Welcome to our page of Armchair Travels, activities we suggested while travel was on pause!
Now that we are accepting reservations for future tours, this web page is no longer being updated. However, we encourage you to continue to access the links below and keep traveling virtually in these fun ways!
SBMA’s Travel Program began in 1972 and is a benefit of membership. While these uncertain times have created unprecedented challenges for the travel industry, we hope you find comfort in the following "armchair travels". The newest posts are at the top.
Online programming to stream anytime:
SBMA Armchair Travel Lecture Series, select Public Lectures, then click on one of the five Armchair Travel Lectures (For Justin Cammy's lecture on Paper Monuments and Constructed Memories in East-Central Europe please email travel@sbma.net to request the link)
Travel the world with an SBMA Docent as your tour guide!
SBMA Dia de los Muertos Oaxaca Artisan Visit with Wood Carver Zeny Fuentes Santiago
SBMA Dia de los Muertos Oaxaca Artisan Visit with Potter Adelina Pedro Martínez and Cultural Anthropologist Florencio Moreno
SBMA Full Video Library
SBMA Mindful Looking of Tatsuo Miyajima’s Time Waterfall, one of SBMA's recent acquisitions to the permanent collection
The Frick Cocktails with a Curator
A FUN ACTIVITY
50 Most Beautiful Cities in the World by Conde Nast Traveler
Click above, count how many you have been to, email us at travel@sbma.net to let us know, and we will post it here. Also, feel free to let us know where we need to plan our next tours to get you closer to 50!
- Amanda McIntyre ~ 47 (she is only missing Muscat, Doha and Chefchaouen in Morocco!)
- Judy Little ~ 43
- Judy Seborg ~ 38
- Susan Matsumoto ~ 34
- Mel Kennedy ~ 31
- Nick Mutton ~ 30 ("...which gives me plenty of scope going forward.")
- Lisa Benshea ~ 25
- Norene Scott ~ 15 (And 24 of the countries in which they are located.)
- Kathy Wertheim ~ 13
- Jennifer Pennington (SBMA Visitor Services) ~ 11
- Rachel Heidenry ~ 8
Above: Bruges, Belgium
Update, 3/3/2021
Every fall from 2015 to 2019, SBMA Members traveled to Ashland, Oregon for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2020, the festival had to cancel their plays due to the pandemic and we postponed our tour. Due to limited programming in-person this fall, we won't be operating a trip this fall either. However, OSF is putting out innovative programming that you can view online and we highly recommend taking part in some or all of it, and supporting the actors. Click here for info. We will be back to Ashland with bells and whistles in 2022!
Update, 2/25/2021
Virtually travel through Azerbaijan, the Land of Fire, on this stunning photo tour.
Update, 2/8/2021
Many museums are offering virtual tours online. Among the most iconic is the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms.
Another one to check out is the new Pompeii Museum, which just reopened after decades of being closed.
Update, 2/1/2021
STAY UP TO DATE:
Update, 1/26/2021
Happy National Plan for Vacation Day!
According to travel personality Samantha Brown, the act of PLANNING travel puts us in the same psychological, happy-go-lucky place as BEING in a destination.
***Every journey begins with a plan***
Update, 1/25/2021
Pretend you're in Morocco today with these wonderful National Geographic articles!
~ Explore handicrafts in the medina of Fez
~ View these 25 wonderful photos of Morocco
Update, 1/21/2021
If you have $1,500 burning a hole in your pocket, this might the most beautiful 100% pashmina Indian robe we have ever seen, from this Indian textile company we have long admired longingly!
Update, 1/12/2021
Launching into the New Year with a New Armchair Travel Lecture Series!
Three Thursdays
February 18, March 18, and April 22
10:30 – 11:30 am
Free
From left: Professor Justin Cammy, Dr. Rocky Ruggiero, Dr. Keelan Overton
Travel from the comfort and safety of your own home to all corners of the world with three SBMA Tour Study Leaders who will lead tours in 2022! Capacity is limited, and some of our lecturers are known to sell out, so be sure to register soon. All lectures are free to SBMA Members and travelers.
Paper Monuments and Constructed Memories in East-Central Europe
Thursday, February 18
10:30 – 11:30 am
Join admired Professor Justin Cammy for an engaging discussion on the building and concealing of memory in East-Central Europe, and its implications for the present. Dr. Cammy, an associate professor of World Literatures and chair of the Program in Jewish Studies at Smith College in Massachusetts, will be the study leader on the SBMA Tour Monuments & Memory in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic from June 12 to 24, 2022.
Michelangelo: The First Modern Artist
Thursday, March 18
10:30 – 11:30 am
Dr. Rocky Ruggiero has been a professor of Art and Architectural History since 1999. His online lectures on subjects ranging from Ancient Art and Architecture through the Italian Baroque are extremely popular with an expansive worldwide audience, yet this lecture is arranged specially for SBMA Members and travelers. Join Dr. Ruggiero on an exploration of Michelangelo, who ushered in a new interpretive style. Dr. Ruggiero will be the study leader on an SBMA Tour in Italy in 2022.
Armenia and Georgia: Monasteries, Manuscripts, Mountains, and Modernism
Thursday, April 22
10:30 – 11:30 am
Join Keelan Overton (PhD, UCLA, 2011) for a historical overview of Armenia and Georgia through the lens of art and architecture. With beautiful images as a backdrop, she will share on the fascinating sites she visited in 2019 when she was there for a month doing research and planning the SBMA tour Armenia and Georgia: Monasteries, Manuscripts, Mountains, and Modernism for which she will be the study leader in 2022. She will also be the study leader for SBMA’s Morocco tour in 2022. Dr. Overton is a historian of Islamic art and architecture.
