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Artsy NEIGHBOR

By Eric Barton

n March, the New York Times published an article titled Joanne Snead, a neighborhood resident and in Fort
“The Museums Times Reporters Like to Visit on Their Days Lauderdale since 2004, says every time she visits the
IOff.” The list included facilities you might expect in cities museum, she’s surprised by the depth of the exhibits.
like Seattle, Baltimore, and Dallas. And it also included “We always find something really interesting,” Snead says.
Fort Lauderdale. Below, we’ve found five reasons to rediscover the NSU

The article gushes that the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.
“feels like a sanctuary.” It heralded the stark white home to
the museum, with a design that allows visitors to marvel at HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
the building itself as much as the art on display.
Before growing into an international draw, the museum
“The galleries flow nicely into one another under a high, began as a simple Las Olas storefront.
white ceiling like the flat underside of a cloud,” the article
explained. “One curving wall creates a panoramic display A former hardware store served as the first home of the
museum, at 625 E. Las Olas Blvd., most recently the site
surface. At an archway mid-museum, you can stand
between two galleries, see four or five walls and size up a of Johnny V.’s. The first exhibit was appropriately named
“Coming of Age.” Within its first five years, the museum
dozen paintings and sculptures at once.”
saw upwards of 75,000 visitors to see works from
Sometimes it takes an out-of-towner to remind us of the Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein.
beauty of the New River or the tranquility of the beach.
With the Times article, it’s a reminder that we have a
world-class museum just blocks
away from Rio Vista.

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