The Best Special Upcoming Museum Exhibits

At just about any time of year, museums in your area will have special exhibits for seldom seen parts of their collections, visiting items from other museums or new items never before seen. Because museums can make a perfect date activity as you can walk around and talk about the exhibits, going specifically for special exhibits not normally on display will make you seem even more knowledgeable. With that in mind, here are some cool upcoming exhibits at the major museums that might be perfect for taking a date.

Art Institute of Chicago

Ferris knows the importance of museums

At the Art Institute of Chicago, an exhibit on Avant-Garde Art in Everyday Life starts on June 11th and continues until October 9th. The exhibit will focus on eastern European artists that created posters and modern designs for advertising and early brand awareness. After the show, take your date back to your place to show her a few episodes of ?Mad Men? to introduce how sex goes so well with advertising. (Also of interest, Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein will have an exhibit starting in May of 2012 that will also be exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. later that year and in 2013 at the Tate Modern in London.)

Getty Museum

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has an exhibit titled, Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia running until August 11th. If your plans to visit Angkor Wat (the world?s largest religion building and an UNESCO World Heritage Site) keep falling through, this would be a great exhibit to at least get a taste of the antiquities and the culture of this temple devoted at different times to Hinduism and Buddhism.

American Museum of Natural History

For the kid in you and your girlfriend, or for your girlfriend?s kids, the American Museum of Natural History in New York has an exhibit opening on April 16th titled, The World?s Largest Dinosaurs. I mean what kind of grown kid doesn?t get excited about seeing a 60-foot long 11-foot high model of the Mamenchisaurus? Plus, there?s just dreaming about the other dinosaurs in the sauropod family that could grow to 150 feet long. If you?re not a dinosaur guy, less than two miles away there?s Talk to Me at the Museum of Modern Art that opens on July 24th. The exhibit is all about the design of the interfaces we use in websites, cell phones and computers and definitely more advanced than those walnut-sized brains down the street.

The Cartoon Art Museum

If you?re in the San Francisco area, the Cartoon Art Museum has an exhibit running until June 19th entitled, From Bloom County to Mars: The Imagination of Berkeley Breathed. Of course you?ll get to see Opus, Steve Dallas and Bill the Cat, as well as information on his children?s story ?Mars Needs Moms? that recently was adapted into a Disney film, but there will also be material from his other work including ?Secondhand Lions.?

The Smithsonian

Lastly, if you?re in Washington D.C. where you can?t throw a Snickers bar without hitting a Smithsonian museum, there are some exhibits for every taste. If you like photography, there?s Pictures for Everyone: Nineteenth Century Photographs, Prints and Posters with examples from our first experiences with the medium that opens on April 30th. For the history buff, there?s Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life that explores Lincoln?s life on the anniversary of the 200 years since his birth and that closes on May 30th. For art fans, there is a rare glimpse at the private collections of the Washington D.C. area through the Capital Portraits exhibit.

Of course, the one really intriguing exhibit in Washington D.C. doesn?t open until next year, The Art of Video Games. But, I mention it now, because you can vote on what will be part of the exhibits now, until April 17th. Voting ranges from Pitfall, Adventure and Pac-Man, to Jumpman, Doom, The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Halo and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Vote for your favorites to be sure they?re included in the exhibit now, so you can plan on having a great time at the museum next summer.

If these museums aren?t in your area, find your local museum online and check out the exhibits, I?m sure with a little poking around, you can find one that sounds interesting to you and that?s a sure way to make you more interesting to the ladies.