Being a Tourist in My Own Backyard

I have a confession to make. I have lived in San Diego for eight years and this past weekend was my first visit to one of the city’s fine museums. To make matters worse, I live two blocks from the heart of Balboa Park, which houses 15 museums alone, and I walk past each one of them several times a week when I am out on a ramble. Disgraceful.

I love museums and will often visit cities near and far just for the chance to explore various collections. When I first moved to San Diego, I enthusiastically toured the delights of the city. But the emphasis was largely on the natural beauty of the beaches, coastal life, and enjoying the glorious year-round weather. For some reason, the museums went untouched and unnoticed. As the years went by and I settled into a routine, exploring new places in my adopted hometown became less of a priority. I took the city’s culture offerings for granted knowing I could visit at a moment’s notice. Yet, I never did.

The Toulouse-Lautrec's Paris: Selections from the Baldwin M. Baldwin Collection at the San Diego Museum of Art is what finally got me out of the house and pushed me to do something cultural in my own backyard.

The collection showcased over a 100 works of art that haven’t been shown together in more than 20 years. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) is a French Post-Impressionist artist who is probably best known for his lithography posters; in particular posters depicting the late-19th-century bohemian lifestyle in Paris. He was a fixture in the bars and cabarets in Montmarte and his sketches of the patrons often became focal points in his artwork.


His first and most famous lithograph is “Moulin Rouge La Goulue”.

The poster was created as an advertisement that was plastered around Paris for the newly opened Moulin Rouge. It turned out to be such a success that it became regarded as a highly valued piece of art. Some of his other creative advertisement posters were for such things as biscuits, bicycles, cabaret shows, oil lamps, perfumes, and pomades.

The exhibit was beautifully presented and informative. Most importantly, it awoke my hunger to learn and be exposed to new things. And it made me realize that I have many treasures at my own fingertips that should not be overlooked. One of my goals for this upcoming year is to become a tourist in my own city and uncover all that that there is to offer!