Bellevue Arts Museum - Bellevue, Washington. (free passes - I'm giving away 2 below)
I had the chance to check out the Bellevue Art Museum, in Bellevue Washington this weekend.
Smack dab in the middle of a fantastic crossroads of shopping, dining, movies and bowling was this museum… Like a big unpacked box sitting in your house after you moved… Not sure what you wanted to do with it, so you left it in the middle of the room. You know it is important, but you kind of left there in the middle of the room… This building seemingly dropped from outer space with a thud onto this fast pased busy corner.
This museum is just that… But it is not an eyesore or derelict item of a forgotten move, but in fact is what I would call a cultural icon that gives the regular public a view into the minds and talents of those that sometimes get overlooked as we tend to our day to day lives.
So before I had to catch my flight back to California, I thought I would check it out and blog about it.
As I walked in, the immense lobby seemed to remind me of a Star Trek movie with all the wide open, non usable space, projecting some sort of image that I am not smart enough to understand. As I am not really an artist, nor am I qualified enough to really explain to you this museum or the exhibits that were on display here. It had sterile feeling, and I felt that I had to force myself to keep smiling or I would fall into a coma of misery and frustration from those that received a paycheck keeping this place running…
I was all excited about visiting this wonderful place, but left very discouraged. And my smile seemed to subside within the first few minutes.
$10 to get in today. Some of the exhibits are closed. I asked for a discount, and was only offered a pass to visit again in the next month or so. Not much use to me, as I live in California. So off I went to look at $5 in exhibits for $10.
I wasn’t able to take in my coffee, couldn’t take pictures for my blog… And couldn’t even get the front desk gal to be very friendly when I arrived.
As I meandered through the place, I noticed that I was the ONLY person in the museum. The staff outnumbered the visitors 5 to 1… Yea, I mean there were 5 people working there, and there was me… I think they could hear my footsteps throughout the entire place… When I did run into someone that worked there, they seem to look down on me over their imaginary glasses… Judging me before knowing anything about me. Was it my dark sunglasses making me look mysterious? Was it my camo baseball had and sweatshirt that gave of bad vibes? Or was it the crumpled cash that I had to dig out of my pocked to scratch up the 10 bucks to get in… Whatever the reason, it made me feel awkward in the way I walked around. Was I not spending enough time looking at the exhibits? Was I meandering too much? Was I fooling around with my iPhone when I should have been pondering the meaning of life?
When I got off the elevator on the 3rd floor I was finally greeted with a smile. A guard came over towards me. Finally someone nice, someone friendly, compassionate. He only wanted to confirm I was a paying guest. You have to wear this green clip thing that tells the world that you are a guest, and not part of the exclusive establishment. Like going with a friend to his private golf course, and when you want to order, you have to have your friend give the bartender the secret handshake or nod… Then they look at you and know you are just a guest visiting for the day.
At this point it seemed that I was unable to come up with any positive things to blog about from this museum, apart from the art that was displayed by some pretty talented artists. There were some really cool wood things, and some other things, and some cool stuff, and some lights and stuff…
I hope that my terrible time at this museum was just a fluke. If I lived in the area I am sure I would return again, and hope that it was not always this way. Then again, it makes me wonder if this is why on a Sunday afternoon, I was the only person visiting. To give credit, the gal at the front desk warmed up as I left... She did seem concerned a bit about my visit, and how it could have been better.
If you had a great experience here, please share… OR let us know why you would want to go. The best idea or response will be awarded with my free passes to the museum. Just let me know what you think after visiting.
-Chris
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