Barnes Foundation — Attraction in Philadelphia

First time visiting the Barnes and while the new building, architecture and art are exquisite, I have to walk away with a bad taste in my mouth due to staff and lack of accessibility for those with disabilities. I enjoyed the art and at one point pointed about 5” away from one painting (that was not roped off) to show my father something I noticed in the painting and a staff member was then quick on her heels to come up to us saying “please don’t touch/point that close to the art”. Ok fine, no worries, I understand the detriment of this for paintings and fine art but I felt it was policing a little too much.

But my biggest gripe was the lack of accessibility for those like myself with chronic illness and disabilities, particularly in reference to the bathroom being on the lower level. I have a chronic illness (for over 32yrs) that I do need quick and close access to the bathroom quite often. I took note that it was far away from the exhibits and needed to walk down a flight of stairs to the lower level to access. Thought to myself as both an RN (with a masters degree) and living with a chronic illness my whole life that thank God I am able bodied enough and not in a wheelchair and didn’t need to use the elevator etc and able to climb up/down the stairs if I needed to use the bathroom facilities often. In relation to this same concern, I then discovered that in the outside terrace there were 2 bathrooms located out in the back. Before we left (an hour drives home) I decided to use these bathrooms to make sure I was good for the drive home. I used the bathroom around 4:35pm (website states museum is closed at 5) so I had plenty of time. About 2 minutes into going into the bathroom and needed a few more to be done, someone started to jangle the door, no knocks. I thought it was another guest at first until I heard the keys start to go into the outside locks and I quickly stated I would be just a moment. I then proceeded to hear a his person go open and lock the other bathroom and realized that maybe the custodian was cleaning and locking up early. When this person was done with locking the other door I then hear her walkie to other staff “please tell guests the outside terrace bathroom is closed in 5 minutes”. So you can only imagine that someone living with a chronic illness’ worst nightmare to be rushed from the facility that their illness needs them full and un-rushed access to. I looked at my phone and by this point it was about 4:38. I then hear this woman pound on my door again when I just told her 2 min ago I was still in use of it. I let her know “almost finished” and could hear her waiting outside the door impatiently jangling her keys more. When I finished up it was 4:40pm so about 5min total in the bathroom. I did look at her when I exited and stated “I apologize I didn’t realize these would be closing now, and I have a chronic illness I needed to use the bathroom for” she replied “ok, I hope you feel better” but I was very disappointed in how rude she handled the situation before she knew I had a disability. I have seen other negative reviews about the staff and I have never been treated like this in other places with my illness. l wanted to make sure...

Filled with incredible art & artifacts; the litany of Renoirs & Cézannes are magnificent to see in-person, and the other stuff on display covers a wide range of epochs & places. There are Flemish portraits from the 1600s, religious works from the 1400-1500s, some indigenous artwork from pre-Colombian Turtle Island. One room has figures from ancient Egypt dating all the way to back to 2000 B.C.E. (including a large tile you get to see with your plain eyes, not through a glass case). Tools, tchotchkes, and other artifacts from eras past line the walls; all kinds of furniture pieces sit under the hanging artworks, again coming from all over the place. There's a lot to see and it's all cool.

Unfortunately I had an appalling time dealing with "Barnes Focus". The museum does not have placards on the walls with information about each piece, which is fine on its own, but the solution they present is a browser page you open on your phone and point at artworks to "scan" them. When it works it gives you a nice little summary of the piece...but it doesn't work. I was totally unable to scan anything hanging particularly high up, and for smaller pieces it was almost completely unusable. At one point I successfully scanned something small by holding my phone directly up to it, prompting a guard to tell me I needed to scan it from the rope boundary (I've attached a screenshot of what the Barnes Focus page looked from the rope boundary in that room). But I was lucky to even scan that thing, because I held my phone up to plenty of artifacts big & small and after multiple tries had no success.

I do not have the newest or nicest phone, and perhaps Barnes Focus works best with newer, faster models with better cameras. But in that case, people like me - who do not have money to throw around on iPhones - are being shut out of accessing basic information about the museum's artifacts after we spend $30+ on tickets enter. Meanwhile everyone is walking around with their phones out, holding them up to every piece, which feels a bit too on-the-nose for our 24/7 Screentime Hell Future. All in all, as grateful as I am to have seen all these artworks, I will not be going back anytime soon, and I find myself ranking this visit far below my visits to the other museums nearby.

If you decide to attend, I recommend doing a guided tour if you want to hear more about the paintings. Otherwise you'll probably have a less frustrating time just web searching the artist & subject of a painting you're interested in; the Barnes website will usually pop up with the correct result (I did this a few times in lieu of scanning). Prepare yourself for everyone walking around with phones and sticking them up to the...

This was the place I fell in love with art and it was because of the unique manner of display, it brought art to life.

My daughter is an artist and works in the art field and while I love seeing her passion for art; I have never understood it, until I visited the Barnes Foundation Museum. She used to work here and she would tell me about this amazing museum that was unlike any other and that broke every traditional rule of art. So on my visit to Philly, I asked her to take me this amazing museum she spoke of so often. If I’m honest, I expected this to be like every other museum trip. I would listen to her tell me about the art, style and artist and pretend like I understood. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

We spent TWO days exploring this museum bc for the first time in my life, I understood her passion, I seen what she seen. Having worked at the Museum she was able to explain everything to me from the artist to the style to why and how paintings were displayed as they were. This was the place I fell in love with art and it was because of the unique manner of display, it brought art to life. This is not a sterile museum where the art is presented as untouchable or unrelatable, where no one speaks and all your hear are footsteps. Here, art interacts with the viewer, (obviously you can’t touch any of it) here is where you can learn about art in a way that makes sense.

I highly encourage everyone to take the tour and take the time to truly understand and appreciate just how unique this museum is. To truly appreciate its history, understand how Mr. Barnes acquired such a collection, to know why it’s here in Philly despite that never being Albert Barnes’ intention or wishes, to know that art was only a passion of Barnes & it was bc he was never formally trained that he was able to collate art in the manner he did, unconstrained by rules & boundaries. To not take the tour would be to not fully appreciate...