Things To Do: Philadelphia Hearts Arts!

Philadelphia has a surprising amount of pretty great Art Museums. If you like the pretty pictures, there's some good options. The info below is from the Lonely Planet Guide:

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Address: 26th St & Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Museum District
Phone: 763 8100
Website: www.philamuseum.org
Transport: bus: 32, 38, 43, 76
Hours: Tue, Thu, Sat & Sun 10:00 - 17:00 ; Wed, Fri 10:00 - 20:45

Modeled after the Champs Elysées in Paris, the parkway is a center of museums and other landmarks, of which the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a highlight. It's one of the nation's largest and most important museums, with excellent collections of Asian art, Renaissance masterpieces, post-impressionist works and modern pieces by Picasso, Duchamp and Matisse.

The grand stairway at its entrance was immortalized when Sylvester Stallone ran up the steps in the 1976 flick Rocky .




Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Address: 118 N Broad St, Museum District
Phone: 972 7600
Website: www.pafa.org
Transport: SEPTA Race-Vine

Pennsylvania has many fine museums. One of the most interesting is the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a prestigious Philadelphia academy that has a museum with works by American painters, including Charles Willson Peale and Thomas Eakins. The museum lives in an oddball Victorian building designed by Frank Furness.




Institute of Contemporary Art

Address: 118 S 36th St, University City
Phone: 215 898 5911
Website: www.icaphila.org

On the campus of U Penn, the heralded Institute of Contemporary Art is an excellent place to catch fresh shows by folks making a big splash at the cutting-edge of the art world.




Barnes Foundation Gallery

Address: 300 N Lodges Lane, Fairmount Pk
Phone: 667 0290
Website: www.barnesfoundation.org
Transport: SEPTA R5 Merion Station

The Barnes Foundation Gallery houses an exceptionally fine collection of impressionist, post-impressionist and early French modern paintings, including works by Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh.