at the Kunstmuseum Bonn (Art Museum Bonn, Germany). I quickly notice which visitors are truly interested and come "prepared" for their visit and which have completely different expectations. Our museum prioritizes contemporary art, which many find more difficult to appreciate than the more traditional work of earlier times. Attending a guided tour is always a wonderful source of information and allows for a greater understanding of the artwork and artist.

Gasp! That butterfly piece is incredible and I only saw it for 5 seconds! Also, I would suggest straying away from the beaten path, don't just look at the famous pieces everyone is there for. Go find the pieces in quiet corners and spend time with them too.

My biggest tip is that if you see someone doing a talk or just lingering by an exhibit, be it at a zoo or museum, talk to them. I have had wonderful conversations with people who weren't officially part of the tour, but had personal experiences with what I was looking at and were thrilled to talk with me about it. Once I was at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, looking at a toucan with a plastic beak. An older gentleman was there, watching her eat with keen interest, and I mentioned how she seemed to be doing well in spite of her injury. It turned out he had designed the beak and wanted to be sure she was doing well. So, we started chatting about his work helping many wild animals that had been injured so they can survive. It was fascinating! This was not the only time this has happened to me. I cannot say it enough, engage with other people in these places because you never know who they are. Your experience, and theirs, will be all the better for it.

I work in a museum and I love it, when people as me tough questions and want to initiate a discussion. I don't like it when people touch things as a silent alarm goes off and we have to reset the systems, but I DO love it when people get involved with the interactive things [Even if they're aimed at children- I guarantee that most employees have played around with them too]

I love, love, love this channel! I love your approach to art and art education. You have such a talent for presenting information clearly, without being pretentious, and with a nice touch of humor. That being said, my biggest piece of museum advice is to not be afraid of checking out shows/galleries that you think might not interest you. You never know what cool pieces you might enocunter!

This reminded me how much I LOVE kinetic sculptures. But also, honestly, it made me a lot more likely to go to art museums. It's a reminder that they don't have to be overwhelming or intimidating, and I hope I can bring this attitude with me when I do. (I got the nod to From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but did miss the all-important rule, Don't Eat The Pictures.)

I'm not a big fan of audio guides, but the few times I've had actual guided tours of art museums have been by far my best experiences. Context helps me appreciate art. I tend to look at a painting for two seconds and think "Huh, that's kind of pretty," and move on, without having noticed details like the author's self-portrait in the mirror in the background or things like that.

I've actually always struggled to enjoy art museums because while I like art, I tend to gravitate more towards participatory art or art that's in unexpected places. Art hanging on museum walls always seems a bit passive to me, and I know I should be getting something out of it, but I still have difficulty finding whatever switch I need to flick in my head to make myself interested. I can find certain pieces aesthetically pleasing, but I rarely connect with art in museums in any way beyond that, and I wish I knew how to because I know I'm missing out. So I'm really interested in what other people see when they look at paintings, in the hope that I can learn to see them the way they do.

I love to go to museums and use the children's guides. They're often a lot more playful and give you a great sense of the personality of the art which can get lost in some of the more traditional literature.

One of my favorite things to do in a museum is get lost. Just first thing to do is hide your map from yourself and walk till you don't know where you are. It helps me loose track of the outside world because I forget where I am and can simply focus on the art and what's around me. Secondly, I like to write down all the words a piece makes me think of. Sometimes I write a story, sometimes maybe a poem or just a sentence that came to me when I saw the piece. Lots of times I'll go home and think more wholly about what I saw. Thirdly, I like to take moments to visualize the piece in context. We have a petroleum museum in my home town so when I went there and saw a rig set up I thought about what it must have been like to work there with oil on your skin, sweat in your eyes, and dirt covering your clothes. Sometimes when I see art I like to think about where the vantage point is and what would that look like. Whenever I see Van Gough's Starry Night I feel like I would see that when I was flying somehow. Or in Georges Seurat pictures I wonder if someone is taking a picture of the scene or simply sitting there enjoying the park. If I see an abstract sculpture I like to think about how other things from that universe would look around it. The tip about remembering to leave is very helpful because I also loose so much time just exploring around!

