A Night at the Museum XXV

Media - 1929.6.102 - SAAM-1929.6.102_1 - 64664
Albert Pinkham Ryder, With Sloping Mast and Dipping Prow, ca. 1880-1885, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.102
September 9, 2008

You've been hearing a fair amount about Night at the Museum II: Battle of the Smithsonian in the papers, in the blog, and via general buzz on the street. It got me thinking about sequels to originals and sequels to sequels. I'm sure there will be many more Nights at the Museum on the big screen, but what exactly do you think they should be about? Perhaps it's just me, but I'd love to see Night at the Museum XXV: Revenge of the Blogger. Do you think anyone besides me would pay to sit through that one?

We who love museums often wander around the galleries with our imaginations in high gear. I'm wondering what works other people would choose as starting points of their adventures if objects really did come to life at the end of the day, then return to their usual fixed positions by morning. What would it be like to enter an Edward Hopper painting and feel the endless weight of summer, or end up on a storm-tossed sea in one of Albert Pinkham Ryder's moonlit works? As long as I'd be dry by morning, that would just be fine with me.

What work of art would you choose for your very own Night at the Museum experience?

 

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