Why I Love Art Museums

Stegosaurus by Alexander Calder

It's been a tradition of ours for as long as I can remember, to begin each new school year with a field trip.

The Toledo Art Museum was our first stop this year.

We studied Alexander Calder last year while reading The Calder Game, so it was nice to see this sculpture outside the front entrance.  A Calder mobile also hangs inside. I like Calder.

I don't remember studying great art in K-12. Why was that anyway?  Was there not enough time to look at art?  I really find that hard to believe, and unfortunate.  Yes, we went to the art museum once, but only once in those 13 years.  Why?

I may never know the answer to that, but I do know that I love art museums.  They are really amazing places.  So quiet, calm, and inspiring.

I especially loved this Claude Monet.  It was absolutely beautiful.  

Antibes Seen from La Salis by Claude Monet

I was also thinking when we arrived back home; you could get a complete and fulfilling education from an art museum.  Describe a favorite painting.  Study the Mediterranean and geography.  Study trees or the science of color.  Figure the area of various paintings.  The possibilities are endless I think.

And if I lived closer to an art museum, I'm positive we would be visiting several times a year.

Middle Ages Gallery

Enjoy your next trip to an art museum.  They hold more than just a bunch of paintings and artifacts.  

They hold inspiration, creativity, and wonder.