How to visit museums and not die of boredom

Choose a museum that interests you

If you are new to visiting museums, start with exhibits that interest you. One will be delighted with the exhibition of contemporary artists, the other is able to walk for hours between showcases with dinosaur bones, and the third will like the models of the city in different eras.

If you have never gone to exhibitions and do not really understand what you might like, there are alternative ways to choose.

You can choose museums and exhibitions for the type of your perception. Traditional galleries are suitable for visuals, for audiences - expositions with sound accompaniment, for kinesthetics - interactive art platforms with full immersion. This will help the brain to perceive new information in a convenient format.

Take care of your comfort

Even if you are very fond of museums, a pebble in a boot can turn viewing an exhibition into hell. Therefore, consider a few points:

Choose comfortable clothes and shoes so that discomfort does not distract from the exhibition.
Find out in advance on the museum's website if it is possible to bring water into the hall (it is often impossible to go to art galleries). If so, bring a small bottle with you.
Have a snack before visiting the exhibition so as not to think about food all the time.
Try to buy your ticket online to skip the line at the entrance.
Whenever possible, choose a time when there are not many people in the museum. Obviously, the middle of a weekend during the high tourist season is not the best option if you are uncomfortable in the crowd. Google Maps will help you determine when there are most people in the museum. To do this, you need to view information about the object.

Hike to the museum: see information about the museum

Prepare yourself

Read about the museum and exhibits on the institution's website. There you can often see his virtual rooms. This will help you understand what to expect and what you need to prepare for in advance.

Perhaps you will choose several rooms or especially interesting canvases and decide to read more about them in order to examine them with knowledge of the matter.

Nina Buyanova Author of the Telegram channel about history and cultural values “Living in the Past”.

People think museums are boring because they don't know how to use them. They want spectacles where they are offered bread, and the butter from you, dear guests. Shows and interactions are expected from unfortunate science museums even by those who are in the 6+ category.

You need to prepare for visiting the exhibition, then you can get a good kick out of the sight of a rubbish heap of clay shards. When you take to reading a book, you give yourself time, immerse yourself, and focus. You don't start at the end by standing at the stage at a Rammstein concert. Don't jump over pages or look only at pictures unless you're already a kindergartner. You follow the author's thought and plot.

And when you are ready, when you plunge into a little meditation, time will give way and you will see through it that which no one will tell you about. Such is the harsh reality: the higher the level of an individual's intelligence, the more complex types of pleasures are available to him.

Don't set impossible tasks

When visiting museums, the main thing is the process, not the result. You don't have to try to see all the exhibits in one go. This is often not possible. For example, if you linger for at least a minute at each painting in the Hermitage, then it will take several years to inspect the exposition. Instead, focus on what grabs your attention and try to explore the exhibit in more detail.

Anna Polyakova Artist and volunteer at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

The main thing to remember is that you don't have to like all the pictures. Very often people get tired while visiting museums because they try to cover all the information. There is nothing wrong if you are not interested in some work. In art, you need to follow what inspires.

Just walk around the museum and linger only at the paintings that grab your attention. Ask yourself questions. What attracts the picture? Who wrote it? When? What or who was the artist inspired by?

Work with information

For any exhibit, history and context are important. Items from the local history museum belong to a specific era and territory. The picture is painted by an artist with a specific biography. And even standing next to a stuffed animal in a zoological museum, you can learn a lot.

Here are some ways to get information:

Read the accompanying labels. They hang next to the exhibits for this very purpose.
Take an audio guide.
Join the tour if possible. In some museums, it is not necessary to order it in advance, the group is assembled directly from the visitors. And often the guide tells much more than the audio guide.
Eavesdrop. It doesn't sound entirely ethical, but it's not about personal conversations.
Ask questions of the museum staff. They know a lot, and some are also happy to share information.
Use the free audio guide, if available. For example, you can listen to information about permanent exhibitions in large museums in the izi app. TRAVEL.

Natalya Kopylova Visitor to museums.

When we visited the Russian Museum, in the hall set aside for the objects of art of the 20th century, next to us was a dad with a little daughter. He told her in some detail and very fascinatingly about the transformation of painting during this period, about the development of Russian and foreign artistic creativity, about the characteristic features of the directions. I don't know how interesting it is for a child, but we were delighted.

Take a friend with you

People deal with emotions in different ways. Someone likes to be alone, to accumulate impressions in themselves. And someone is torn from thoughts that need to be immediately shared. Without meeting these needs, the pleasure will be incomplete.

If you belong to the second type and cannot rejoice in discoveries and new knowledge alone, call a companion with you who is able to share your glee.

Ksenia Pelevina Historian, art critic.

A friend is the best cure for boredom. Together you can discuss what you saw, laugh at jokes that only you understand, take a photo. But do not forget about the rules of conduct in public places.

The presence of a loved one creates a relaxed atmosphere. Whispering and discussing exhibits will relax you and help you bring out something useful for yourself.

Approach the exposition outside the box

School literature lessons can permanently discourage the love of classical works. Children's excursions also have negative consequences: when you are obligatorily dragged through the halls, forbidding you to step aside, it is difficult to believe that a trip to a museum can be fun. But try to move away from the role of “duress spectator”.

Julia Verbitskaya (Linnik) Lawyer, art critic, collector of contemporary painting.

Try on the role of a collector. Consider the items on display as your possible personal acquisitions. What would you like to have at home and why? How much are you willing to pay? In what century was the painting or statue created? Who could be her customer? What social status was he in? Put yourself in his place: you - a count, baron or marquis - choose this job for yourself. What drives you? How are you feeling?

Positioning yourself not as a banal spectator, but as a participant in the process can turn a boring walk into a lively discussion.

Anastasia Po Art-director of the Dordor gallery of contemporary art.

Financial gain is the best motivation for understanding contemporary art. Art objects are a real asset, the value of which is gradually increasing. To buy a painting by a popular author now means to sell it several times more expensive in 3 years, 5, 10 years. The work "The Power of the Panthers" by contemporary artist Shepard Fairey was sold for $ 74,000 in 2015, and in 2018 it was sold at a French auction for $ 94,000.

Use the additional features of the museum

In addition to permanent exhibitions, there are temporary exhibitions in museums. For example, from other institutions or from closed funds. Sometimes there are open lectures, film screenings, meetings with scientists, artists and other interesting people. All of this can be very educational.

Finally, don't discount the souvenir shops.

Oksana Dyachenko Lover of museums.

I love museums! In every new city I try to visit at least one, this is an obligatory part of the program. Firstly, it is informative: you walk through the halls and feel how your horizons become wider. Secondly, museums often have the best viewing platforms. The buildings are located in the most advantageous locations from this point of view. Thirdly, there are the coolest postcards in souvenir shops at museums.

Reinforce knowledge and emotions

A visit to a museum is just the beginning and ideally should be the starting point for inspiration and new ideas. After leaving the institution, it will not be superfluous to discuss what you saw with a companion or a person who has been there before. Perhaps he saw something that you did not notice, or he will be able to complement your impressions with his own.

Anastasia Po

Art affects the human brain, relaxes it. Popular mindfulness exercises use art objects to dive deeply into the inner world. Simultaneously with relaxation, a person feels inspiration. Contemporary art, for example, expands the boundaries of consciousness, conveys an idea, pushes to study. Paintings depicting "daub", art objects from mountains of rubbish make you look at familiar things from a new angle.

And the information obtained can become a starting point for deeper research. For example, they were delighted with the burials of the Scythians - read about this people. If you are interested in the artist's work, find out the details of his biography and compare the paintings painted in different periods of his life. Everything just begins with a trip to the museum.