Exciting Up and Coming Museums

Given the available cheap traveloptions, such as cheapfares, cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages, 2014would be a good year to check out some of the worlds most interesting museums.

The following museums which feature striking architectureand thought provoking exhibits that benefit their neighborhoods by attractingnew lodgings, restaurants, and galleries, according to Smarter Travel:

• PerezArt Museum in Miami, Florida is Miamis newest art installation. Leafy columns of jungle plants grow down themuseums ivory and glass eaves, creating the appearance of green pillars. Blue water laps the adjacent shores. Visitors congregate on the grass lawn to takein the beauty. Inside you can view HewLockes exhibit of watery vessels suspended from the rafters facing thesea. Ai Weiweis irreverent sculpturesof creatures is another must see exhibit.

• RedStar Line Museum in Antwerp, Belgium shares the stories of emigrants who tookthe Red Star Line from Europe to North America. The museum is located on the grounds of the old Red Star Line shippingcompany, whose tower and adjoining warehouses served as central departurepoints for 2 million emigrants from all over Europe from 1873 to 1934. Many parents were forced to leave theirchildren behind to join the great European migration.

• DaliMuseum in St. Petersburg, Florida challenges the eye and the mind, as lifeimitates the artist whose works it celebrates. The museum also pays homage to Spains Catalonian museum. Dali Museum is currently exhibiting atraveling (through April 26^th) collection of works of Andy Warholwho was heavily influenced by the Spanish master.

• Cityof the Ocean in Biarritz, France is shaped like the contours of waves with aplunging concave roof. It opened lastsummer to celebrate the ecology of surf. The museum exhibits look at the oceans depths to understand how wavesform. Another popular exhibit followsexplorers and their discoveries at the polar caps.

• Museumof Innocence in Istanbul, Turkey was created by a Nobel Prize winning authorwho named the museum after his novel of the same name. The museum is organized according to thebooks chapters and focuses on 1970s Istanbul. Here the cultures that bridges East and West are explored.

• CrystalBridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas is one of the newestand finest American art museums. Financed by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, this museum showcases art inmagnificent pavilions around creek fed lakes. A museum hotel (21c) has opened just steps away from Crystal Bridges anddisplays edgy 21^st century sculptures, paintings, and multimediaart.

• AstrupFearnley Museet in Oslo, Norway reopened at the end of 2012 featuring animpressive Renzo Piano design and is now the citys gathering point. The museums collection pushes the boundariesof contemporary art. A sculpture park isnext to the museum and you can ride up a glass elevator referred to as theSneak Peak for great views of the harbor. The surroundings streets are filled with art galleries, eateries, and acity beach.

• BioMuseoin Panama City, Panama is now partially opened. Cruisers passing through the Panama Canal can see the BioMuseus roofcomprised of a chaotic geometric pattern of primary reds, blues, greens, andyellows. An open air atrium focuses onthe nature and biodiversity of Panama and includes aquariums and gardens.

• NationalMuseum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul Korea opened in November of 2013and is currently hosting a Masterpieces of Modern Korean Painting exhibitiondisplaying works from 1920s to the 1970s: a time of tremendous change, hardship, andchallenge in the countrys history.

2014 will be one of the best years for new museum openingsincluding:

• TheNational Center for Civil and Human Rights is scheduled to open in early summerin Atlanta. It will present the historyof the Civil Rights struggle, celebrate progress, and confront ongoing issues.

• Thenewly renovated and expanded Harvard Art Museums complex is expected to openthis fall.

• TheBroad is anticipating a late 2014 opening and will feature postwar andcontemporary art in an impressive waffled building in downtown Los Angeles.