My favourite past time would be finding signs of life in a painting; signs of brushstrokes (or lack thereof!), repeating shades of colour, how the artist took upon drawing certain material or how well they accomplished repetitive patterns such as grass of woven string. I understand why people spend so long on just one painting now, and I find it therapeutic (though sometimes a little embarrassing) finally stepping away from a painting only to realise a considerate amount of time passed and I have so much more to see in a museum

As someone who works on the floor of a museum everyday, I can definitely vouch for the truth in this video: ASK QUESTIONS. Having stimulating conversations is my favorite part of the day. Recommending exhibitions or even just having a chat makes my job worth it! I want to talk to you about art! It's why I chose to work in a Museum. I can also say if you are headed into a particularly crowded museum, read the signage, its usually helpful.

I feel like a snob when I say this, but I really like looking at the brush strokes when I see paintings in a museum. Sometimes after looking over the front of the picture, I go and look at it from the side. The ridges and texture from this angle give the picture even more feeling! I enjoy thinking about how a person used the motions in his arm and hand to create sweeping strokes, and the movement of their wrist and fingers when doing smaller details. Paintings are the end result of a dance between artist and medium, having every frame of this muted ballet overlapping from beginning to end.

I always bring a paper and a pencil (no pens in museums!). If there is a no picture policy, then I can write down what pieces interested me. I also like to write down why I was drawn to that particular piece as I am standing in front of it so I can remember once I get home.

I think this is my favorite video so far! I love these tips.

I've been to both the Louvre & the British Museum, but I'd have to say the best art museum I've been to was the Kumu Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. The contemporary art pieces were some of the best, in my opinion, bc I got to walk on a metal balcony indoors & stick my arm in a hole in the floor. I was also able to get very close to paintings and really observe the details and the passion behind it. The Soviet occupation era ones were especially moving.

I especially like the "museums are for everyone" bit. Museums are intimidating, and the only way to get over it is just going. I would add: take a friend the first or second time. good video

Yes - taking a picture of the information - I just started doing that a few years ago after I realized I can't hold it all in my head. Best advice!

Favorite Art Assignment video! Thank you! I'm never sure entirely what I'm supposed to be doing when I'm at an art museum, but now I feel like I should give it another try. :)

These are things that are very helpful. Thank you so much. These videos are brilliant and very inspiring and these kind of videos give me a breath of fresh air when it comes to how society hasn't lost substance. They're still diamonds out there.

I recently visited the Museum of Man in San Diego, and viewed their exhibition on Instruments of Torture. Though very gruesome, having watched this video of The Art Assignment really helped.

Thank you so much for posting this well needed video. I enjoy going to museums and visit one wherever I go if possible. Just yesterday I went with family and friends to SF MOMA and had a great time. I like your approach of walking without taking out your phone for pix right away and only taking pix of the ones you enjoyed. I plan to share this video with friends and family. Thanks again for all of the great informative videos you create. They are the highlight of my days:)

I live in Kansas City and I've been to this museum! Now I have to go back and look at the new exhibits!

Here in Connecticut, we have access to a large amount of art, history, and schools all within a relatively accessible distance. On two separate occasions, I've had the chance to travel to these museums via public transit, and I think I will continue to do so in the future. My goal was always the museum, I allowed my mind to focus on things that weren't driving, and I was forced to make the trip the center of my day.

An important thing that I really didn't know from the start is that when you're going to a museum along with other people you should try to not be afraid of splitting up. All people are different and not everyone's interested in the same sort of art. When I was younger I would politely stay quiet about the things I wanted to see and by the time we had to leave I had hardly gotten anything out of the experience.

For some reason, by the thumbnail I thought this was a TED talk and I got really excited because I really enjoy hearing from Sarah. She comes across as so intelligent and engaging! Anyways, fantastic video! I will definitely take a trip to my local art museum and apply these tips :)

I love this series. I was a little confused about the emphasis on not paying to get in though. Isn't it always a good idea to support the arts when and if we can? I think it's great to inform the masses that it is possible to see great art even if you don't have an art budget :) but I just thought mentioning it more than once was odd.

