Today I attended a couple of seminars in the morning. In the afternoon I went to the Reading Terminal Market. It was pretty busy and there was tons of food to see! Without a refrigerator in the room it is not a good idea to bring a lot back to the hotel, but I was able to get some fresh pastries - which is pretty much the greatest thing ever. I also went to The Barnes Foundation this afternoon. I was a bit apprehensive about going to this museum. The collection is the subject of some controversy. The collection was compiled by Albert C. Barnes starting at the turn of the 20th century. Barnes' taste in art was ahead of the taste of the time, and his collection was underappreciated and derided. Frankly, this pissed him off and he never wanted the elitist gentry of Philadelphia to get their hands on it. Well, after many years that seems to be exactly what happened. I think that it is OK - they have displayed the collection the way that Barnes had it displayed - but I think that if he knew that they were chargind $18 a head he would be incredibly annoyed. I am sure that some of the money is being spent to maintain and display the collection, but I think that Barnes would have liked for the price of admission to be free. Perhaps if the museum went to a donation system it would be more in line with the ideas of the original Barnes Foundation.
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