The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

I was in Boston on the weekend, and I happened to go to this little museum I had never heard of through the suggestion of another traveller. It turned out to be one of the most incredible places I had ever been, gorgeous, so inspiring, and absolutely magical! I stayed until they kicked me out.

The Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum is this incredible space created by a society woman in the early 1900's. Its designed to look like a 15th Century Venetian Palace, it has an incredible glassed in courtyard in the center, with three stories of rooms that all look into the courtyard.

What's incredible about the museum is that Mrs. Gardener displays her collections in a way that is not typical of a museum. Instead of grouping like things together in a time period, Isabella Stewart Gardener carefully installed her collection in a way that evokes an intimate response to the art. Things are placed according to aesthetic and intuitive choice, instead of in traditional museum groupings. The effect is stunning. 

I wish I had been allowed to take my own images, these don't do it justice at all. If you ever get the chance to go to this museum, GO. It was so amazing, if I lived in Boston I was be there at least once a week. I could explore that place for the rest of my life. 

$5 for students, free if it's your birthday or your name is Isabella. :)

And what I'm listening to today-

An adorable song written by my sister, the musician Carla Anderson, to help my niece with teething. I just can't stop listening to it!