Explore the museum scene in and around Baltimore

For people looking for off-campus activities, visiting museums is a great way to explore the city.

When many think of museums, the first kind that may come to mind are art museums. Baltimore definitely has a plethora of those — whether you want to stick close to campus and check out the ever-changing exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art or explore the Walters Museum in Mount Vernon, Baltimore’s art scene is not lacking. 

However, being home to over 60 museums, Baltimore also provides options for those who are not necessarily art lovers! Those who are interested in Baltimore’s past can check out The Peale Center for History and Architecture, which is free to the public and located right downtown. 

For $15, you can take a trip to the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, located right off the Purple Circulator Route near North Avenue to explore Baltimore’s public transportation history. 

Literature enthusiasts might enjoy a trip to the Edgar Allen Poe House & Museum, which costs $10 and allows you to tour Poe’s Baltimore home. 

Of course, with so many museums to choose from, deciding which to attend can be a daunting task. Moreover, transportation to these sites can be a barrier to access, not to mention the cost of tickets at those which are not free to the public.

For those reasons, students who are interested in exploring the museum scene in Baltimore — and beyond — should consider going on a trip with The Museum Club at Hopkins. The Museum Club works to facilitate student museum visits and typically meets for three museum visits per semester. 

The club aims to eliminate the financial burden associated with visiting museums by covering all costs, such as tickets and transportation, for students attending club events, regardless of their membership status.

In an email to The News-Letter, senior Ali Luchs, head of communications of the Museum Club, discussed the organization’s mission.

“We are helping our community get one step closer to [making museums accessible to everyone] by providing our free trips to JHU students,” she wrote.

Junior and Vice President of the club Eirnin Mahoney shared their most memorable trip to a museum in an email to The News-Letter.

“15 of us from each club all loaded onto a coach bus at seven in the morning, then arrived in Philly and toured the Barnes Museum, where every piece of art is displayed in the exact location that the building’s owner had left it before he died,” they wrote. “There are works there by some of the world’s greatest artists; it was my first time seeing a Van Gogh piece in person!”

The trip also included a tour around the Eastern State Penitentiary, the ruin of the most famous and expensive prison in the U.S. According to Mahoney, the penitentiary now focuses on educating people about the historical and modern-day criminal justice system.

Kendra Brewer, junior and president of the Museum Club, outlined the three trips planned for this semester in an email to The News-Letter.

The club is organizing a visit to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum and museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.