Art

At the Southern Hemisphere’s largest private-collection museum, The Museum of Old & New Art, or MONA (655 Main Rd., Berriedale, Hobart, Tasmania 7011, Australia; phone +61 3 6277 9900, mona.net.au), works of antiquity can be viewed side by side with modern art. The esoteric building, itself, is a work of art, with most of the exhibit space underground.

Despite the fact that it houses not a single original painting by Johannes Vermeer, the Vermeer Centrum Delft (Voldersgracht 21, Voldersgracht 21, 2611 EV Delft, Netherlands; phone +31 15 2138588, www.vermeerdelft.nl/en), in Delft, offers a fine experience to visitors. My wife, Kathy, and I visited on Aug. 2, 2018, during a visit to the Netherlands.

The center’s ticket office, gift shop and café are on the ground floor. Entry costs €9 (near $10) per adult, and the viewing begins downstairs.

10 days, 9 nights, May 26-June 4, 2020. Highlights: In Dakar, Senegal, 14th annual Dak’Art Biennale festival, Museum of Black Civilizations, African Renaissance Monument/slave trade history on island of Gorée/Pink Lake/artisan workshops in Village des Arts de Dakar/in The Gambia, village of Juffureh, home of Kunta Kinte (from “Roots”). $3,299 ppdo, $3,899 single. Spector Travel (Boston, MA; 617/351-0111, www.spectortravel.com).

In May 2006 in southern Scotland, a serpentine-shaped sculpture was unveiled honoring the work of the scientist James Hutton, aka “the father of geology.” Titled “The Eel,” the sculpture represents Hutton's Unconformity, the rock formation at eastern Scotland's Siccar Point that inspired Hutton's revolutionary theories about the age of the Earth.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0022, Japan; phone +81 3 5245 4111, www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng) reopened in March 2019 after almost three years of renovations.

Its collection includes about 5,400 objects of modern art from Japan and overseas along with three floors of galleries for temporary exhibits. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Tues.-Sun. Closed Mondays. Entry, ¥500 (near $4.50), main galleries or, including special exhibits, ¥1,300.

On Odaiba island in Tokyo Bay, Tokyo, the Mori Building Digital Art Museum (Odaiba Palette Town, 1-3-8 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan; phone +61 03 6406 3949, borderless.teamlab.art) opened in June 2018. Using more than 500 computers and 400 projectors, the museum’s 10,000-square-meter space is turned into one giant exhibit, where the projected art mingles and interacts along the floors, walls and ceilings and with guests.

Open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Thurs. & Sun. and 10-9 Fri.-Sat. (Closed second and fourth Tues.) ¥3,200 (near $28).

My companion, George, and I visited Puerto Vallarta again, Nov. 28-Dec. 16, 2018, and I wanted to offer an update on the Malecón (boardwalk) sculpture tour that I mentioned in my 2015 article, "Enjoying the Food, Art and Celebrations of Mexico's Puerto Vallarta" (Dec. '15, pg. 40).