Whenever I enter a museum with toddlers, I’m never quite sure how long we will be there. It’s probably going to be somewhere between 2 minutes and 2 hours. If I make it 2 hours, I got my money’s worth. I’m happy. But 2 minutes? I don’t think so.
But now, thanks to special funding, the Baltimore Museum of Art is free. FREE! I could finally use that threat I’ve been saving “If you don’t stop that, we are leaving” without fear. But I was hoping I wouldn’t need it just yet.
The museum doesn’t open until 11:00 so we had to be there when the doors opened to make it work with nap time, but I could handle that. It just meant that when we arrived, there was still plenty of parking available. A happy volunteer in the lobby told me that kids seem to like the Cheney miniatures because they “think they are like dollhouses.” He pointed me to the left. Let me say here that I agree with the kids. They are dollhouses, or parts of dollhouses, all behind glass with step stools everywhere so the vertically challenged can stare. I’m not a big fan of this kind of thing, but the kids were mesmerized so it was all good with me.
We continued past the European Decorative arts where we learned about the word “echo.” I don’t think anyone was paying attention to the art, because the echo (echo…echo…) was so nice. The American Modernism section was not a hit with the kids. Too bad for me, but we kept going to one of my favorite sections, contemporary art. The toddler perspective on contemporary art was really kind of entertaining. I will admit it took a tiny bit of coercion to get them to walk past the Rauschenberg’s, but it was worth it. There are so many shapes and colors to talk about along the way.
The Cone collection is absolutely fantastic and arguably the best part of the museum, but I was sensing toddler turmoil, so I decided to save that for another day.
Baltimore Museum of Art
443-573-1700
10 Art Museum Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
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