This past weekend I attended the special exhibit at the Frick Collection in New York titled Vermeer, Rembrandt and Hals: Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshui. 

Not only was the exhibition important because it came from the Netherlands, but also because it contained one of the most famous pieces of art in the world, Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring. My family, who has a Donor level membership to the Brandywine River Museum, researched to see if we would receive reciprocity into the museum. The supporting levels and up of membership to the Brandywine are also honored at over 600 other museums in North and Central America that are part of the North American Reciprocal Museum Association or NARM.  We found that not only is the Frick Collection part of NARM, but that we would not even need to reserve timed tickets for the exhibition.

At the museum, we walked right past the line of people wrapping around half of the building who had not purchased a ticket and also past the line of people who did have timed tickets. The staff member at the membership desk simply looked at our membership card and gave us our tickets in the exhibition. The ease of not having to make any commitments online or waiting in lines made our experience at the Frick Collection so much more enjoyable. Thanks to our Donor level membership to the Brandywine, we were able to skip the hassles and simply enjoy the art.