Oct 21, 2011

Art and Culture to Admire, and Wrap Up for the HolidaysBy Geraldine FabrikantNYTimes.com

New York, NY – Museums are not just about learning and culture. Increasingly they are becoming shopping places for the committed consumer. As the holidays approach and New Yorkers are overwhelmed with family, friends, gift-buying and entertaining, museum gift shops are an obvious stop.

In fact, when the pressure mounts, some insiders bypass the culture and concentrate on the consumption. Museums make it easy. No ticket is needed to get to the gift shop at most museums around town. Indeed, shoppers can reach the Metropolitan Museum’s sprawling gift shop, or the one at the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library or the Museum of Modern Art, without passing through the entrance.

And in the case of the Metropolitan and the Museum of Modern Art, you don’t even have to go near the museum. The two have outposts around the city with the same goods stocked at the museum.

Read complete article »