Museum Mondays - Part 2

On Monday we continued the tradition of Museum Mondays - the tradition that started last week - and went to Tate Britain. This was my first time at Tate Britain, and because of that I was quite motivated to go and see the museum on our Museum Monday.

Our primary reason for going to the Tate was to take advantage of the free tours they offer during the day. We joined a "Turner and the Romantics" tour, but it was one of four (I think) on offer on Monday, at various times throughout the day. Our tour guide was this stylish older woman who did a great job. She didn't just read off the informational cards, she actually threw in other info and facts about Turner and the Romantics. Before the tour I knew NOTHING about no romantics or about who this supposed Turner was. Every so often the guide would say "well, as you know, Turner liked to...blah blah blah" and I would stand there looking serious and nodding my head, while thinking "um, no." The tour lasted about 50 minutes (it was a quick 50 minutes, I was surprised to see it took that long) and covered what I suppose are the highlights of Turner's work, coupled with his involvement in the Romantic era. It was just enough to tell me something about the guy and his work.

I would definitely go back to take advantage of more of the Tate's tours. We contemplated doing the next tour, I believe of more modern work (our guide really talked up the next guide), but we ended up going to the cafe instead. Because Museum Mondays are not about shoving as much culture down our throats as possible, they are about enjoying the art, and the coffee and gossip too.

By the way, the Tate Britain is really easy to get to. Since it was my first time I had no clue where it was distance wise in relation to the tube. It's about a 5 minute walk from Pimlico Station (Victoria Line). Easy peasy.