Do you visit museums and art galleries? Do you have a favourite?

[leyton condor]

When my daughter was younger the Natural History museum and the Science Museum were firm favourites and a free day out in London. Another favourite is the Ceredigion museum in Aberystwyth which is housed in the old Coliseum Cinema.

 

[HertzvanRental]

In London, the Wallace Collection. Never tire of it. Te Papa, in Wellington, is pretty special.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Only been there once but...wow. My wife wanted to know why I was standing there all slacked jawed and gawping.
"It's The Rocket"
"The what?"
"THE ROCKET"
"??"
"The.....oh I give up"
Surprised me that it struck me at that moment how significant it is, having seen replicas before

Yes, like the one in the NRM

Then, of course, there was that very special event at the NRM...........

Duxford air museum is very special too. There was a spitfire doing practice flybys the day we were there. Somewhere I really want to go back to as we skipped one of the exhibit hangers completely to not rush around the others.

Try the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Museum, you can get really close, to the Lancaster, even as it's fired up & taxied
And, if you're feeling flush, but want a very rare treat!
http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/lancaster-taxy-rides/

If you think a single Merlin sounds wonderful, try 4 close-by!!!!!!!!!!!

On one of my visits, a 2-seater Spitfire was performing

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I remember going to the Natural History Museum as a kid and being awed by the building, the spaces and fascinated by the exhibits, which both scared me and sparked my imagination. I went back recently and found that they'd modernised the exhibits and a lot of it was crappy colourful plastic stuff that talks down to kids and doesn't allow them to imagine. I really do not like a lot of modern museum curation, which seems to be based on the premise that museums should be familiar and easy for kids. On the other hand, I'm glad that you can actually get in there and get around in a wheelchair these days.

As a few others have mentioned, I prefer the odd and the idiosyncratic - like the Horniman Collection, or Sir John Soane's Museum in London, or the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford - although the latter makes me rather uncomfortable, knowing how much was basically seized from colonized countries.

In terms of galleries, things I love vary from whole places to particular collections and painting: I love the Rothko collection at the Tate Modern, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam - there's something about Van Gogh's colours that you cannot understand unless you see them for real - the Duc de Berry's Book of Hours at the Cluny museum in Paris, the Juan Miro Foundation in Barcelona, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Picasso's Guernica at the Prado in Madrid; Uccello's The Hunt in the Forest at the Ashmolean in Oxford. I really want to go to the KHM in Vienna to see Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, which may be my favourite painting ever...

 

[vernon]

Yes, like the one in the NRM

Not quite. The original version was heavily modified during its working life.

 

[vernon]

Fenton tells me that his favourite museum is in Prague

View attachment 119251

That's the very place where I met absinthe for the very first time.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Natural History/Geology/Science museum, London. Do all three although you can't walk through from the NH to the Geology via the old 'Earth Galleries'. Get there early to avoid the crowds.
Greenwich Observatory - Don't get over to this side of the smoke much, but worth it. Yeah, you pay for the bit where you see the Meridian line but most of the astronomy bit is free. I'm going to see Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015-2016 next month. Then, a nice speedy ride back to Waterloo on the river bus.

 

[Piemaster]

Not quite. The original version was heavily modified during its working life.

Thats what left me gawping. The beginning of mass land transport. ('Land' or someone else will point at ships). I did read blokes standing there like that isn't uncommon either.
Another thing, the guy just to the right of the engine in the photo is standing in front of the boat 'Miss England'. Very British, Heath-Robinson looking thing, looked like it was made of scrap balsa, sodding huge Napier aero engine in the back and..oh, we need somewhere to sit....bring those patio chairs over here. Brilliant.

 

[growingvegetables]

Whitby Museum. Wonderful collections. In proper glass cases.

NO INTERACTIVITY. YEAH!

http://www.whitbymuseum.org.uk/

 

[NorthernDave]

The NRM is always worth a looks, as is the Royal Armouries.
The Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington is excellent in that it is clearly run by people who love their subject, which more than makes up for any rough round the edges bits and the old planes have to be seen to be believed.
Eden Camp is equally good and along similar lines but focused on World War 2.
And finally, a bit further north at Bamburgh Castle is an excellent local museum about the industrial heritage of the North East and World War 2, along with an excellent tea room.

 

[User10119]

Been to the NMeM in Bradford today, funnily enough. Both my kids learned to walk on the carpeted bit by the royal trains in the NRM and my standard toddler-exhausting technique for the Eldest when he was small was a trip round the Castle Museum with it's never-ending stairs.

With them I never get to go to anywhere other than The Museum (that's the Science museum, for the unitiated) in London. Without them I have a very soft spot for the V&A, once described by a friend's small person as "the beautiful museum of beautiful things" and rather liked the John Soames when some kind people introduced me to it. All holidays require the discovery of a museum of some sort. The Eldest once came within a whisker of a complete Aspie meltdown at having to leave the National Museum of Scotland due to the entirely unreasonable matter of it being closing time and was brought back from the edge by the information that if he could get a lid on it and find some self control and act responsibly and with good manners I would take him back...

I'm not so fussed about galleries though. I'm not clever enow' for Art.

 

[Hitchington]

http://www.hunterianmuseum.org

The Hunterian Museum.

 

[stephec]

Today at work someone told me that they were going to visit a penis museum in Reykjavik.

 

[Hitchington]

The Sackler Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park

 

[User169]

V&A - a glorious jumble sale
Hunterian Museum - gruesome!

Further afield, Kroller Muller in Holland. Inside for the Van Gogh collection - you can get up close and see how quickly he painted. Outside you can clamber over the various artworks/installations.