It was turning into a rainy evening in Rome. The downpour was steady: persistent enough to slowly seep through my raincoat, but not aggressive enough to convince me to stop meandering through the drizzly streets, past intriguing old churches and lazily flowing fountains. Eventually, I made my way to […]
Read MoreOne of my favorite museums in the world is the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Founded in 1852, it is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design. My last visit was in September 2012, when I was in London for a friend's birthday weekend. I may only have been in town for two days, but I [...]
Read MoreI visited the British Museum on an autumn afternoon a few years ago. The state of the ancient statuary struck me: most of these objects were scarred from their journeys through time. From small pockmarks to missing limbs, these statues had not escaped the passage of time unscathed. I reflected [...]
Read MoreThis summer, during my three-day retreat in the Met Museum, Museum Hack invited me on one of their Un-Highlights Tours. I had heard intriguing things about their museum tours, and I was excited to finally see for myself what all the buzz was about [...]
Read MoreLet's travel through time and space to colorful Giverny, France in the summer. Claude Monet made his home at Giverny for over 40 years, until his death in 1926. In the warm season, you can visit his house and studio, as well as the famous flowerbeds and reflecting pond that inspired his sublime paintings. To visit [...]
Read MoreI am so proud to announce... Voyages MusEmvelopes! This new version of MusEmvelopes, Voyages, is designed to help you travel in art museums. Whether you are visiting a museum while traveling in a new city, or going on a staycation in your hometown museum, these fun activity prompts will take you places. I am excited to be giving away Voyage MusEmvelopes to two lucky readers [...]
Read MoreThe Montreal Museum of Fine Arts offers a musical audioguide, which pairs different artworks with various musical selections. One of my favorite combinations is that of a Polish princess and a Chopin Polonaise. Paul Delaroche, the Romantic French painter, was a big deal in the 19th century, as famous as his contemporary Delacroix. When he wasn't traveling, he [...]
Read MoreNovember's museum theme is VOYAGES. Museums can take you places. This month, we'll be revisiting the theme of voyages in museums (again). This theme is so rich, that I thought it was worth revisiting. We'll be looking at museums while traveling; we'll travel in museums while staying put. We'll travel through time, exploring the past and imagining the [...]
Read MoreI had a truly magical museum experience in San Francisco's SFMOMA. After much anticipation, I finally had the opportunity to test the museum’s innovative new app in its natural setting. I went to SFMOMA with my family (this visit was more pleasure than research). The wifi in the museum was strong enough for my two companions to quickly download the app. We smiled as we listened to the playful audio [...]
Read MoreHands down, The Library at Night is one of the coolest exhibitions I've been to lately, maybe ever. It explores ten great libraries of the world using virtual reality. It's more than an exhibition: the virtual reality makes it a personal experience. I cannot recommend it highly enough. In a nutshell, The Library at Night (La bibliothèque, la nuit) is a "virtual exploration" of [...]
Read MoreMy first ever museum was the glorious University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor. UMMA has always been a magical place for me. As my hometown museum, it was a cabinet of curiosities for my young self. I saw things there unlike anything I had ever seen: intriguing objects from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. During a trip this month to see my family in Ann Arbor [...]
Read MoreExactly four years ago, I found myself in Denmark. I had just survived my first semester at the École du Louvre. The term had culminated with eight exams in five days; each exam was basically a choice between two broad questions with three hours to answer one of them. I celebrated my birthday with an exam [...]
Read MoreMarch can be a really awkward month. Before the scent of springtime comes wafting in on April breezes, the last snowfalls of March must be endured. When I feel like I can't take one more minute of slush and ice, my mind wanders to far-off places. I dream of beaches in Bali or the mild grey of Paris. Even [...]
Read MoreThis is part of Louvre Photo Safaris, a series that focuses on details found in Louvre artworks around various themes, with the aim of looking at everything differently. I know very little about Ancient Egyptian art. So during a recent stroll through the Louvre's Egyptian Antiquities galleries, I needed help looking at the objects. One of the first artifacts [ ... ]
Read MoreIn honor of #MuseumWeek, the week-long celebration of museums on Twitter, this post is dedicated to today's theme of 'poses' (#poseMW). During a recent visit to the Groeningemuseum, a museum of Belgian art in Bruges, I was struck by the poses found in the paintings. These artists used bodies and gestures to convey [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Hokusai exhibition at the Grand Palais is like a movie. You enter, and the first room focuses on the reception of the Hokusai’s works in France in the second half of the 19th century (after his death). A timeline greets you with the major dates of the artist’s life, each period associated with a name change. It’s like only hearing whispers [ ... ]
Read MoreI’ve been looking forward to the Louvre’s exhibition on medieval Morocco for quite a while. Before it opened in October, I could see an amazing lit chandelier being set up at the exhibition entrance. I was excited to learn more about a period of art history that I haven’t encountered much since I took a survey course in [ ... ]
Read MoreThe current exposition-dossier at the Musée du Louvre is on Rhodes, a Greek island that was an important trading hub between the East and West in Antiquity. This exhibition focuses on Rhodian archeology from the 14th to 6th centuries BCE (from the Bronze Age to the Archaic period). It is literally the first exhibition in [ ... ]
Read MoreThe Louvre Abu Dhabi will open in December 2015, but you can see the museum's first acquisitions now, on display in an exhibition at the 'Louvre Paris’. In 2007, an intergovernmental agreement was signed between France and the United Arab Emirates [ ... ]
Read MoreToulouse is known as la ville rose due to the pink bricks used to construct many of its buildings. The Musée des Augustins is no exception. Built in 1309 as a Augustinian convent, today the building houses a collection of paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The galleries [ … ]
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This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
IMAGINIBUS is a blog about playing in museums, with a focus on imagination and creativity.
This blog is a place to be inspired to use your imagination around artworks—and to see the art of your daily life.
When we engage creatively with art, museums can become playgrounds and laboratories to experiment with attention, mindfulness, and imagination. Interesting things happen when we use that museum gaze to look at our daily lives like a work of art.
Find more inspiration for playing with new ways of paying attention to your daily life here.
Hello! I'm Marina Gross-Hoy, a writer, Museum Studies PhD candidate, and mother currently living in Quebec. I take playing in museums very seriously.
Read more about the blog here.
Check out my newsletter on Substack to be inspired to see the art in your daily life.
