Apology

My sincere apologies to readers and to the New Britain Museum of American Art, which is a beautiful museum in a city that needs beauty: I should have written "like all the walls surrounding the gallery" in which Sam McKinniss's paintings are hung, rather than "all the walls in the New Britain Museum of American Art."

To clarify further -- and I hope that my series of columns will continue to do so over the next two weeks -- I believe strongly in the service that museums provide to a community, to art and to history. I like going to art museums, and I particularly like going to NBMAA, which I remember visiting as a child. The transformations NBMAA has undergone since then are astounding, and even as the museum was a cozy, warm environment for its artworks twenty years ago, it's become a world-class showcase with a friendly and professional staff, a terrace cafe overlooking the park and a penchant for attracting (and displaying) the work of new and exciting (and local) artists.

If this sounds like an advertisement, that's because I mean it to be one. Next week I'll focus on ways of displaying history that more interactive museums are able to use -- but that doesn't detract from the necessity, utility and beauty of a museum like NBMAA. Far from it.