In contrast to the various galleries and art spaces we have visited so far this semester, the sheer size of the Brooklyn Museum of Art provided for some significant differences.  The exhibits span five floors and include pieces from many different cultures and time periods.  I saw Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire, Early Islamic Textiles, 700 years of European Painting, Arts of the Americas, and much more, all under one roof.  These exhibits included paintings, drawings, sculptures, quilts and textiles, jewelry, headdresses, and numerous other artifacts.  I really enjoyed the wide range of art on display, and it was interesting to note the distinct differences, as well as striking similarities between all of the different areas of the museum.
            One of the rooms in the museum I found the most interesting was the Visible Storage Study Center.  This area is not quite a conventional exhibition gallery, but rather it is set up as a fully operational storage facility, much like the several other storerooms throughout the facility that are not open to the public.  This Study Center allows visitors a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of a big art museum.  Objects are “displayed” in an extremely compact fashion and organized by medium and type.  This room displays over 2,000 pieces of art which are resting from being rotated into exhibitions or loaned to other galleries and museums worldwide, as opposed to the approximately 350 pieces of the more traditional exhibition in the slightly larger room next door.  The Visible Storage Study Center provides a unique opportunity not only to see a significant amount of art that there would not otherwise be room to display in a more conventional fashion, but also to gain a greater understanding of how museums are run and the life span of art work.
            Another characteristic of the museum which had a noteworthy impact on me was the space in which the art was presented.  In art museums, in addition to the art itself, I am always very aware of the space around me and the atmosphere it creates.  Like most museums, each room in the Brooklyn Museum had a very distinct feel to it.  The museum as a whole is very interesting to look at.  Standing outside, the architecture looks like a clash between modern and more traditional culture; a fusion of stone columns and glass walls.  Upon entering, the lobby has a very light and airy feel to it, being a large, white, sparsely populated space.  An hour or so later, I was in a much smaller and more compact gallery a few floors up, but as a turned a corner, I found myself looking over the edge of a balcony into the lobby once again.  The contrast between these two spaces made me stop and think, pondering the different feelings created by these two individual areas, and what it felt like to be standing in a liminal space where these two distinct atmospheres converged. 
            Another striking difference I found was in the transitions between exhibits.  The Arts of Africa exhibit, for example, spans several “rooms” of various sizes and shapes, all of which are connected by open doorways which also provide a link between this exhibit and the rest of the museum.  The adjacent Tree of Paradise exhibit, however, is completely enclosed.  The only way to get in and out is to pass through doors which normally remain closed.  These doors give the gallery a much more defined boundary, disabling the exhibit from spilling out of its designated space, while it is much more difficult to say for sure exactly where the more open Arts of Africa exhibition starts or stops.
            The Brooklyn Museum, like many museums of its size, has much to offer its visitors.  Because it has so much space, it can offer a wide variety of art work, in origin, time period, type of piece, and even presentation.  A large part of what makes this so interesting is not just the differences, but also the similarities, and how each individual piece, each individual room, and each individual exhibition work together to create one museum.