At 560,000 square feet (52,000 m2) and a collection of around 500,000 objects, the Brooklyn Museum is New York City’s second-largest art museum. The institution focused on a wider public from its beginning, making inclusivity part of its heritage. (And its 1897 building was broadminded enough to chisel the names of Confucius and Laozi in stone!)
The museum has extensive collections of Egyptian, European, African, Oceanic, and Asian art. American art is heavily represented and includes works by Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Judy Chicago, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Max Weber.
The museum acknowledges its place in Brooklyn by addressing the broad diversity of its residents and families, supporting local arts, and joining in the transition of museums from rarified institutions toward places that include as many different aspects of culture as possible. For example, an exhibition open right now is The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition (October 4, 2024–January 26, 2025).* The show spotlights, “artists who have lived or maintained a studio in Brooklyn during the last five years (2019–24).”
As a comparison, look at the musical, Hamilton (2015) It is a significant evolution beyond earlier musicals such as Carousel (1945) or My Fair Lady (1956). Musicals and culture will continue to change, and that’s as it should be.
I noticed a more subtle change at the Brooklyn, as well as the other museums I visited during this trip. The curators have grouped art thematically to highlight historical concepts, the process of art, or responses to world events.
Understanding art depends on context. The obvious frameworks are region, era, history, religion, patronage, artist, art movements, or discovery (i.e., archaeological finds). For a time, I loathed a trend: the psychobabble explanation for art. Captions that would make me cringe went something like: “This painting was made when the artist was suffering from alcoholism, had been unfaithful to his wife, and was contemplating suicide.” This reduces an artist to the stereotype of being crazy. The captions I’ve seen in Europe placed artworks in an art historical context. Awareness of context is a far better way to spread greater understanding.
Where do your ideas come from? Inside, you might answer. But your inside ideas are tied to your experiences. If you raised a child in a bubble, they wouldn’t have the same quality or quantity of ideas as someone who grew up with a plethora of rich experiences. (That’s one reason why raising a child in a bubble would be criminal.)
I go through each day hungry for new ideas. Museums are great places to get plenty of ideas. Especially when I’m astounded and a new way to look at life blooms before me, I want to discover more.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Museum
* https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/brooklyn-artists-exhibitions-2024