Barnes

Ben and I decided to get some Culture-with-a-capital-C today and visit the Barnes Foundation. If you haven't heard of it, Barnes was a self-made gajillionaire who invented an anti-gonorrhea drug, and spent his money on buying lots of Art, which he filled his house up with. When he died he wanted his collection to be available to the public, but on the condition that it remained exactly in place, in his house out in the suburbs. In the early 2000s the foundation successfully petitioned to move the collection to downtown Philadelphia so more people could access it (and they could bring in more money), and it was a whole big controversy that all the Art people were very upset about. They even made a movie about it. Anyway, the shiny new Barnes building opened up shortly after Ben and I moved to Philly, and today we finally got around to going.

I can't say that I really got or was excited about any of the art, since it all looks the same to my unsophisticated eye (although some of the antique locksmith materials were cool). But the building itself was really fun to be in - all high ceilings and unusually-shaped rooms; there's a multi-story indoor garden, and even the bathrooms were architecturally interesting. You couldn't take pictures inside, but here's a picture of the exterior (including the moat that surrounds it), which gives an idea of the type of place it is:

I wouldn't pay money to go back, but I think we will add it to the list of interesting places we take walks to. You know, so we can class ourselves up a bit.