…Experienced the wonders of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The date of this should really be August 7, 2010…but since its a little less than a month late, I better tell you all about it!!

My suitemate, Reshica, and I have been saying that we wanted to go to the art museum, but we had yet to get around to it. So that Saturday, we decided to just go for it! So we got ourselves ready and ventured out into the beautiful day (although we totally under predicted the heat of the beautiful day and wore jeans…when we probably would have best with something with less coverage!). So we took the MFL (Market-Frankford Line) to 30th street station and walked the Schuylkill River Trail all the way towards the art museum. This was a wonderful walk along the Schuylkill River and is available for walkers, runners, bikers, and all those just experiencing the glories of the day by the river. This walk was a decent walk, but with the sites all around us, we did not notice how far we had really walked!

Once we actually arrived to the Art Museum, we found the bathroom and wiped off our faces from the heat of the day (shew…) and then went to purchase our tickets. Reshica is a pharmaceutical intern and had been told that with her ID badge, she received free admission to the Art Museum. So together we walked up to the counter, she presented her ID badge and the lady kindly told us, “With your ID, you and a guest receive FREE admission.” I was blown away! I was not too excited to pay the $16 admission, but figured the Art Museum would be worth it – but now that I did not have to pay at all…well this was EVEN BETTER! With your admission to the museum, you receive a quaint little tag to place on your clothing, so that all security members know that you are a “paying” customer. Such a cute little idea.

So we put our tags on, and ventured out into the LARGE museum to see what we can learn! We walked up the large marble staircase (and when we descended the staircase, I mentioned how it made me feel like the movie, Titanic, when Jack is awaiting Rose at the landing of the staircase in the boat – corny ??) to find large exhibit hall entrances. We essentially started with Asian/European 1500 and worked our way to more contemporary art.

I had no idea what to expect once we walked in, but I never would have realized what I would learn that day! Together, Reshica and I made an interesting pair, because I was raised Roman Catholic in America and she was raised Hindu in Napal. So each of us were able to educate the other on significant pieces that represented our cultures. I provided information regarding Christ and Christianity, while she was aware of some of the history since she has been in America for 4 years now. But I spoke about the life of Jesus, importance of Saints, Stations of the Cross, the Crucifixion of Jesus and the importance of images regarding Mary. The exhibit halls were spectacular and seemed endless.

You would walk in, and feel as if you were actually in a French Cathedral, or feel as if you were stepping foot within a French flat with decorations from the chandeliers, to the window treatments, to the paintings to the furniture. You feel as if you are actually in the buildings, almost as if they took a crane and lofted the architecture and placed it into the museum!! Just look!

When we walked more into the Asian/European art, we startled stumbling across more Asian influence and Reshica was able to educate me on all the different gods and stories of the becoming of the gods. This was such a learning experience, that I know I would not have received had I gone with anyone else.

Just look at this fountain and architecture. The museum made it as if you are actually there with all the ambience. It was fantastic the way it was set up. And this doorway was enormous!! I could not even get the whole doorway in the shot!! All the stone and marble seemed seamlessly placed, as if it was built there.

Myself and Reshica in front of the LARGE marble staircase!!

A view to the outside, all the way to Center City. There were about 3 bridal parties taking their pictures out by the fountain.

We made our way through the museum, and ventured downstairs for the Contemporary Art exhibit…until…..a museum worker notified us that the museum was closing in 5 minutes and chances were that we were not going to see the rest of the exhibit. Mind you, we had only seen one room and the other two exhibits took us about an hour to get through each – So chances were that we were not going to see much contemporary art!

We left the museum and chose to walk through the rest of the city. While we were walking around the side, we saw a large line of people waiting…and then I realized….ROCKY!! We had to stop by the Rocky statue and get our picture!!

So the statue is sitting out front the museum, but it had its own line of people taking pictures with it, a man who deemed himself in charge of coordinating the line and even a man selling pretzels/water and ROCKY t-shirts!! It was its own tourist attraction!! So here we are!! GO ROCKY!

Overall, we had such a great day!! Who would have thought a simple Saturday, out at the Museum would become so educational!

So hope you enjoyed your tour of the museum….FREE OF CHARGE!