As things slowly inch ever closer to being “normal” again, I find myself overwhelmed with the number of things I’m allowing myself to miss. While a lot of these were on my mind over the months and months of pandemic lockdown, I know that I also pushed the desire to participate in them in some way down and back. Of those many things, the ability to visit museums has to be near the top. Not only are they personally important to my own mental health, they can also be shared with friends and family. Or even complete strangers, if the mood is right. One of the last things my wife and I did before everything went dark was visit the Baltimore Museum of Art and I have ended up treasuring that outing far more than expected as a result.
In September of last year, I discovered that Smithsonian Associates was doing virtual tours and talks via Zoom. By that point it had been so long since we’d left the house that anything that wasn’t watching TV shows or movies sounded positively amazing, so we signed up. It wasn’t free, like so many museums are in this part of the world and I have had a hard time getting used to, but putting the limited resources we had towards something like this felt right. We’ve managed to see and learn about a lot of things we never would have found on our own. Democracy in Ancient Greece, a tour of Fallingwater, an interview with Dr. Fauci conducted by Alan Alda, civility’s role in social justice, a deep dive into the lesser-known works of 70s cinema, a tour of the jewelry collection the Smithsonian has, a lecture from the author of the book Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s, a trip to the Corning Museum of Glass. Just a sampling of the ways we managed to enrich our lives through the service provided at a relatively modest price. And we got to do it in our home pants!
While I have always loved museums, they’ve taken on a special significance since I stopped drinking. One of the most memorable social outings I took as I reintegrated myself into society was to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I extensively documented that trip with pictures, particularly the Gem and Mineral Hall, and it created a sort of standard for me that I have followed ever since. From my beloved Getty Center, to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, to the many that were visited on our honeymoon in Italy and Greece (Museo Galileo in Florence being the jewel in that heavily ornate crown), to the wonderfully jam-packed Walters Art Museum I’ve documented them all and treasure each memory as much as the priceless displays I’ve been fortunate enough to see.
I’m ever grateful for what museums provide while still being mindful of the problems they can create. The pursuit of knowledge is not free from the usual depredations that hound and hamper virtually everything humans toil at, though I do appreciate that it often endeavors to examine those failings. Through the remembrances of the past we can illuminate the undertakings of the present and maybe even inform the designs of the future. I’ll always support that ideal, no matter how muddled it may become.