Would you believe I’ve lived walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum for over a year and didn’t visit until last week?! It took my best friend flying across the country, randomly hearing the announcement on the subway (This is Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn Museum) and scrawling it into our itinerary for me to finally make it. On Jordan’s last day in town, we slept in, had a lazy brunch at neighborhood favorite Cent’Anni and made our way over to the museum!

To be honest, I didn’t know anything about the Brooklyn Museum before we went. (You may remember how terrible I am at museum-visiting from my backwards trek through the Whitney, and the trip to the Met that was so boring I didn’t even blog about it). I thought this was a museum about Brooklyn. It’s actually an art museum that happens to be in Brooklyn. The more you know!

This oversized shoe is actually a coffin! In parts of Ghana, coffins are designed to reflect the interests or personality of the deceased.

The African art grabbed my attention, as I am making my first trip to the continent in just over a week!

This display of textiles is one of the few (the only?) exhibits you’re allowed to touch!

I don’t usually *get* European art, but the architecture in the European Paintings room was sure stunning!

We also loved the Egyptian art – Jordan particularly has a strong interest in that region, and I studied hieroglyphs in sixth grade, basically spurring my love of languages and the written word. Unfortunately we had to cut our visit short to run to the airport, but I’ll definitely be back – especially now that I know the entrance fee is a suggested donation!

If you go: The Brooklyn Museum is off the 2/3 trains in Prospect Heights. The suggested donation for an adult is $16, but it’s pay as you wish. They also have a super fun app that you can use to ask experts about the art, and get answers in real-time!