My kind of museum
This weekend marks the grand re-opening of a museum I've been waiting more than half of my career as a journalist to visit -- Washington, D.C.'s Newseum.
The former Newseum, across the Potomoc River in Arlington, Va., closed in 2002 -- just three years after I started working as a full-time journalist, so I never got there. I've eagerly followed construction updates and announcements about delays.
This weekend, it's finally opening.
With seven levels and 14 galleries, I'm hoping it will make the $20 adult admission fee (steep compared to the free-yet-awesome Smithsonian museums that dot the nearby National Mall) worth every penny.
Check out this story from USA Today with all the deets.
A bunch of us from YDR are planning to take a field trip to visit The Newseum the first weekend in June. If you get there before then, please post a comment and let me know what you thought!
Jo Ott · April 3, 2008 10:57 PM
I lived in Arlington for many years and visited the old Newseum many times. Living back in York Co. now it's unlikely I'll get to see the new one.
You will not be disappointed in any way if it's even half as wonderful as the previous Newseum. Having lived in the Washington area throughout many of the events covered there, there was never a time I did not leave the Newseum teary-eyed due to the emotional-evoking nature of many of the photographs on display. If you've not yet been to the WWII Memorial it has a similar effect on people.
Many of the YDR people are not old enough to have lived during the Kennedy era which was such a wonderful and exciting period to be living around Washington. Anyone who lived In McLean back then, as I did, and not far from Ethel & Bobby Kennedy's large home, feels a lifelong connection to the family and to the era. If many of the Kennedy photos are still on display one cannot help but remember what the family has been thru over the years and what might have been if the two assassinations had not taken place. Enjoy it to its fullest--and stuff some tissues in your pockets!