LIFE OF A READER

NIGHT (AND DAY)
AT THE MUSEUM

by Judy Newman with Alana Pedalino

I never knew the right way to visit a museum. Sure, I’ve been to museums. They are “must see” stops on every family vacation and school trip. But I’ve never understood how I was supposed to be appreciating the art. I remember, as a kid (and to be honest, even as a younger adult), trying to look knowledgeable and interested, squinting to see the name and artist of each piece, and wondering how long I needed to stand there before moving on to the next one.

Most museums we visited were massive: the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, and the British Museum and the National Gallery in London. I could never understand how anyone could see everything.

There are a few possible reasons why, until recently, I’d never rented an audio headset and taken a prerecorded guided museum tour: either they didn’t exist when I was a kid (unlikely), or I didn’t have enough money with me for the rental (somewhat likely), or I was afraid of the headset messing up my teenage hair (most likely). I now realize how great those curated tours are to welcome me to a museum, guide me through an introductory visit, and invite me back to explore more on my own.

It would have been so helpful if someone took the pressure off and explained to me “how to visit a museum.”

As an adult, with my husband, Jeff, I visited museums that helped piece together his father’s military service in the Second World War: the Imperial War Museums in London, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and the Musée Mémorial des Combats de la Poche de Colmar in Turckheim, France. The personal connection to my father-in-law, along with Jeff’s passion for the subject, enriched and enlivened my experience.

Museums are often featured in children’s books. Claudia and Jamie hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in one of my all-time favorite children’s books: From the Mixed-up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

The star-studded movie Night at the Museum was based on the children’s book of the same name by Milan Trenc. This story of the Museum of Natural History coming to life, starring Ben Stiller and the late Robin Williams, is now a huge Disney franchise.

While grown-up art museums were mostly over my head until recently, I’ve always loved spending time in children’s museums, like Boston’s Museum of Science, where (even when I was a kid) we were able to interact with the exhibits: touching, cranking, and staring right into the jaws of a life-size T. rex.

The Museum of Natural History in New York City and even the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut—which I visited when I was a student in New London at Connecticut College—were interactive and engaging. I didn’t have to worry about whether I was experiencing the exhibits in the right way. The larger-than-life dinosaur skeletons and the sharks swimming in the tanks made total sense to me.

In 2007, I had the privilege of accompanying Ruby Bridges and her teacher Barbara Henry to the opening of The Power of Children exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. The gorgeous and life-affirming exhibit features replicas of rooms that child icons Ruby Bridges, Ryan White, Anne Frank, and Malala Yousafzai would have spent time in. The museum also has live performances that share the stories of these “extraordinary children in history” so that children today are inspired to “fight discrimination and intolerance and make a positive difference in the world,” according to the museum’s website. I love how accessible the spaces are for adults and children to feel the impact of the voice of a single child.

I am sorry to say that since the pandemic, I haven’t been recently to the wonderful Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded by the world-renowned and beloved children’s book author-illustrator and his wife, Barbara, this museum creates an accessible space to enjoy and experience Eric’s picture book art. Adults and children are both equally affected by the whimsy and vibrancy of the pictures that line the walls. Writing this makes me realize I need to schedule a visit soon.

And just last week, Sophie Rae, her mother, Rebecca, and I braved the frigid temperatures in the Berkshires and went to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to see the gorgeous exhibition of another beloved children’s book author and illustrator, Jan Brett.

I actually read about this exhibit—Jan Brett: Stories Near and Far—in the November issue of Story Monsters Ink. I have known Jan Brett for many years, and we are featuring The Mitten in our Scholastic Book Clubs weekly blog, so I was very excited about the timing of the exhibit (through March 6). I loved accompanying Sophie Rae on her first museum visit and hopefully kicking off a lifetime of fun, accessible, interactive ways to be a museumgoer.

Museums can be life-expanding … for all of us. Being reminded of the history and art that precedes us has a way of making us feel both big and small in the universe—small because of the years and years of living things, societies, and relics of other eras left behind before we arrived, but big because of the contributions we, collectively or as individuals, can make in the years ahead!

Please share any stories of your favorite nights or days in museums with me, or tips you have for how to get the most out of museum visits. I would love to hear them.

As always, thanks for reading!

xx,
Judy 

Judy Newman is President and Reader-in-Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs. For more information, visit judynewmanatscholastic.com.