My number one tip would be to take as much time as you want. Don't let others rush you away from a piece or an exhibit, even if you are there together. Taking your time to look at everything makes the experience and the trip so worth it. On a separate note I once did stay overnight in a museum and it was awesome. Albeit it was the old college football hall of fame but still it was really cool.

Oh my gosh! It would be awesome staying over night in a art museum :)

I was chaperoning a field trip to MoMa a few years ago, and instead of talking the art in, I was focused on keeping the middle schoolers in my line of sight. But then I spotted Starry Night (which I had no idea was there) and started fangirling like a nut. The kids came to check on me instead of the other way around, lol. I was so happy photography was allowed!

I realised that I actually like to go to museums when I moved to England for a year. In contrast to Germany where you ahve to pay almost museums to get in, there are so many museums where you can go in for free. I realised that I am happy to put money in the donations boxes, because I value what they are doing and want want them to be able to continue showing art, but I feel so much better when I can do it on my own terms. It makes it so much easier, because otherwise I pressure myself a lot thinking: You paid for it, you have to enjoy it and make the most of it and have deep thoughts and that actually makes it a lot less enjoyable to me. On the other hand when I can go in for free and be able to let my thougts wander, I'm a lot more open about it and have so much more fun and take a lot more out of the experince.

Wow, I would rarely picture this when thinking of a contemporary art museum of a peripherical cultural city of america. Nice tour, thanks.

I LOVE museums!!! Especially art museums. I am very lucky to have been to some amazing museums, including The Philadelphia Museum of Art (only 45 mins from me!), The Met, and The Louvre. My visit to The Louvre sticks out to me the most because I knew it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Both The Met and The Louvre introduced me to new favorite artists and art forms.

Talking to the guards is a must for me and always results in interesting discussions. They probably have some extra knowledge about the pieces, or at the very least they'll have spent days with this art, so their thoughts will be very interesting. Also, you can point out to them how problematic Picasso is if they exhibit one.

Don't forget to go back to the museum! and if you see something you really like, go home and google the artist to better understand their body of work... and then go back to the museum!

As a Art professor who leads students through lots of museums you have touched on some important parts. I would add that there is value in visiting a museum with another person who is interested. A conversation in front of a work of art can lead you down some great roads. Another tip? I like to draw the works of art in my sketchbook...it slows you down and allows you to really see the works.

Yeah! The Kemper!!!

My favorite museum is the Cleveland Natural History Museum. I even had a year membership. My sister and I loved it. Our dad took us there a lot during the summer.

Take all the tours. Docents are amazing

i have been to this museum in my travels, my cousins friend works here and its one of my personal favorites!

I love the emphasis on "getting in for free."

I love reading the plaques and fun facts, also if I'm at a museum or gallery that has a kids section I like starting there to get a super basic intro to the material before moving on to the rest of the exhibit. Also, the information desk at the front often has brochures, pamphlets, or maps that have interesting stuff that helps me "get the most" out of the experience (although its really only getting the most in my opinion, based on what I like to come away with. Not trying to say anybody else's priorities are less valid)

If there's one thing I'm truly grateful for, it's that almost all of the museums in Washington D.C. (at least the ones run by the Smithsonian) are free to the public. I'm not sure I've ever even been to the Phillips Gallery- even the time they had a big exhibit by Degas, one of my all-time favorite artists- because I had to pay to get in. The National Gallery of Art, on the other hand, is one of my favorite places in the District, and my family are also big patrons of the Hirshhorn, which is a modern art gallery not that far from the Mall. I've seen life-changing art at both of those museums, and hope to one day be able to donate to them as a means of support. :)

I'm really glad you shared the "also taking a picture of the label" trick. I got so tired of flipping through phone pictures thinking, "okay now how do I google this to remember what the name of the piece was?" Very handy and helpful hint! :)

I actually have slept in a museum before but it was for a field trip :) It was really cool though.

