{"id":4270,"date":"2014-10-18T11:18:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-18T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=4270"},"modified":"2015-05-21T08:25:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T12:25:58","slug":"review-the-art-of-slowing-down-in-a-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/review-the-art-of-slowing-down-in-a-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Art of Slowing Down in a Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In her&nbsp;recent New York Times article,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/10\/12\/travel\/the-art-of-slowing-down-in-a-museum.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Art of Slowing Down in a Museum<\/a>, Stephanie Rosenbloom admonishes us to <em>slow down<\/em> when we visit museums. 20 minutes, she says, in front of a single work of art provides the most therapeutic experience. She sights several studies and experiments to buttress her argument, but essentially she&rsquo;s pulled the number out of thin air.<\/p>\n<p>Leaving aside the therapeutic value of art, I take her point. &nbsp;I spend several hours in front of select paintings at my local museum each year, spread out over many visits. But I&rsquo;m not the typical museum-visiting tourist to whom her article is addressed. For the typical tourist trying to see everything in forty-five minutes&nbsp;before the tour bus leaves, a cursory glance and brief pause are all they can manage.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/cleveland-museum-of-art\/\" class=\"template-2\"><span class=\"cta\">Read more<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Cleveland Museum of Art Opens Renovations<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>How many of us when visiting a museum in some faraway land for the first&ndash;and perhaps last&ndash;time will spend half our visit&nbsp;before a single work without exploring the rest of the museum? So, although her article is written for the time-starved tourist, her advice boils down to: don&rsquo;t be like that!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4271\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4271\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/review-the-art-of-slowing-down-in-a-museum\/met\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4271\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4271\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?resize=500%2C397\" alt=\"The Met\" width=\"500\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?resize=300%2C238&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?resize=260%2C206&amp;ssl=1 260w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?resize=160%2C127&amp;ssl=1 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4271\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Met<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&rsquo;m off-put by arguments for the therapeutic value of art. A lot of nonsense is written in this vein, but nothing&nbsp;I&rsquo;ve read sheds any light on actual art. As a thought experiment, the next time you read something about the therapeutic value of art substitute &lsquo;meditation,&rsquo; or &lsquo;nature hike&rsquo; or &lsquo;good scotch&rsquo; for &lsquo;art&rsquo; and see if it makes the slightest difference. I won&rsquo;t belabor the point, but I just don&rsquo;t see it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/in-the-studio-oct-14-2012\/\" class=\"template-2\"><span class=\"cta\">Read more<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">In the Studio Oct. 14 2012<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>No one can argue for the therapeutic value of visiting museums. Modern museums are chaotic&nbsp;and&nbsp;crowded places filled with noisy and (all too often) rude people. Her advice in this regard is to take music or something you can listen to through head-phones. Good advice. I&rsquo;ve written about the <a title=\"Museum Etiquette\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/museum-etiquette\/\" target=\"_blank\">etiquette of visiting museums<\/a> and the challenges art lovers face when <a title=\"Art museums and technology\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/art-museums-and-technology\/\" target=\"_blank\">visiting modern museums<\/a>, so I won&rsquo;t repeat&nbsp;myself here.<\/p>\n<p>I am in complete accord with the author&rsquo;s main point that it takes time to experience a work of art. <a title=\"&ldquo;Why?&rdquo; (do you visit the museum so often)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/why-do-you-visit-the-museum-so-often\/\" target=\"_blank\">I would add that it also takes repeated visits<\/a>. The question of whether experiencing&nbsp;art outside any perceived therapeutic value is worthwhile I leave to you.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/stephen-pentak-at-bonfoey\/\" class=\"template-2\"><span class=\"cta\">Read more<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Stephen Pentak at Bonfoey<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>[Photo copyright Thomas Hudson.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In her&nbsp;recent New York Times article,&nbsp;The Art of Slowing Down in a Museum, Stephanie Rosenbloom admonishes us to slow down when we visit museums. 20 minutes, she says, in front of a single work of art provides the most therapeutic experience. She sights several studies and experiments to buttress her argument, but essentially she&rsquo;s pulled [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":4271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,6,46,1],"tags":[216,217],"class_list":["post-4270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-museum","category-paintings","category-reviews","category-uncategorized","tag-museums","tag-vmuseum-visits"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?fit=500%2C397&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4576,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/a-visit-to-the-cleveland-museum-of-arts-asian-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":0},"title":"A visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art&#8217;s Asian collection","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cleveland Museum of Art recently rotated its vast Asian collection, which I happily discovered during Friday's visit. After a Caesar salad in the Atrium cafeteria--'extra anchovies, please'--I started my weekly ramble in the galleries above the cafeteria where the Asian collection is housed. Major museums, like Cleveland, \u00a0rotate parts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art Museums&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cleveland Museum of Art's New Atrium","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10341,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/05\/cleveland-art-museum-visit\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":1},"title":"Cleveland Art museum visit","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"May 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is a visit to the art museum blog-worthy? After all, my near-weekly museum visits are a longstanding habit. The headline is that this is my first visit to the Cleveland Art museum since the COVID mess started. I haven't visited a museum or cut my hair since March 2020.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art Museums&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/clev-muse.jpg?fit=1000%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/clev-muse.jpg?fit=1000%2C525&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/clev-muse.jpg?fit=1000%2C525&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/clev-muse.jpg?fit=1000%2C525&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13594,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2024\/07\/painting-by-tissot\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":2},"title":"Painting by Tissot","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"July 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I love it when I visit a museum and discover a new painting. I found this painting, The Proposal, by James Tissot (1836 - 1902) during my last visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Large museums like Cleveland's display only a portion of their collection, which means frequent visitors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art Museums&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/cleveland-museum-of-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":3},"title":"Cleveland Museum of Art Opens Renovations","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're like me, art is food--it's one of life's essentials. \u00a0I've a lifelong habit of haunting art museums. \u00a0My excitement is always high at the\u00a0prospect\u00a0of a visit, and no matter how often I visit a particular museum my enthusiasm never flags, nor is my sense of\u00a0adventure\u00a0and discovery ever satiated.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art Museums&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261-300x214.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7863,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2018\/05\/review-eyewitness-views\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":4},"title":"Review: Eyewitness Views","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"May 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cleveland Museums of Art's Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe is the best show I've seen at the museum since I started my near-weekly visits six years ago.\u00a0 As good as the show is, however, the theme--artists as eyewitnesses to history--is a stretch.\u00a0 The paintings are souvenirs of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;aesthetics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"aesthetics","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/aesthetics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/canal-6.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/canal-6.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/canal-6.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/canal-6.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3727,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/going-to-the-cleveland-museum-of-art-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":5},"title":"Going to the Cleveland Museum of Art today","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"June 20, 2014","format":"status","excerpt":"I haven't been\u00a0to the\u00a0Cleveland Museum of Art\u00a0in several weeks. After visiting the Met last Friday, I thought I might forgo my weekly visits to the Cleveland museum for awhile. Although Cleveland is a fine museum, it's not\u00a0the Met. But here it is, a mere week later and I am hot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art Museums&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gw6F-16S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}