Do you ever visit museums and not feel like you are doing them justice? Always speeding through every picture, trying to take in everything you can. Even if you try to take in everything you can, you seem to be bored staring at a red dot on the wall, which results in flying through the museum in 30 minutes, wasting your time and money. Yeah, I get it. I know countless people who say that they hate museums, yet this is how they go through them.Â
Over the weekend, I went to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, right on Seaport. I went as part of Merrimack College’s honors program with Dr. Kronsted, a professor at Merrimack College. With him, I was able to learn the best tricks of the trade to master how to walk through an art museum and get the best experience every time you go. Now, I want to share that knowledge with you all.
Museum AngleÂ
Each piece in a museum has a distinct story and experience to share. If you are standing too close or too far from the piece, you may not be able to tell what exactly is happening. For instance, when looking at the painting, “Bather” by Doron Langberg, if you stand really close to the painting, you may not be able to capture all the details that he uses in regards to light. If you step back and find the perfect view spot, you will be able to tell that not only is the light coming from the bottom of the painting, but that it is also coming from the sides due to a technique that involves using the thick sides of the canvas to pull the light out and in. By taking a step back, I was also able to tell that the floor of the bathroom was warped and representing his inner turmoil.Â
Everyone has a different perspective that they bring when they walk into a museum. Our experiences allow us to take a unique interpretation of art as a whole. So, in order to grasp that understanding and gain a true appreciation of the piece, you need to find a place that fits just right to see everything you want to see. That place does not need to be stagnant, but it needs to be able to captivate your attention.Â
AttentionÂ
 In the modern day of short TikTok videos and doomscrolling on Instagram, it is becoming harder and harder to gain focus on one thing for a particularly long time. Trust me, I love my TikTok videos too, but when you step into an art museum, you have to be able to focus your attention on one piece at a time. You don’t have to go in any particular direction. Just find one piece that your intuition draws you into and stare. Visual art, unlike reading, takes a long time for our brains to process. When you read a word in a sentence, you process that word almost instantaneously. For instance, it’s hard to look at a word and now unconsciously read it. However, when you are looking at the different shapes and colors (focus features) that bring you to a deeper understanding of figures (context), it takes the brain a longer time to understand how everything is put together. Through human evolution, our brain notices things by the fact that they are different objects but have similar features, or they are similar objects but have different features. We used that type of attention for centuries to survive our hunter-gatherer lives. However, we are not hunter-gatherers anymore; we are girls in a museum. So, we need to shift our attention to looking at one object and finding different features in it. This way, you can get a better appreciation for the piece as a whole. According to Issac Kaplan, the average person spends around 15 seconds looking at a painting. That is not giving the art or the artist the justice they deserve. So take a step back and actually look at the piece before moving to the next one.Â
BreaksÂ
Now I know that some art museums are more expensive than others and that you want to get the full experience, but looking at art with a lot of intensity is tiring. Our brains can only process so much at once; it’s like studying. If you try and learn your entire textbook in one sitting, you are gonna come out knowing less than if you did intermittent studying. The same technique applies to art galleries. Take your time, appreciate that art, but only do one or two exhibits at a time. This way, you can really focus on those without burning yourself out on the second floor. I know when I went to the ICA this weekend, after looking at two exhibits, I was really tired and in need of a coffee (or hot chocolate, because I don’t drink coffee). Even if you don’t want to leave the museum, take a break and go get something to eat. Just focus yourself away from the art so that when you go back, you can appreciate the next section as much as you did the first.Â
Final Words
Overall, museums can be very hard to get through, especially if you don’t like the topics that they are covering. However, I hope that the next time you go to an art museum, you think of me and my tips on how to get the best experience out of it. It may seem like a lot at first, but trust me, the more you apply these, the more fun you will have at every art museum you go to. Keep exploring and creating, ladies; the world needs more art and more people to appreciate it. Now, here are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibits I went to. To see all of the pieces in this museum, feel free to visit the ICA website for more information!