The Brooklyn museum is the best museum nobody knows. Well, maybe not "nobody" but a lot of folks have never been there or even know where it is. It's not high on the list of things to do when visiting NYC. In fact it is only recently that actual tour busses have had a route that covers this part of New York. This is a good thing because the big museum on Eastern Parkwy is one of the best in the country. They have a great collection of American painters as well as one of the best Egyptian art collections in the world. And besides the great art collection ,the museum building itself is a work of art. So with all this in mind I took the subway out to Brooklyn last Friday to photograph, not so much the paintings, but the building.




As you can see they're not exactly packing in to the No. 3
train heading out to this part of Brooklyn at 11 am on a Friday.

        
The Museum is easy enough to find. Like some of the great museums of Europe it even has its own subway stop. The stop
is only a few feet from the museum entrance and is also near to the Botanical Gardens next door.


      
The museum is an interesting combination of the old and the new. The original building was built in the Beaux-Arts style in
1897. There used to be a grand staircase leading up to the main entrance. This was replaced with a more accessable modern
entrance and lobby when it was found that the repair of the steps would cost more than the original building cost.

     

           
Sometimes controversial, the Brooklyn Museum has always tried to be at the forefront of the art scene with exhibits from local
as well as international artists.

        
Besides rotating contemporay exhibits the museum has a great permanent collection of both American and Egyptian art.

    

   
Even if you couldn't care less about the stuff on the walls you have got to appreciate the building itself. As grand as the
exterior is, the interior is just as magnificent. At the center of the building is the grand rotunda (pictured top and bottom
above left). The magnificent skylit space has been used for banquets, balls, private parties as well as political and cor-
porate events. In contrast to the classical is the more contemporary part of the building represented by the graceful bal-
cony over the elevator lobby and the striking light in the stairwell.

   
I don't know why, but I've always had this thing for building stairwells. Maybe there is something about their functionality that I find
interesting. Maybe it's the way the afternoon light shines through the windows and casts deep shadows on the floor. Maybe it's the staircase itself that intrigues me. What's on the next level? Where does it lead? Staircases have a lot of stories to tell.

    
The view from some of the museum's windows is interesting too. Some of the building's ornate sculpture is viewable from one
of the windows of the Egyptian gallery and even a replica of the Statue of Liberty can be seen from a window overlooking
the parking lot.  

Note to tourists: Why spend the money and time standing in line in the cold weather waiting to see the other Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. Just take the train to Brooklyn, take a photo of yourself in front of parking lot liberty, and tell your friends that the photos they have been seeing all these years make the statue look bigger than it really is.

If you go: Take the #3 subway line to Brooklyn and the Eastern Parkway station. There is also a parking lot in the rear if you must drive.The museum is only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $7.00 for adults and only $4.00 for seniors, making the Brooklyn Museum one of the best buys in the city. The museum is handicapped accessable and there is a cafeteria in the building. The food looked good but expensive. The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens is right next door. During the week , thru February, the gardens are free. The place is a bit desolate this time of year,but beautiful in a strange way.

all photos (c) 2008 Bruce Cooper