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So Many Museums!

Jane August, content creator, talks about her Tik Tok series "Jane Visits Every Museum in New York City" and shares some of her favorites among the 106 she's seen already.

Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Happy Friday. I'm Brigid Bergin, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian Lehrer today. What's the last New York City Museum you visited? My next guest might have trouble keeping tracks and she's on a mission to see all of them. It turns out there are 170 in total. Her name is Jane August, and she's made it to 100 so far. This is a pandemic-era project called Every Museum in NYC that's kept going on. It's gone viral on TikTok. You might have seen her piece nine of her favorites in Gothamist over the holidays. I want to welcome Jane to the show. Welcome to WNYC.

Jane August: Hi.

Brigid Bergin: Jane, tell me, what's your latest count of museums visited so far? I know it's over 100. I think it was about 106 when you wrote the piece for Gothamist?

Jane August: Yes, it's still 106. We're going to 107 tomorrow.

Brigid Bergin: Ooh, where are you going?

Jane August: To the Salvador Mundi Museum of Art in Brooklyn.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. Where is that?

Jane August: It's in Park Slope, I believe.

Brigid Bergin: How did you determine that there are 170 museums altogether? Is there a directory somewhere?

Jane August: I made a very massive spreadsheet when I started this project. I searched all edges of the internet, books that I found in thrift stores, to try to compile the most comprehensive list of all the museums in the city. Since that piece came out, I've been contacted that there's five or so more, so I think the spreadsheet is up to about 180 now.

Brigid Bergin: Oh, wow. Where did you start and what's the last one you visited? Yes, what is the last one you visited since we know where you're going tomorrow?

Jane August: My most recent museum I visited was the General Grant National Memorial, which is in Riverside Park.

Brigid Bergin: Sure. Is there a place to go inside of that? When I think of it, I think of the memorial just outside, but is there more to that museum?

Jane August: Yes. There's the inside. It's the largest mausoleum in North America, I found out. They recently reopened the inside. It's been closed for the past couple of months, a year or so due to construction and safety things.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. Listeners, do you want to see if Jane August has visited your favorite museum or do you maybe have a hidden gem that you want to suggest that she add to her list, give us a call. The number is 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text at that number. We want to hear about what your favorite museum is. Maybe see if Jane August in her attempt to see them all has been there. Maybe you have some special recommendations for where or when to visit. Jane, can you talk about how this became your pandemic-era project?

What made you decide this was the thing to do?

Jane August: I work in the music industry and specifically the live music industry, so I was furloughed for about 15, 16 months due to COVID. About 11 months into the pandemic lockdown, whatever we call it now, I realized that I have such a great opportunity of being furloughed. I could do something really cool with that time instead of sit around my house and watch movies. The only thing that was really art and culture that you can go out to do at that time was museums because theatres and venues and the movies were still closed.

I looked up what museums there were that were open that I could visit, and I realized there were so many. I was like, "Huh, why don't I use this time to try to visit them all?" Now we're three years in, and I still haven't visited them all, but we're almost there.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. I saw on your website about this project. You write, "It's not a museum. It's a reflection of our lives." Can you explain what you meant by that?

Jane August: Yes. As I've been going through these museums, I'm learning so much about New York. I'm learning about the people I know. Just about learning about different cultures and different history of New York. We went to the Queens Museum and that's the old New York pavilion from the World's Fair. I became obsessed with the New York World's Fairs for that week or two. I was talking to my parents and they're like, "Oh, yes. We went to the World's Fair in the 60s." Things that I didn't even realize that my parents had done to learn about that and learning about the New York that my family grew up in too.

Brigid Bergin: Speaking of the Queens Museum and all of the World Fair that is left there, I saw Ed in Yonkers wanted to recommend a specific spot. Ed, thanks for calling WNYC.

Ed: Hi. That is the hidden gem for out-of-town guests or kids that I bring to town. It's fascinating. I remember it from '64. It's been updated several times. If you live in a structure in New York City, it's on that panorama. They put a plexiglass covering over it, so you can actually walk over it and look down on it. It was a little more interactive in '64 with simulated helicopters and stuff like that, but it's a great little hidden gem. The other thing I always take people on is the Roosevelt Island tram. For two bucks apiece, I think they're fascinating tourist attractions.

Brigid Bergin: Ed, thank you so much for your call. Jane, as you were talking about the Queens Museum, I'm sure you've checked out the panorama too. Am I right?

Jane August: It's one of my favorite things in New York City. You just go there and just marvel in what the place is and realize there are millions of people who live in that.

Brigid Bergin: Yes. What is the smallest museum you've seen so far? A few years ago, this show did a series on some of New York's tiniest museums. I think at least three of the ones in our series made your list. With so many museums to see, are smaller ones some of your favorites and what is the smallest one you've seen?