Thanks Sarah!

i think some of the most valuable museum experiences I've had have been because I knew about the context around the paintings there. For example, I knew a lot about changes in literature and politics that happened between WWI and WWII, and then going to see the modern art at the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid helped augment that understanding. By thinking about how people were struggling with ideas about violence, the relationship of people and the government, and the loss of G-d in the face of human suffering following WWI and the Spanish Civil War, I was better able to appreciate how Miro, Picasso and their contemporaries were engaging the ideas, so I understood the pieces better. I think that understanding what ideas an artist is grappling with, especially in modern art, is really helpful towards understanding and appreciating a particular painting, even if the aesthetic is maybe not your thing.

Yay Kansas City!!!!!

My kid and I have this game where you only get to leave the museum when you have decided on a favourite piece and one that you think the other would like best. I found it to be a great way to get a conversation going between us about why you like a certain piece, how you engage with it. If you absolutely cannot find anything, you switch to "least favourite".

when i go to museums with my family and friends, especially if there is lots of classic art, it can sometimes be boring. To help we each have a different category of 'thing' to look for. Examples are naked people, jesus, babies, dead people etc. The person who finds the most by the end is the winner. This also means that we look really closely at the pictures and no one is bored.

LOVE THIS VIDEO!!

I've only ever been to the museum and art gallery in my town. I always want to go see them in others places when me and my family travel but none of them find it interesting, and i can never go. But one day I will go to all the museums I please and stay for as long as I want.

Watching this in preparation for going to an art museum for the first time in 4 years tomorrow and even that was a school trip

I personally don't have a lot of museums near me but I absolutley love the St. Louis city museum

I like to take 1 person with me (a friend or family member) so we can talk about pieces that stand out to us. I find talking about a piece helps me uncover my own thoughts about it. Bigger groups tend to split up and can be like herding cats, but 2 people can usually have fun discussions and set a comfortable pace.

I always feel that I don't have enough time in museums. I only got one day in the British Museum and the Louvre. I took my mom through the Louvre, which she had been to before, but I had just recently graduated with a degree in Art and knew where the cool stuff was. She had fun.

I think my favorite museum trip was last summer when I went through the MoMA with an Art History professor and a classmate. I can't remember the artist or painting title, but there was a room with four pieces and it was only three of us sitting and discussing the paintings. It was cool.

This video was so serendipitously timed. I have had the inkling to visit the St. Louis Art Museum (just downtown of me), but was not sure how to approach it. Thank you for your tips and pointers.

When I lived in Paris, I used to go to the Louvre the first saturday of the month, it's busy but it's free!

Oh shit, I forgot to leave! Thanks for the tip!

I am really, really fortunate to be in the Washington DC area--many of our art galleries and museums are free. If you are paying a lot of money for admissions, you often feel that you must see everything or you are getting short-changed. But when you can just walk in and go to a single exhibition, or even a single room, your relationship to the art changes exponentially. I find that I can get too emotionally and mentally overloaded in a gallery. So with free access to museums, I can be satisfied seeing less, but in a more meaningful way. I frequently make lunch dates with friends and say "meet me at such and such museum and show me what you like, and I will show you what I like." Sharing art gives you surprising insights into people and leads to discovering value in works you might have passed by if you were alone.

IMO, I think the most important etiquette rule to remember (more applicable to temporary exhibitions/super busy days) is to not stand too close to the paintings! If you stand back a bit, more people can view the painting clearly. Obviously, go ahead and look at them up close, but don't stay there for too long blocking the whole image! (also very excited to spot a shirin neshat artwork in this video, I'm just starting a dissertation on her work!!)

I love going to art museums, and very rarely have I gone with someone else who enjoyed it as much as I did. In fact, I've never been with someone my own age who really liked it as much as I did. I guess maybe I like to spend a long time looking at the artwork, walking up to see individual brushstroke and back to see the whole picture, reading the labels, specifically looking for famous paintings so I can see them in real life, thinking about what the subject's life may have been like (if the subject's a person), wondering where the landscape may be in the real world or if it's imaginary, looking at all sides of a sculpture while mostly avoiding nude sculptures (I like them for a minute, but then I get uncomfortable), trying to understand some of the modern art, and taking in as much as possible from the art that has more subject matter.