The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more…
Universities are a public good, even more so when they run museums with free admission. Yale University runs the Yale University Art Gallery. The four storeys that tickled me silly with my favorite artist Peter Paul Reubens, Bauhaus furniture, and excellent curatorial methods like moving the interior of a historic Read more…
Yale ranks as one of the world’s most prestigious universities and is the third oldest in the US. Founded in 1701 in New Haven, the Ivy League private institution is one of the most well-endowed in the world and it shows through its impressive museum collection in its art museum Read more…
I’ve lived in Europe and been all over New England. New Haven is a little bit of both. It has that classic British colonial layout with green church squares interlaced with criss crossing paths, an intimate streetscape with mixed commercial and residential use, and a Yale University campus that looks Read more…
After visiting the big leagues of art at Yale, the New Haven Museum returned me to everyday life. There were toys, pianos, and bicycles on the first floor, showing how the city developed over time and how people lived through the 19th and 20th centuries. There was also a room Read more…
Hartford was named after Hertford in England in 1637, but the Dutch settled the first colonial village in 1633. The native Americans called the place Suckiaug. The first Western constitution was written here in Hartford in 1639 and served as the sole capital of the Connecticut colony until 1701. The Read more…
Connecticut’s old state house was completed in 1796 and served its original purpose for 82 years. At the time, there was a second state house in New Haven because Connecticut alternated capitals until 1873. From 1878 to 1915, the building was converted into Hartford‘s city hall. I was told that Read more…
I was immensely impressed by Springfield during my short visit there. The Springfield Museums system punches well above its weight with a balanced portfolio of five museums in arts, history, and science. Famous children’s book author Dr. Seuss was also from Springfield, this city’s main peacetime claim to fame. During Read more…
The Springfield Museums system has five museums on site and you can access all of them with a single ticket, which manifests itself as a wristband. In order of interest, they are the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum (timed entry), Smith Art Museum, D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Wood Read more…
Over the past 18 months, I’ve spent five weekends in New York City to see everything on my list. I didn’t have anything left to see on my sixth weekend there, so I decided to make a series of bad decisions over 48 hours. I showed up without a plan Read more…
The Springfield Museums system has five museums on site and you can access all of them with a single ticket, which manifests itself as a wristband. In order of interest, they are the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum (timed entry), Smith Art Museum, D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Wood Read more…