Jane August: The smallest museum I've been to-- it's called Mmuseumm, but it has an extra m at the beginning and the end. It's in this old elevator shaft in Chinatown, Tribeca. It's a object journalism museum. It's these shelves of objects, and they all have something tied together, and you get this big guy telling you why that item is there. It's really cool. Also when it's closed, there's a little window, so you can always peek through it. That's the smallest museum in New York City.

Brigid Bergin: Wow. That's a great one. We've got some listeners who have texted some recommendations. The Museum of Math at 11 East 26th Street. Have you visited the Museum of Math?

Jane August: I have. I went there on their reopening day after lockdown.

Brigid Bergin: Oh, wow. Let's go to Helen in Brooklyn. I think she has a suggestion for another museum to check out. Helen, thanks for calling WNYC.

Helen: Oh, you're very welcome. There are a couple actually. Since I don't know what's on your list. There are three home museums that I'm thinking of right now. One of them is the Chaim Gross, the sculptor artist, in Washington Square West. It's a beautiful-- he lived in a beautiful home. It has a fabulous personal art collection and then it's his own work as well.

Jane August: I have. It's incredible.

Helen: If you didn't know about it-- oh, you've been there. All right, already.

Jane August: Yes, I went there. It's beautiful.

Helen: I particularly love home museums. When I travel in the world, I look for them. There's one on East Third Street. I think just an ordinary house that somehow was not destroyed [laughs] from old New York, and you can visit the way people used to live in their little townhouses. I think it's East Third Street.

Brigid Bergin: Well, that's great. Helen, that's different from the Tenement Museum, I'm sure.

Helen: Yes. It was a private home. There's the Lefferts Museum in Prospect Park. You know about these things already.

Jane August: Yes, the Historic House Trust has been--

Helen: crosstalk] the Subway Museum in Brooklyn.

Jane August: The Historic House Trust has other found museums and they've been very helpful in this project.

Brigid Bergin: What was the name of the group that's been helpful, Jane?

Jane August: The Historic House Trust. They manage a lot of the historic homes that you're talking about, Helen. The other ways that New Yorkers used to live and the history of places that people live, which is really cool.

Brigid Bergin: Helen, thank you so much for those great suggestions. Jane, I feel like we're seeing the fruits of all your labors since you've been to most of those museums already. What's the farthest you've traveled to see a museum?

Jane August: The furthest was the City Island Museum. I live in South Brooklyn, so that was about two and a half hours for me to get to by transit. That was the furthest I've gone.

Brigid Bergin: I hate to ask you to pick a favorite because obviously, they're so different in so many ways, but what would be among your top choices for places to go, places to recommend?

Jane August: I have a lot of favorites. I love the New York Historical Society. That was one that really surprised me because when you think of a thing that's a historical society, when you go outside, you think it's going to be a little stuffy. It was really cool and innovative and I learned so much there. That's one of my favorites. I love Poster House, which is a poster art museum in Chelsea. They have awesome exhibits. They do really good community and student programming and it's just very neat and hip. I love the Museum of the Moving Image, which is the film museum in Queens.

Brigid Bergin: That's great. I want to go to Judith on the Upper West Side. I think Judith has a question. Judith, thanks for calling WNYC.

Judith: Thank you. Do you have a recommendation for a Woman's Rights Museum or Women's Revolution or Women's Movement Museum? That I can submit a work that a very fine artist made and I promised when she died that I would make it hang in a public place.

Jane August: Actually, as far as I've found, there haven't been any museums dedicated to women's art or women's history, which is interesting. I know there's the Williamsburg Art and Cultural Center. They've had exhibits about women artists. At the Museum of the City of New York, they have an activism exhibition that I believe is permanent or ongoing now. They changed stuff out there and they have a section about feminism and suffrage. I think those are ones worth looking into.

Brigid Bergin: Those are good recommendations. Jane, as part of your project, you are shooting videos. Do any of the museums give you trouble over shooting the videos as part of this project?

Jane August: Actually not. I think once I got to Museum Six, I started reaching out to the museums so I can get permission to come in. They usually make accommodations for me to visit which has been really nice. The Frick you're not allowed to film at, but they let me come on a day they were closed and we filmed the video then, which was a really cool experience. They've been very helpful to supporting this project.

Brigid Bergin: Besides museums, just in the last 15 seconds, what else are you covering on your website and social media accounts?

Jane August: I cover New York City Arts and Cultures, so I go to plays, I go to concerts, I go to art exhibitions. Really anything that I think is cool, that is worth sharing.

Brigid Bergin: We will have to leave it there with Jane August. You can find her at janeaugust.co and at @janeaugust on TikTok and Instagram. Jane, thanks so much for joining the show.

Jane August: Thank you for having me.

Brigid Bergin: I'm Brigid Bergin and this is The Brian Lehrer Show and WNYC. Have a great weekend everybody, and thank you so much for listening.

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