Time Traveling at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ever since reading "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" to Ashley I have wanted to take her to explore The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are fortunate to live close enough to the Princeton University Art Museum, and have explored their treasures many times. Still, there is nothing quite like the original. As an added bonus, kids under 12 are free! Yes, it is a pay what you want museum, but I feel less guilty about it when one of us is clearly free.


We started in the ancient worlds of Egypt, Greece and Rome because this year Ashley is studying these cultures. Even limiting ourselves to a an eighth of the museum we still had a lot to see and too much to absorb. 


While wandering through the ancient world we stumbled upon a room filled with Japanese screens. It reminded me of the Kano school artwork we saw in the Nijo Castle in Kyoto last summer, and of our visit with Masumi and Hiroko. I had the odd sensation of feeling most calm and relaxed in this part of the museum. It could be because this area had less visitors, or because the artwork was bigger, therefore there was less of it, or because I had less of a learning curve with it since was saw similar artwork last summer in Japan. After battling crowds in "Ancient Egypt," it was a nice sensation.

After 90 minutes, Don and Ashley were done. Ashley in particular looked like the girl in the red sweater in this painting. 

I tried to find the French Impressionist art, and a bench for Don and Ashley, but got trapped in Modern Art instead. *sigh* Instead we headed through Medieval Art to the exit.

While there we learned the Costume Institute will be opening in May. Sounds like a good excuse to go back.

They are now open 7 days a week (even Mondays), which should make a return visit easier. We wanted to visit last year when we went to see Newsies, but they were closed on Mondays.

Ahh... the Metropolitan Museum of Art where you can travel 5000 years in 5 minutes.