• Your impressions of the look and feel of the whole place.
  • The Jewish Museum is in a gorgeous old building on the Upper East Side, specifically on 5th and 92nd overlooking Central Park and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. The weather was gorgeous on the day I visited - clear skies with temperatures in the 40s which definitely put me in a good mood as I arrived. The atrium you enter into is brown stone which feels a bit intimidating and serious. This may also be because there were several security guards and you had to go through a metal detector. I understand why the extra security is needed at a Jewish institution though, with the rising anti-semitic threats in recent months. Up in the galleries, I felt like I was in a very typical white-walled art museum. I liked the mix of contemporary and historical art and artifacts in the main collection. No special or temporary exhibitions were open when I visited. However, as a Jew who has lived in NYC for years and has never gone, I was glad I went and definitely plan to return when there is more on view.
  • What works, what doesn’t?
    • Overall, this felt like a very typical New York City/5th Ave museum experience. I don’t love the formality of entering a space like this or the traditional gallery set up, but I understand why it is the way it is. Right now, the gallery felt just as easy to walk through and only spend a second on each work as spending time with them and reading the inscriptions to learn more.
• Do you feel welcomed, is the place intimidating or comfortable, what’s the atmosphere?
  • It was somewhat intimidating to me - there were a lot of security guards both at the front, as well as gallery attendants with piercing gazes watching my every move. I personally enjoyed the collection on view, but I could see someone who is not Jewish and who does not have an Art History background having a harder time enjoying and understanding everything.
• Every place has an emotional, social and intellectual gestalt. Do your best to describe it.
  • Cultural Judaism. I enjoyed how even the more religious objects and artifacts were contextualized in a cultural way instead of religiously. It doesn’t require a prior knowledge of the Torah and holiday events if one was not raised Jewish.
• A word (or two) for its personality?
  • Stoic, professional
• A memorable object, exhibit, hall or interaction (person-to-person)
  • One of two film installations was a film by artist Shari Rothfarb Mekonen from 1999 titled Ocean Avenue. I only caught the last few minutes, but every frame and line of speech felt culturally Jewish in a way I am not sure how to describe. I visited with my not-Jewish boyfriend, and while everything was amusing to me, most of the jokes and quips went over his head. I think he enjoyed watching it, but not to the same extent I did.
• Hospitality: how hard is it to find the bathrooms, how nice are the guards, can you find your way around.
  • Wayfinding was not as obvious as I hoped it would be. You had to take elevators up to the exhibition floors, and while there were posters labeling where to go outside, there was nothing in the elevator indicating what was on each floor to remind you while you were inside it. The guards were a bit intimidating but were helpful in locating the bathrooms which were only on certain floors and wayfinding to them was not well marked from the bathroom-less floors. I could find my way around, but it took more effort than I really wanted to put in.
• Who’s there? Ages, demographics, and other details you notice about visitors.
  • Are they coming as one, twos, or in groups?
    • Everyone I saw in the museum had come with at least one other person. Most of the visitors appeared to be couples ranging in age from their late 20s (me and my boyfriend) to 60s. There was one pair of friends (very Jewish) who I guessed were around 70, but they were the oldest people I saw in the galleries. There was one father there with his two kids who I guessed were around 8 years old. About half of the guests appeared Jewish to me.
• How do people socialize at the museum?
  • Does anyone socialize outside their group?
    • No one seemed to be talking much to anyone they did not come with.
  • Does anyone ask questions?
    • My non-Jewish boyfriend asked me a couple of questions but I did not notice anyone else talking much.
  • Did you ask a question or socialize?
    • The only questions I asked were to my boyfriend to see how much he knew about Jewish religion and culture.
• Think about what behaviors the museum space supports in regards to socializing, learning, and engagement.
• Notice the exhibits.
  • Are they designed for one person, two people, or a group?
    • The galleries are all designed to be big enough to comfortably hold at least 10 people. There is lots of space to move around, and it felt very empty when we were there and only saw one or two other people at any given time.
  • Is there a deep dive into content, or is the information “scaffolded” appropriately?
    • There were no deep dives in the permanent collection galleries. I thought there was a nice amount of information (3-5 sentences) on all of the wall text that gave people enough context for what they were looking at but would not overwhelm them with information.
  • If there are any interactive technology exhibits, are they working? How do people interact with them? Get granular, think input/output.
    • There were no interactive exhibits when I was there.
• Spend a few minutes on the museum’s website.
  • Does the website ‘feel” like it’s specific to the museum?
    • Not particularly to me. It feels like a fairly generic museum website with the Jewish Museum’s branding and details stuck on it. Overall, feels like the same website template, design, and experience as many art museum websites I have visited before.
  • Would you ever go back to the website? Why?
    • They have the entire permanent collection online, so I might revisit the website for research. I am also not subscribed to their marketing emails, so I may revisit it to check on what temporary exhibits may be on view.
• Missed Opportunities… think about what you would change or improve
  • Something that explains why an image, video, or object is culturally Jewish. Some were more obvious - they had Hebrew letters on them and their wall text explained they were used for religious events. Others, I could tell my not-Jewish boyfriend had no idea why they were there, or in the case of the film, did not understand much of the humor, and there was nowhere to explain even some of it to him. That job fell onto me - another visitor to the museum. I am sure he is not the only one to struggle with some of the meaning and context and that this is a regular problem for many people who visit the Museum.
• In addition to the Field Trip Report- share videos and images (If allowed by the museum)- Consider doing a recording in your favorite exhibit with voice-over about what you see and what you can do in the exhibit.
  • I was so focused on my experience in the exhibition I only grabbed a few photos, but they were for some of my personal favorite works. I have listed them at the end of this document
• Notice: the different length of captions (this is considered interpretive text). What’s the purpose of the captions…what do you think it should be? Did the captions you saw satisfy you?
  • My personal context for how museums display work is art museums, and the Jewish Museum, while technically cultural, felt very art-like in how they explained work. The captions did satisfy me, but I’m not sure it’s enough context for people who come from other backgrounds.
• Imagine you are a child (4.5 feet or under) of a different race and gender background from you. Look for yourself in the exhibits...how are you represented?
  • The museum did a nice job of showing work, and behind the scenes photographs, of Jews from around the world along with work inspired by Jews and related to Jewish culture. If I were a small child, I am not sure I would learn much about Jewish culture on my visit here, but there are definitely a lot of fun objects to look at in a variety of mediums, colors, and compositions. I probably would complain until my parent (or whoever brought me) took me to get ice cream and go to a park or the children's museum instead. The galleries are definitely geared towards adults.
• Take photos and note an exhibit in particular that caught your eye.
  • Carousel horses from Coney Island
  • The wall text for a film set in Jewish Brooklyn around the turn of the century
  • Self Portrait by Louise Nevelson

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