Update, 1/5/2021
On SBMA's three wonderful trips to Marfa in 2017, 2018, and 2019, groups went to the home and studio of the phenomenal artist Julie Speed.
Julie just sent me the following and I told her I would share it with our travelers, as a wonderful way to "travel virtually" to see her art in Marfa!
This past fall I finished a body of work, named it "Dark Skies" and hung it in the studio, thinking that covid would surely be over soon and we could go back to our regular schedule of open studio visits.
But of course that hasn't happened yet so I made a couple of videos to show you the work. Here are the links:
5 Minute Studio Tour : https://youtu.be/BCoOi4OxY-g
Dark Skies: 47 PAINTINGS large & small in 17 MINUTES https://youtu.be/HFpCP_4vSi0
To request a free Dark Skies catalog, Julie invited SBMA Members to email her with your mailing address at juliespeed@gmail.com and she will mail you one. Once again, Julie has demonstrated her incredible kindness and generosity!
Update, 12/28/2020
Visiting India is often likened to an assault on the senses and as someone who has gone to India four times, I can attest to the way India stays with you. I just watched the (utterly modern Bollywood movie) "Coolie No. 1" (available on Amazon Prime Video) and while it was not a fantastic film, it transported me back to a country I both love and, admittedly, have not loved at times. But despite my fluctuating feelings, there is no doubt that India has forever changed my life.
SBMA has brought groups to India 35 times and countless museum members have told me they have life-altering memories from our tours.
To indulge in some India-mania:
* Watch Coolie No. 1 (Bollywood movie just released on Christmas Day, viewable on Amazon Prime Video)
* Read Beneath a Marble Sky, a not-so-historical fiction book about the architect of the Taj Mahal and his romance with none other than Shah Jahan's daughter, Princess Jahanara (not a scholarly read, but escapism at its very finest)
* Study this fascinating list of Hindi/Urdu words we use in English—shampoo, pajama, and pundit to name a few—to reflect on yet another way India influences our lives.
Update, 12/18/2020
Update, 12/17/2020
10 French Movies Set in Paris to Transport You There - The New York Times
Update, 12/16/2020
Happy 250th birthday Beethoven!
The NY Times put together a page of “almost everything you need to know about Beethoven” and our favorite part of it is the playlist of string quartets.
Update, 12/14/2020
Don't miss these two upcoming Italian Christmas webinars!
Update, 12/8/2020
The New Golden Age of Travel
During the last several months, when SBMA has not had any tours, we have valued the time to reflect and design tours for the future that our Members will most enjoy.
You will notice less updates to this page as we spend more time finalizing details for 2022, a year that holds much hope for a return to seeing the world through art and culture.
Early next year, you will begin to see tours in the following year begin to open to reservations. We could not be more excited to share with you the phenomenal programs we have cooked up over these several months!
Happy holidays and cheers to a return to a new golden age of travel. We can’t wait to experience it with you.
Update, 11/30/2020
CREDIT: FABRIZIO VILLA/GETTY IMAGES
"Believe in Christmas Concert" by Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli, the Italian opera singer, will stream a holiday concert on December 12th at 8 pm, regardless of your time zone. It will be broadcast from the 200-year-old Teatro Regio di Parma in Italy.
The creative director of the performance is Franco Dragone of Cirque du Soleil.
Tickets are $25 and are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
Update, 11/24/2020
Travel the world with an SBMA Docent as your tour guide! Join us on a virtual journey to cultural and historic sites through works of art in the Museum's permanent collection in a new collaboration with SBMA's Education Department: Travels with a Docent. These short videos will keep you inspired, engaged, and traveling—even if only virtually for the moment. Look out for new installments of Travels with a Docent each month.
Our sincerest thanks to the SBMA Docent Council who have made this project possible.
Does this whet your appetite for returning to real travel? SBMA is planning two tours to Spain in 2022: Southern Spain with Art Historian Nigel McGilchrist and Spain and Portugal’s Less Traveled Regions. Both tours will spend time in Segovia! If any of our future tours interest you, please email travel@sbma.net and ask to be added to the early interest list.
Update, 11/19/2020
Armchair Travel Cooking Idea of the Day:
CAPRESE
Perhaps the easiest and most delicious way to transport yourself to Italy through taste is by making Caprese. Combine buffalo mozzarella or burrata, tomatoes (we know they aren't the freshest now but if you pre-salt them and let them sit for 5 minutes--even during the summer months--they taste fantastic), any herb (we have been using thyme; basil is obviously traditional), olive oil, pepper and a touch more salt - layer as above or cube and eat as a salad, greens optional. I prefer it without balsamic vinegar, but it's up to you! We aren't really in Italy, which means we get to tweak the rules to our liking! ;)
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And if you're still in the Italian mood, join this online webinar because "You can't visit Italy right now--but you can make pasta!"
November 20: Pontormo and Pasta: Live from Tuscany * Smithsonian Associates * 9 am PST * $25
Join art historian and culinary expert Elaine Trigiani at her farmhouse in Tuscany for a virtual exploration of this region through its artistic and culinary heritage.
Update, 11/14/2020
Armchair Travel Idea of the Day:
LEARN THE HULA!
For $40 a class, join Mu'olaulani, Pa'i Foundation & Wahea Foundation for their annual Le'a Ka Hula, now online.
Online workshops take place November 19, 20 and 21.
For more information or to register, visit www.ileakahula.com.
Update, 11/4/2020
SBMA Travel's Favorite Things at the SBMA Store!
Perhaps our most favorite item in our amazing SBMA store, during this time when we aren’t traveling but want to fulfill our wanderlust in any way possible, is th
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