Arabian artifacts, dinosaur fossiles, glittering cases of gem stones, Renaissance paintings, and of course conceptual sculpture. These are just a few things to completely and totally over-stimulate your mind at the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History. As if a museum of either natural history or art wouldn’t be enough, the two are connected (under one roof and under one admission fee), so be sure to plan a whole day around this museum.

The Roads of Arabia exhibit was excellent. Beautiful, intriguing artifacts combined with video, tours, and very helpful volunteers, make this exhibit a success in my book. I spent at least a half hour in there, which I think is a pretty good testament on how much the exhibit held my attention (for an art major, I move pretty quickly through museums…)!

The art portion of the museum held an array of everything from Renaissance to Impressionism, to my personal favorite, conceptual sculpture and installation. Sadly, this piece by one of my favorite artists, Rirkrit Tiravanija, was not open. Which means I’ll be back!

Thankfully, a good supply of Alexander Calder works made up for my disappointment over Tiravanija’s closed exhibit.

All this because the Andy Warhol Museum was closed and I was bent on spending my President’s day at a museum. Maybe that’ll be next week’s adventure…