Two Museums

With family in town this past weekend, I had the chance to play tourist.

Our first stop was the September 11th Museum, which rests atop the proverbial hallowed ground that once served as the foundation of the World Trade Center’s infamous twin towers. Having visited a number of times before, I took this opportunity to focus more on the building’s overall design rather than on the spectacular collection of artifacts it protects. When observed as a whole, the walls, ceilings and floors of this delicately crafted structure blend together to create an impressively unique safe haven for thousands of devastating but important memories. It’s quite an impressive contrast – a place which houses such sadness and horror is actually quite beautiful.

As we made our way through a maze of exhibits, I collected these perspectives which, if you’ve never been, give you an idea of the kind of wonder that consumed me.

As you might imagine, the 9/11 museum can be quite draining; heavy is an understatement.

To counter the looming depression, we chose The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). MoMA is one of earth’s most popular and important art museums. Sheltered within its walls is a sampling of the world’s most treasured contemporary and modern masterpieces, created by a handful of the most talented individuals in modern history. Work from Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, van Gogh and other creative royalty can all be found here. MoMA also showcases more modern yet similarly significant artists including Warhol, Pollock, Lichtenstein and others. But the walls of MoMA aren’t only reserved for those names ingrained in common knowledge. Still today, young artists realize success as their talent is rewarded with dedicated galleries throughout the museum.

Walking the halls of this massive Midtown institution, I caught myself paying as much attention to the minimalistic yet overwhelmingly beautiful design of the building  as I was to the work within it.