New York Museums

Thursday evening I attended the opening for a very important exhibition. “Where Is My Vote?” focused on the green movement in Iran. The exhibition is at the SVA Galleries located at 601 West 26th street, 15th floor, in NYC. The more than 100 posters, gathers together so many of the best graphic and illustrative artists of our time.

The opening was at 6pm, exactly the same time as a terrible thunder, lightning, hail, 80-100 mile winds and unreal downpour. There were even reports of tornados in Queens and Brooklyn. But it was a very fast moving storm and was over within 30-45 minutes.

So, by the time 8pm rolled around and the closing of the show, why didn’t more people come? I was there with some friends and we were very surprised at the light turnout. Even the artists who live in NYC and were in the show weren’t there.

Great art by great artists for a great cause… Well, here are a few photos I shot and I hope you’ll go see the show. Definitely a must-see.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, since I’m not the type to race with others to the stores, my family and I headed to the American Museum of Natural History. It’s a great place to spend an afternoon. It was quite crowded as we walked in, which is how we expected it to be, but as the exhibits vary, so did the crowds and we moved from one floor to another.

I had been to the Museum recently, with my partner on the blog, Frogs Are Green, because they have an exhibit, Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, which would only be there until January, 2010, and I wanted my family to see it. This time, I brought my camera, and you’ll see in the gallery I’ve posted, I got some great shots!

While at the museum we each picked out from the multi-level floor plan, areas we wanted to see, and mapped our way around. Some of the halls visited were, Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, which is one of my favorite halls. There is a huge, dramatic whale suspended from the ceiling, and different dioramas depicting sea life in action, like a wonderful one where we see dolphins in a curve, some below and some above the water line. We also visited, North American Mammals, Hall of Biodiversity, Ross Hall of Meterorites (where you’re able to touch the largest section of a meteorite, which broke apart as it hit the Earth), Guggenheim Hall of Minerals (where you can see some really huge, I mean huge gems), Stout Hall of Asian Peoples and of course one of the biggest attractions, up on the 4th floor, the Ornithischian and Saurischian Dinosaurs. I’m not sure why, but whenever I enter this room, I always get chills. I’m not sure if it’s a reaction to how fascinating they are, or if the temperature is colder up there.

We walked around and around, and after about 4 hours, we were beat. We had only seen a small portion of what this museum has, and because the exhibits change frequently, there’s always a reason to go back. Next time, The Silk Road which is at the Museum through August 2010!