I love museums. To get lost in the galleries, flitting about from exhibit to exhibit, sometimes pausing to peer at pointillist pinpricks and other times simply drinking in color while paying no heed to the actual content brings me such unadulterated joy. Just writing that sentence and recalling days spent amongst artwork fills me with the kind of happiness I feel I must hold my breath in to contain.

Undeniably, a large part of this love has been cultivated by growing up in New York. Whether I was on a middle school class trip or simply in the mood to take a spring stroll down Fifth Ave from Hunter, the plethora of museums—both public and private—to pop into was unmatched.

The crown jewel, of course, is the MET, which for the longest time was my favorite museum. Unlike major museums in other cities, cough Paris, London cough, you rarely have to fight tooth and nail to experience the MET’s excellent collection.

There are obviously two extremes to this: on one hand, my personal utility would be higher if all museums increased their ticket prices to cull the crowds. On the other hand, there is nobility in leaving massive collections, open to the public.

except for the fact that you have to join a massive line snaking around Great Russell St to get in an hour after your timed entry and then fight through throngs of tour groups with noses pushed against the Rosetta Stone case to catch a glimpse

Not to glaze New York, as the kids would say, but I think the right form of public access lies somewhere in the middle, and can be found in many of the large museums in the city: free tickets for residents and paid options for visitors. Of course, I can’t say I haven’t been annoyed by schoolchildren flying from room to room while I pick out individual strokes on a Seurat (1, 2). But at the same time, unless I’ve chosen a particularly nice Saturday afternoon, I also don’t have to stand in a line—outside or inside.

Something that I hope comes through from the paragraphs above and the list below is that my interests are not holistic and varied. I generally know the things I like and this has an impact on how I rate some institutions (looking at you BM). In rough order I enjoy:

• paintings: generally European from the 18th to 20th centuries, although I appreciate good pieces regardless of time period or culture
• contemporary and abstract works (this has grown on me as I’ve aged)
• designs (think Bauhaus)
• intricate sculptures, pediments, architecture

Rarely do I go to a museum to look at artifacts and learn about history. Both delightful things to do, of course, but not my main cup of tea.

Finally, some museums are amazing but for me have faded in enjoyment as I’ve gotten older. Chief amongst these is the AMNH. At this point in my life, there are rarely new things to learn from the exhibits, whose scientific and technical level is understandably kept generally accessible. Sure, I can look at the shiny minerals and stand by the blue whale but if we’re being honest, this place is more of a quant holiday party venue than it is a museum.

in kenny g i trust

The Louvre

The only unexpected change from my April 2nd ranking is the apparent demotion of the most visited museum in the world, especially surprising because I thoroughly enjoyed my day there just a week prior. The space was gargantuan, the collection put many others on this list to shame, and the sense of existence and scale that a stroll through the artwork provided was unmatched. But there was just one thing that kept nagging at me as my step count summitted 25k: I was moving, seeing, taking pictures, but not really feeling the art. The experience was akin to watching a movie rather than reading a book—it felt unnatural to just pause at a piece and think about it for a long while. The constant stream of tour groups and mass of people put an urgency in my exploration that I didn’t enjoy in the context of a museum. This emotion crystallized when I made it onto the second floor: quiet, empty, surely detached by more than just ten feet from the panic below. And most importantly for this ranking: closer to how I felt exploring the MET.

A final note: museum dates. I don’t think museums are great early date venues but a great date can be filtered by going to a museum.

I love:

• being able to walk around in comfortable silence
• separating to look at different paintings but inevitably coming back into the same orbit
• not feeling the need to yap while also having the perfect background for hours of talking

The Ranking