'Wormholes To Other Worlds': 18 Quotes About Museums (2024)

More than 850 million people will visit an American museum this year. That’s more than the combined attendance of every baseball, basketball, football and hockey game combined. Museums fill a unique niche by combining education and entertainment unlike any other place of gathering. First built as temples to the “muses” of Greek mythology, the original museums were filled with sculptures and scholars. In subsequent centuries, European monarchs seeking to display their spoils of war mimicked the Greek museums, creating great houses of treasure.

When the tradition came to the U.S., the motivation shifted from aggrandizement to education. The first museum to open in the United States was Charles Willson Peale's Cabinet of Curiosities in Philadelphia, established in 1786. Peale wished to document the history of European discovery in the New World, displaying portraits of George Washington alongside the bones of wooly mammoths.

These days, there are more than 17,000 museums in the United States alone. Some are small, hyper-focused collections of curiosities — like the Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, or the Hand Fan Museum in Healdsburg, California — while others celebrate a wide array of art and scholarly achievement, paying homage to the intentions of the Greeks and their muses.

To share in the celebration of art and history, we’ve collected these 18 quotes about museums, each with its own unique take on the value of curated collections.

A visit to a museum is a search for beauty, truth, and meaning in our lives.

Maira Kalman

Museums, like theaters and libraries, are a means to freedom.

Wendy Beckett

The only way to understand painting is to go and look at it. And if out of a million visitors, there is even one to whom art means something, that is enough to justify museums.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life.

Alain de Botton

I go to a museum and see a painting someone living in the past has made, and I’m completely blown away. The nature of human beings has not changed. Everyone wants to avoid suffering and look for love.

Dana Levin

Give me a museum, and I’ll fill it.

Pablo Picasso

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering — because you can’t take it in all at once.

Audrey Hepburn

Don’t go to a museum with a destination. Museums are wormholes to other worlds. They are ecstasy machines. Follow your eyes to wherever they lead you … and the world should begin to change for you.

Jerry Saltz

That’s why we have the Museum, Matty, to remind us of how we came, and why: to start fresh, and begin a new place from what we had learned and carried from the old.

Lois Lowry

My mother took me to the British Museum aged five. I had thought people from the past weren't as good as we were, and then I saw the Elgin marbles. Suddenly, the world seemed more complicated.

Mary Beard

A museum is a spiritual place. People lower their voices when they get close to art.

Mario Botta

A living museum must surely see itself as a locus of argument. A breathing art institution is not a lockup but a moveable feast.

Andrew O’Hagan

Shouldn't a great museum foster serious seeing before all else?

Mark Stevens

My mother's a genius … We would go to the art museum pretty much every Sunday, and I would watch her. She let me know that art was supposed to touch.

Jill Scott

Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.

Orhan Pamuk

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

George Bernard Shaw

The world is a museum and we are the artist and critics.

J.R. Incer

Featured image credit: Daniel Robert/ Unsplash

'Wormholes To Other Worlds': 18 Quotes About Museums (1)

About the Author

April Dávila

April Dávila is a lover of words. Her debut novel "142 Ostriches" was released in 2020.

'Wormholes To Other Worlds': 18 Quotes About Museums (2024)

FAQs

'Wormholes To Other Worlds': 18 Quotes About Museums? ›

The best introduction to art is to stroll through a museum. The more art you see, the more you'll learn to define your own taste.” “A museum is a place where one should lose one's head.” “A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.”

What can you say about museums? ›

Museums Help Us to Learn From the Past

First and foremost, museums and galleries provide an insight into humankind's history. While no museum can claim to provide a complete picture, the lessons we can learn from past events, wonders, and tragedies are priceless.

What is the most famous art quote? ›

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso.

What is an example of museum caption? ›

I found my happy place between the canvases and sculptures. Museum visits: a classy way to pretend I'm cultured. Museum trips: where my mind wanders and my camera works overtime. I came, I saw, I contemplated life's mysteries while pretending to appreciate art.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Nathanial Hackett

Last Updated:

Views: 5714

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (52 voted)

Reviews: 91% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Nathanial Hackett

Birthday: 1997-10-09

Address: Apt. 935 264 Abshire Canyon, South Nerissachester, NM 01800

Phone: +9752624861224

Job: Forward Technology Assistant

Hobby: Listening to music, Shopping, Vacation, Baton twirling, Flower arranging, Blacksmithing, Do it yourself

Introduction: My name is Nathanial Hackett, I am a lovely, curious, smiling, lively, thoughtful, courageous, lively person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.