I gather in a circle of people with my hand placed in the middle on top of strangers’ hands. In unison, we let out a group cheer. “Mu—-Seum!” we yell in our soft ‘museum voices’ as we lift our hands in the air in unison.
It’s a Friday night when I meet this group of strangers who are coming together as a tour group in the lobby of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Michelle, our guide, was easy to spot; her canvas tote bag reads “Museums are F*%#cking Awesome”. It puts a smile on my face as I think about how museums normally make me feel slightly uncomfortable like I don’t belong, but maybe tonight that won’t be the case.
“The Met is like fine dining. It has the best of everything – but your stomach isn’t big enough to try everything on the menu,” Michelle explains. “The Chef,” she points to herself, “has put together a curated tasting menu of the best they have to offer that shows off various aspects of the restaurant’s personality. And that’s what we are doing tonight, the Met’s tasting menu.”
Michelle is playing the role of our ‘chef’ this Friday night at the Met by leading our small group on a Renegade Tour of the Metropolitan Museum NYC to experience this popular museum in a completely different way.
A New Way to See the Metropolitan Museum NYC
Immediately when I saw the name ‘Renegade Museum Tour, I was hooked. I love art, but I’m not an art nut, there are only so many Madonna and Child pieces and artifacts that I can take in a museum visit. Normally when I go to a museum I start off with a bang, interested in each piece, reading the placards, examining everything, but in an hour my interest wanes and it all starts looking the same. I experience art overload and am done.
Michelle doesn’t have an art degree, and this is not a hoity-toity art tour. Instead, it’s about stories of art that Michelle finds interesting, unusual, or funny. “I walk fast like a New Yorker, but we aren’t going to see the whole Met,” Michelle says, “Instead, I’m going to show you the 14 best things ever.” The Met is enormous; it can take you an entire day to explore it. The museum is more than 2,000,000 square feet and it owns 2.5 million objects- you can’t possibly take it all in, however this curated tour cuts through all the noise.
She warns us that the tour is not G-rated, we should expect to hear some curse words, and we’ll be talking about drinking and sex. Sounds like a typical Friday night in New York I muse to myself. Some of the people in my group have attended a Renegade Tour before, and they are back for more – which is always a good sign. Each Renegade Tour guide chooses different works, ensuring you never get the same tour twice if you have a different guide.
Works of Storytelling Art
Storytelling brings things to life. We all love stories; they can cross the barriers of time and allow us to experience similarities. However, when we browse through a museum, we seldom ever hear the stories behind the images until now. The evening is filled with fascinating stories about the artists, the works, and the eras, and Michelle brilliantly puts it all in modern-day terms that we can relate to. Suddenly, art that seems old, confusing, and pretentious can be understood, and we relate to what the artists were going through and thinking.
“The Russian Tsar gives his wife an intricate jeweled Fabergé egg as an anniversary gift, and she loves it so much she asks for another. The Tsar continues to commission the artist Peter Carl Fabergé
to make a new one every year. Overall, 50 eggs were made. Forty-three of them are in museums today, and the remaining seven have gone missing. At values of 7 to 33 million dollars, it has sparked the greatest ‘Easter egg’ hunt in the world.”
Michelle smiles as we stare at the intricate egg I normally wouldn’t have ever noticed.
The Unusual Galleries
Next, we race off to another room, one that I would never ever normally stop in – a room filled with glass cases of gold trinkets. I start to roll my eyes, thinking that I will have no interest in this, and Michelle proceeds to tell us we are looking at a case curated entirely about ways to get you wasted in 17th-century Germany. I laugh at the thought. But I also do see a number of golden goblets that look like they could have held plenty of wine.
And so it goes, we continue to stop at the most unusual places in the Met, such as the Hall of Instruments, an obscure area of the Met that I’ve never been to before. There we actually sit on the floor of the gallery and get a music lesson renegade style; it felt a bit naughty – and fun.
Between blazing through galleries, laughing, and learning obscure facts we stop for a drink. Michelle has ordered each of us a glass of wine and informs us that we only have 10 minutes to drink our wine. Nothing is slow on this tour.
We continued our renegade journey through contemporary galleries, traditional Monet paintings, sculptures, and the armory room. We learn of artist’s lives, lovers, and syphilis’s impact on fashion design. “If you are ever in a museum and you are bored, just find the 15th Century Dutch section because it’s always entertaining. They had a thing for sexy, kinky art,” Michelle says as we all stare at the sculpture of a woman spanking a man. “They also love animals doing people things,” she continues, letting out a slight laugh, “bears pouring drinks, lizards riding horses…real entertaining stuff!”
We even learn to tell our own stories about art as Michelle walks us through an exercise in the Monet gallery that stretches our creativity and storytelling muscles.
The clock strikes nine, and we race out of the museum as it closes for the night. In the lobby, we end the tour as we started it – in a circle with our hands all in the middle and a group cheer, “Mu—-Seum!” I had been in the Met for three hours, never reaching my ‘art overload point’; in fact, I could hardly believe it was over already. I guess museums can be f*%#cking awesome after all.
Museum Tours for People Who Don’t Like Museums
Take the Metropolitan Museum Renegade Tour via Viator or check out Museum Hack Tours in various NYC, DC, and San Francisco Museums – Museum Hack Website.
When do you reach your at overload in museums? Or can you never get enough? Share in the comments!
Disclosure:
I was a guest of Viator on this tour, however all opinions are my own.
By Liam April 21, 2016 - 8:21 pm
I’m the same. There is only so much time I can spend in museums and art galleries before I get “museumed out”. This sounds like a really fun way of doing it. Will keep it in mind.
By Sherry April 22, 2016 - 1:29 pm
If you try the tour – let me know what you thought. I really had a fun time – probably the most memorable time I’ve spent at a Museum!
By Maura April 24, 2016 - 2:40 am
I love museums, but I can get overloaded pretty fast also. My favorite art museums have been smaller museums–not as much space to go thru and often really interesting and varied collections. I have fond memories of taking my children to the Richmond Museum thirty years ago—with its many Farberge Eggs and giant Indian god statues, My adult children still talk about their favorite exhibits. The Frye Museum in Seattle where I was once dropped by because its free, and viewed a wonderful exhibit of original comic strip art from the 30’s-60’s, comic strips I had always read as a child. It was so fascinating to see the original comic strips, I keep looking for it again at other museums.
The big museums are overwhelming, and even as a museum lover, I tend to walk thru the building(s) really fast and stay for only an hour my first visit. I will try to see what the museum is famous for or its current exhibit. I don’t take tours, but I do stop and listen to any talk or explanation being given by museum staff and I ask questions when something interests me.
On a whim, at the Chicago Art Institute last year, I asked the room security staff (mostly young women) what their favorite pieces in the room were. It started wonderful art and life conversations that completely surprised me! Many of these young people develop an interest and knowledge of art just by standing in the same room with it every day. . And most were tickled that someone asked their opinion about the art.
And, finally if I see a funny picture (to me)–like the Cat and the Monkey by the Fire oil painting in Birmingham, UK–I email a photo to my adult children and we usually have a lively discussion about the art and the artist or at least a good laugh.
Museums can be a lot of fun if you do them in short bursts like you did–so glad you enjoyed the tour. I may take it if I am ever in NYC.
By Izy berry May 1, 2016 - 6:21 pm
I was that kind of people that don’t like museums but with time I start too see close the sculptures and I found details and history in them
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