Night at the museum

I used to travel a lot for work, especially in the fall, and one of the many takeaways from that experience - in addition to a precise ranking of my favorite Hampton Inn breakfasts - was how to get around completely by myself. (I'm sure I've written about this before, but it's teeing up the story of my evening, okay?) Part of that was the actual logistics: carrying a folder full of Google maps, navigating different regions of the United States in a rental car, and mapping out a schedule for each day that would fit everything in. But another part was learning, more broadly, about how to be an independent traveler on her own for long stretches of time. I grew comfortable with going to a restaurant on my own and carving out sightseeing during sporadic windows of free time alone.

That lesson has been a valuable one, and it stayed with me. Even without that travel schedule now, while I obviously love spending time with the great people in my life, I also quite like time spent puttering around town solo: checking out movies, exhibits, the farmers market, and so on.

Tonight was just one of those nights. My friend (and M&L reader) Katie had given me a heads-up, based on my love of Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, that tonight was Third Thursday: TypoGraphic at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. (Love, love, love tips and recs that come from things I post on this blog. Thanks, Katie!)

Every Thursday, the museum stays open until 9 p.m., and there are fun themes every third week. This month's was the result of a partnership with AIGA Minnesota, basically a professional association for design. There was a pop-up exhibit featuring some of the organization's award winners, a printing studio, a public font creation project, and so on. It was really neat to see the award-winning design projects collected in the span of a few tables. It was a great way to learn more about design - not just seeing billboards and magazine spreads and television ads every day, but in an intentional space showcasing some top-notch work. Super cool.

What turned out to be my favorite part of the evening, though, happened when I got to the museum a little earlier than I expected. I had brought a book in case I wanted to sit outside and read, but then the little lightbulb went off in my head. Hello! You are at an amazing art museum, open for visitors, to which you rarely go. Only you would think about reading a book instead of going into the museum.

As it turns out, a museum such as the MIA is the perfect place to let your mind wander and wonder and stretch. I felt more creative just being in that space.

I perused all kinds of art, from all different eras and places. Sometimes I paid attention to the context next to the art. I love the tidbits each card reveals, like this one:

The figure it's talking about, the man in the red coat, is a pretty key feature of the painting. I tried to imagine the thought process behind adding him in, two hundred years after the original was finished. You know what this painting could really use? A man in a red coat.

Other times I looked around at the museum itself:

The light and layout are just gorgeous.

All this beautiful space, about a mile away from bustling downtown Minneapolis!

It was a really nice way to spend a Thursday evening: a little out-of-the-ordinary but still relaxing, a quiet place to see hundreds of years of creative work from all over the world in one space.