I have a tight 2-year schedule in which to fit in all my Philly culture before moving on to the next grueling step of my education. It’s my goal to hit all the major things I possibly can. Being that I’m probably the biggest museum nerd around, the Philadelphia Museum of Art had to be one of the first things on my list.
It would’ve been so easy to be let down. Just the weekend before, I had hiked about 10 miles around the Met with bff Justin. It’s hard to compare anything to that, but the PMA held its own quite nicely. The outside is, of course, epically gorgeous (and host to like 10 couples taking wedding photos at a time). The inside is impressively large, and, though not tremendously well-laid out, still a lot of fun to wander through.
From Jasper Johns' American flag series
My museum style is casually haphazard at best — I didn’t know till I stumbled upon it that the PMA has one of Van Gogh’s sunflowers. I wouldn’t say they hold many other truly iconic works, but many of my favorite artists do grace the walls, from di Chirico to Jasper Johns. The only real let down were the strangely dark and boring Manets (nothing like my all-time favorites, Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère and Olympia), especially since they had no explanatory text to help me situate them within his career.
For being a pay-what-you-can first Sunday, the museum was wonderfully uncrowded, and there was much more to see than could fit into 1 day. I’m not sure it’s worth a membership, but a monthly-or-so first Sunday visit could definitely figure into my future.
Bonus Philly experience: afterward, we headed down to Reading Terminal Market, where I was introduced to the joys of DiNic’s. I wish I had reason to stop by more often, because there are several more restaurants and vendors I want to check out. (No way am I missing the upcoming Harvest Festival, though.) Extra bonus points for a truly hideous piece of “art” found on the street during our walk. It’s like the 80s threw up Pepto and pearls all over some kid’s woodshop experiment. I wish more things like this awaited me every time I left the house.
