Richard Tuttle Retrospective at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

An enigma wrapped in a mystery

Visitors to the Fabric Workshop and Museum are always accompanied by a docent, which quickly makes sense, given the hopscotch layout and inscrutable installation. It helps to have a guide when you think you’re entering a nice little fabric museum and find yourself on the cutting edge of. . .something entirely different.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Jun 07, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Speaking Out for Equality at the National Constitution Center

The quiet beginning of the gay rights movement

While the exhibit, covering a half century of gay rights progress, is impressive in its breadth, it’s lacking in depth, as if the archivists geared things primarily for an audience suffering from attention deficit disorder.

Gary L. Day

Jun 04, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

FDR Presidential Library and Museum

At home with FDR

The qualities that FDR cultivated — fortitude, equanimity, compassion, and transcendence — to live a prodigiously fruitful life in spite of extreme debilitation were the qualities that enabled him to lead the nation out of the morass of the Great Depression and through the horrors of World War II.

Joanna Rotté

May 23, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Frederic Church's Olana

The art of landscape

I visited Olana on the first day of spring with chilly air, bare trees, snow on the ground, and ice in the Hudson. The house or villa or monument is a marvel, a fantasy, an unlikely but pleasing blend of styles — Persian, Moorish, Italian, and then some.

Joanna Rotté

Mar 31, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent

The museum of Philadelphia past

Visiting the Philadelphia History Museum is like climbing into the family attic: We don’t just see the past; it’s our past and probably our parents’ and grandparents’ as well.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Jan 18, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Art at the Cleveland Clinic

Illness and a prescription for art

An extended visit at the Cleveland Clinic provides the opportunity to explore art in a hospital setting and what it means.

Treacy Ziegler

Dec 30, 2014 · Articles · 6 minute read

Unearthed in the Archives at the Penn Museum

A weekly surprise

Crowded with surprises, the Penn Museum Archives are for the armchair archaeologist what the tomb of Tutankhamun was for Howard Carter, just cooler, closer to home, and without a curse.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Oct 11, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West

'The Best Museum in the World'

Though with more academic rigor, the mission of the Buffalo Bill Center for the West is not so different from the task William F. Cody set for himself: to make the American West appreciated around the world.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Sep 14, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Athenaeums of the Northeast

A library pilgrimage

Eighteen Athenaeums, stretching from Portland, Maine to La Jolla, California, continue to thrive in architecturally significant buildings holding special collections. A year ago, I determined to visit all 18.

Joanna Rotté

Aug 26, 2014 · Articles · 7 minute read

Your Brain at the Franklin Institute

This is my brain on a field trip

Your Brain engages all ages with information to discover, interact with, and think about. It pointedly demonstrates how powerful a possession we have on our shoulders, and made me want to take better care of my brain, sharpening it with tricky tasks, more sleep, and less stress.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Aug 16, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read