A Visit to the Philadelphia Art Museum Tourism

Tourism: A Visit to the Philadelphia Art Museum

A Visit to the Philadelphia Art Museum: Tourism

Proposal of a Visit to the Philadelphia Art Museum

I propose a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the country's third-largest museum in terms of collections, and an absolute must-see for both local and international tourists. My choice is dictated by a number of factors. To begin with, I regard art as one of the most fundamental symbols of culture -- it serves to remind us who we are, what we share, and where we have come from. The development of art therefore, is an interesting subject that everyone, in my view, ought to strive to understand and be knowledgeable about; nothing gives a better picture of how art developed than the Philadelphia Art Museum. As a matter of fact, this summer, the museum has scheduled a special exhibition to trace the role of Durand-Roel, one of the most famous art dealers in history and the inventor of impressionism, in the development of American and European art (Visit Philadelphia, 2015). This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that the class could take to interact with, and familiarize itself with the works of some famous figures in the world of art including Manet, Degas, Sisley, Renoir, and Pissaro, to name but a few.

Secondly, we all are familiar with the popular 'Rocky' movie series, and we all perhaps love the fictional character, 'Robert 'Rocky' Balboa, who featured as the title character in the same. Well, the Philadelphia Art Museum gives visitors an opportunity to be part of history by taking a photo or two with Rocky Balboa himself and making the iconic trip up the famous 'Rocky Steps' -- Rocky's statute stands at the entrance of the museum; and the statute alone attracts thousands of visitors every year.

The final reason why I chose the Philadelphia Art Museum is because of its rich diversity in culture -- it harbors collections from a wide array of cultures, from the Indian culture to the Korean culture, which would present an ample opportunity for the class to not only learn about other cultures, but also be able to live productively in a multicultural setting. All these reasons make my museum of choice worth visiting.

Should such a visit be planned, I would be interested not only in interacting with the various symbols of culture and art, but also learning how the museum ensures the continuity of the same through artifact conversation. If artifacts are not properly-conserved, then the museum may not be a tourist attraction in the years to come. Moreover, such knowledge could be crucial in helping other local museums stay afloat and continue to attract tourists to the state. I have done some research and learnt that environmental factors such as damaging light, temperature and humidity, pollutants and pests could have an adverse effect on a museum's collections (Philadelphia Museum of art, 2015b). Towards this end, I would be interested in understanding:

i) how exposure to damaging light, temperature and humidity, pollutants and pests affect the museum's collections

ii) the specific strategies that the museum uses to control exposure to the aforementioned factors