The Solace Project #18

Dear Friends,<br/><br/>Today, to Philadelphia, the so-called City of Brotherly Love, to visit the great museum there and look at portraits of two women, <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/306033">Anne Willing Bingham</a> and <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/39031">Juana Ines de la Cruz,</a> lives that were different and alike, hanging in galleries separate but pulled together by the circumstance if only in my mind.<br/><br/>In other weeks, I&#8217;ve guided us virtually, but this time I actually visited, felt like a blast from the past. For the past months and more, I&#8217;ve been watching and waiting for the renovation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, looking forward to the reinstallation of the collection of American art, rich in local and national history and I just knew that smart and aware colleagues there would do right.&#160; I attended teaser webinars, read the previews and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/arts/design/philadelphia-museum-gehry-renovation.html">reviews</a>, and when it opened in May, I pined with longing to visit.&#160;And then realized, like a pinch on my arm, that I could go!! Just like old times, got up early, jumped on Amtrak, enjoyed a clean and safe train ride, walked with a very good friend along the Schuykill River path to the museum and went inside. Heaven.&#160;<br/><br/>The press promises <a href="https://press.philamuseum.org/new-galleries-present-fresh-take-on-art-of-americas-with-focus-on-philadelphia/">&#8220;a museum reimagined,&#8221;</a> years in the making that adds 90,000 square feet of gallery space for art and people. It&#8217;s the first major renovation since 1928 when the museum moved to Fairmount Park. The always astonishing architect Frank Gehry did indeed reimagine, the best part, to my eye, is the 640 foot vaulted corridor that spans the entire building, a magnificent space that has been used for museum storage for the past 50 years. Glorious, just glorious, as a passageway to the installations of new arti