Another Worldwide Movement

Did we tell you?  We joined another worldwide movement this Spring.  But with the abundance of so many worldwide movements all around us these days how do they ever get started in the first place?

A thought, a dream, some conversations, emails, conference calls, committee meetings. In our case, contracts were soon generated and signed, money probably changed hands, shipping crates were commissioned and used, extra security was hired, transportation was arranged, walls were painted, effervescent publicity was generated, layouts suddenly became important, a beginning, middle and end became a real issue, installations were completed, tickets went on sale, and that’s where we officially joined this latest movement.

We simply bought tickets early before they sold out.

We are now golden ticket-holding members to a new once-in-a-lifetime worldwide movement.  Still, you might be wondering what is this crazy new movement and where is this movement taking everyone?

We’ll let the media tell you as they are often inspired to report on the latest worldwide movements:

The biggest Johannes Vermeer Collection of all Time
https://blog.pillowshotels.com/pillowsblog/the-biggest-johannes-vermeer-collection-brought-together

See Every Single Artwork in the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer Show, a Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition That Is Already Sold Out
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vermeer-every-single-work-sold-out-rijksmuseum-show-2256255

The Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer Blockbuster Portrays the Dutch Master in Today’s Light
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rijksmuseums-vermeer-blockbuster-portrays-dutch-master-todays-light

How to Look at Vermeer
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/05/johannes-vermeer-exhibit-rijksmuseum-amsterdam/673495/

Van Gogh was an early admirer of Vermeer: ‘celestial blues and yellows.. I can’t paint as beautifully as that’
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/04/14/van-gogh-was-an-early-admirer-of-vermeer-celestial-blues-and-yellows-i-cant-paint-as-beautifully-as-that

Can We Ever Get Closer to Vermeer?
https://hyperallergic.com/814545/can-we-ever-get-closer-to-vermeer-rijksmuseum/

Did you join this newest worldwide movement too?  Will we see you there?  We’re all going to have an emotional afternoon together, aren’t we?

Of course, my darling wife Sharon and I have joined other worldwide movements over the years.

We watched a baseball game at Wrigley Field.  We went to Disneyland.  Among other USA cities we have visited New York City, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Las Vegas together.  We have gone all the way over to Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia, then made our way home again.  We have seen many world-class art museums including the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Hermitage on multiple days.  We have visited Canada three times and Mexico twice.  We’ve seen Hearst Castle, Yellowstone National Park, and those popular traveling Broadway shows.

We have found that all worldwide movements work best with a fresh soundtrack.  For us the music is rambunctious and a little loud when we start, slows down to symphonic or operatic when we arrive, then transitions to piano jazz on the way home to match the tingling feeling that we just experienced with another worldwide movement.

Naturally, some of our worldwide movements have been bigger that onthers. For example:

Location	Annual Visitors
Boston	22.7 million
Chicago	30.7 million
Las Vegas	38.8 million
Los Angeles	40 million
New York City	66.6 million
San Diego	28.8 million
San Francisco	21.9 million
Washington DC	19.1 million
Austria	22.1 million
Canada	22.1 million
Czech Republic	19.5 million
Denmark	15.6 million
England	39.4 million
Finland	9 million
France	89 million
Italy	65 million
Mexico	66 million
Russia	33 million

Luckily for us all those worldwide visitors don’t follow us around and all arrive together while we’re actually visiting there ourselves.  According to our math we have now joined 8 major domestic movements and 10 major international movements and we now have something in common with around 650 million worldwide visitors unless some of those busy visitors were purposely following our little itinerary just so they could mess up everyone’s count!  Why would anyone do that?

Our newest worldwide movement that we joined is a little more intimate this time.  When the large-scale exhibition of works by the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) opened on February 10 at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, all 450,000 tickets quickly sold out. The museum is showing 28 of the 37 or so existing works by the painter from Delft until June 4, 2023.

Some might call all those activities above vacations, but I like to call them worldwide movements because wherever we go or whatever we do there are others from around the world joining us when we get there.  We enjoy their enthusiasm, their smiles, and their company – that’s why we occasionally clear our schedules and try some nifty new travel arrangements just to join them again at another worldwide movement!