Creative, Interesting, Cool Museums
 

Not really limiting this to any one city, or even country, but what are some of your favorite cool and interesting museums? Could be any kind, from art to science to cars.

This may be a boring choice, but I'm going to go with the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. No matter how many times I go there, I can spend hours without getting bored.

I liked the Warhol museum in Pittsburgh - especially the silver cloud room!

The Bata Shoe Museum here in Toronto is pretty cool in its own way here.

Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore; August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh for creativity. ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), Philadephia. Should probably also add the Walker Art Museum and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis and the Rubin Museum in New York.

1. British Museum, London

2. American Museum of Natural History, NYC

British Museum and the War Rooms in London ^

The Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A. Probably the most surreal place I've been.

Mutter Museum, Philadelphia

My top choice is the Mémorial de l'Alsace Moselle in the Alsace region of France. It's not far from Strasbourg by train and offers an incredible view into the history of that region, especially its fate during World War II.

It's exceptionally well put-together. Each room is themed so-to-speak. One room is part of the old Maginot line, another features a montage of Hitler's speeches and. Another is a recreation of the trenches dug across the Rhine region.

From the terrace the Struthof concentration camp is viewable across the valley—the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil.

If you're ever in Alsace, it's absolutely worth taking a few hours to go to Schirmeck and see this memorial.

Museum of Musical Instruments, Brussels

Science Museum, Munich

I love the Chicago Art Museum. I could spend days there. Well, i could spend days looking at the Rothkos.

The Milwaukee Art Museum is pretty to look at as well (The actual structure). They've usually got a decent exhibit year round.

Upon recommendation of a local, I visited and really enjoyed the Hospitaalmuseum in Bruges.

The Nethercutt Collection in northern Los Angeles...

Amazing collection of vintage cars.. all of which work and are driven on public roads...

..plus a whole lot of "functional art"... The collection of Orchestrions is as amazing as the cars.. (Think player piano... but with a whole range of instruments:eek:)..and yes, they all work too...

Surprising thing too is that entry and tours are.... free. One must simply write in in advance (e-mail is OK) to get your name on the entry list for a particular day....

Been twice and WILL go again...^

As it happens it isn't far from the Gene Autrey Museum of Western Heritage (It has a new name I've forgotten actually) which is also worth a visit...

Add to that the Imperial War Museum in London and the one in Duxford.

I found the Spy Museum in Washington DC very entertaining. From what I recall you get a cover on entrance and have to preserve it for the rest of your visit.

http://www.spymuseum.org/

Agree! The Milwaukee Art Museum is definitely worth a detour (or a mileage run). Bata Shoe Museum is great, if you like shoes. In NYC the Frick Collection is a gem, and further uptown are the Hispanic Society and the Cloisters. Just scratching the surface without leaving North America....

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The Imperial War museum at Duxford is of special interest to frequent flyers. It is mostly a military aviation museum but has some civilian aviation items You get to go inside a Concorde and other airliners, some quite old. Also seeing a B52, a B29 and an SR-71 in the same room indoors was impressive.

For unusual & interesting try the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

+1 on the spy museum. Great fun!

The Wild Centre, Tupper Lake, NY. Beautiful rural setting, hands on exploration of flora and fauna of the region. Kids loved it, so do the adults.

not for the faint hearted, but the Torture Museum in Pragues is really quite cool...if a little scary :)

National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

It is better than any museum on the Chinese mainland mainly because all the items were taken from mainland China.

I'd highly recommend the City Museum in St. Louis. In this case, a picture probably is worth a thousand words, but I don't have a picture, so here's a brief overview from their website:

Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.

Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, City Museum boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!

How about the Menil Collection in Houston?
menil.org
It's almost a neightnorhood of its own with various exhibition sites, including the especially-constructed Rothko Chapel.

^

Excellent way to spend an afternoon in Houston.

+2.

But my favourite is:
Newseum in Washington DC.
newseum.org
It's basically a journalism themepark. Spectacular. I spent almost the entire day there.

Image: http://dcstyleisreal.files.wordpress...16_newseum.jpg

TripAdvisor review: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction..._Columbia.html

Cantigny, outside Chicago. It's the former estate of Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Beautiful grounds, tour of McCormick's quirky mansion, and a really well done interactive 1st Infantry Division Museum (McCormick served in that unit in WW1). All for free.

Warsaw Rising Museum, Warsaw, Poland. Very moving.

Another vote for Newseum in DC for interactive/history category.

Other faves: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (IM Pei building alone is spectacular). Getty LA, less for the art than for the building. Pergamon Berlin for the reconstructed ruins. Neue Galerie Manhattan for my favorite art styles. Te Papa Wellington for natural history and anthro.

I've lived here since 1992 (and have worked as a journalist) and I've never heard of it. Will have to make a visit sometime soon.

Aaargh! You beat me to it! As soon as I saw the title of this thread, that museum instantly came to mind. A must-see for anyone with a surreal sense of humor.

Hi,

For all the times I have been to Las Vegas, I have never been to;

the National Atomic Testing Museum

http://www.nationalatomictestingmuseum.org/

( Will go there when I am in Las Vegas in May)

Regards

TBS

Not exactly a museum but the Trinity Site is open two days a year. It is the site of the first atomic bomb detonation. The buildings where it was built and other buildings involved in the project are open as well. Went there (near ABQ) for a mileage run a few years ago.

On a journey from from Seattle to Portland, I took a little side trip on a whim to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Well worth it, interesting and different. Science and creativity all rolled into one!

http://www.museumofglass.org/

The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati . Very well done history of advertising.

Along the same lines, there are occasional tours of the Yucca Mountain waste disposal facility (which includes a very interesting drive through part of the Nevada Test Site, past various Cold War-era experiments and landmarks). Given that it's more or less out of commission without ever having stored a drop of nuclear waste, it may as well be a museum.

I really wanted to see Memento Park while visiting Budapest, but ran out of time since it's outside the city.

If I may include something from Switzerland:
Technorama Winterthur
http://www.technorama.ch/en/

More of a science museum where you are allowed to touch and try everything. Fun for teens and also parent.
W

The War Memorial of Korea (AKA The War Museum) is pretty cool. They let you in/on/play around with many different war machines.

My husband and I discovered the Ignatz Semmelweis Museum accidentally, while walking through Budapest. We'd both read his biography, neither realizing that the other had heard of him, too. He was the doctor who saw the link between doctors not using sanitary procedures (simple hand-washing between treating a patient with tuberculosis and delivering a baby. for example) and "childbed fever" which killed many women shortly after giving birth. He was ridiculed for it. The museum is in the house where he was raised, and also lived as an adult, and has a lot of interesting medical and dental equipment.

The Groeninge Museum in Bruges is our favorite art museum- small enough that you don't get burned out, with some exquisite artwork. If you saw the movie "In Bruges", the scene where the two killers are contemplating Breughel's view of hell was shot here. Get the video guide.

My husband and I visited the Military Museum in Brussels intending to stay there in the AM and go somewhere else after lunch. We had lunch in the nearby park and spent the rest of the day at the museum. Uniforms, memorabilia, weapons, and then some giant spaces with tanks and warplanes.

And if you're ever in our back yard (Kansas City), I recommend the Nelson-Atkins art museum and the WW I museum.