New Museum

When the British artist Jeremy Deller arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport a few days ago, he came with his assistant and not a little apprehension. "I was really worried," Deller said, "because the last time [the assistant] came in, he was arrested. They went through his checked luggage and they found some papers - notes on this project, actually - and they didn't like that. " Airport security officials initially were suspicious of the notes, which related to Deller's work-in-progress, It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, but released the assistant after detention and interrogation.

It is the case of the murder in Apartment 13. A male perpetrator has broken into the dwelling and killed the occupant. Now, it is up to you to help solve the crime. Can you recall what the man who ran past you at the time of the crime was wearing? What clues can you provide police officers to help them bring the killer to justice? At the National Museum of Crime & Punishment, you can play the role of both witness and investigator. View the crime, look at a photo lineup, and follow the investigation as you learn how state-of-the-art techniques are used to examine fingerprints and footprints left at the scene to solve crimes.

For two years, plans for the proposed $18 million upgrade of the Franklin Court museum languished for lack of federal funding while its 30-year-old exhibits broke down, and rain leaked through the roof. No more. As Ben once said, "He that can have patience can have what he will. " Yesterday, patient Franklin aficionados saw their wish come true as U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and National Park Service Director Mary A. Bomar announced $6 million in federal funds for the Philadelphia museum's rehabilitation.

The climb was steep, up a narrow concrete street on the western edge of this Yangtze River city, but what waited atop Dengyun Hill was worth the walk: a sparkling new museum devoted to the life and work of American author Pearl Buck. "You know what's amazing? That China is doing all this. That she's really a hero in China," said Kenneth Plessner, who helped lead a 70-person delegation here from Pearl S. Buck International, known as PSBI, the Bucks County foundation that promotes the author's efforts in international adoption and children's aid. Dozens of PSBI staff, board members, supporters and friends gathered with Chinese officials and scholars yesterday to formally open the museum and an adjacent pavilion, their activities watched by bemused local residents who found the sudden influx of foreigners as fascinating as the dedication itself.

Banks will fail, as we've been reminded a little too often lately. But their buildings can still go on to lead long and productive lives, especially when they're constructed to weather more than a passing financial storm. Such is the case with the former First National Bank at Third and Chestnut Streets, a grand old neoclassical survivor that today begins a new life as a museum devoted to the history of chemistry, run by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The renovation, led by Peter Saylor of SaylorGregg Architects, is not only meant to restore grandeur to the historic Chestnut Street bank, but to the chemistry profession itself.

Imagine you have a front-row seat for one of the most dramatic battles ever fought on U.S. soil. You're surrounded by the bloody battle scene known as Pickett's Charge - fallen soldiers, galloping horses, smoke from cannon fire, a blur of blue and gray. It's the climax of the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, with Confederate Gen. George Pickett's soldiers unleashing a full-frontal attack on Maj. Gen. George Meade's Union forces entrenched on Cemetery Ridge. The charge will spring to life again starting Friday, with the unveiling of the newly restored, 377-foot-long, 42-foot canvas in the round, The Battle of Gettysburg, just as it did when French artist Paul Philippoteaux introduced it in Boston in 1884.

A modern-day Baron von Steuben may be needed to marshal disgruntled factions at Valley Forge. Neighbors, park rangers and interest groups are in an uproar over the latest proposal to build an American Revolution museum - this time on private land within the park's congressionally designated boundary. While all parties claim a common goal - improving visitors' experience by better telling the Revolution story - that shared value has been clouded in recent weeks by accusations and misinformation.

Nancy Herman is an artist who lives in Merion The image of a new museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, creating an arts walkway, is a compelling one. I can understand why so many people are drawn to it. Yet for me, destroying one perfect museum to create another seems, to say the least, bereft of imagination. Contemplating this problem of the Barnes Foundation and the desire of the City of Philadelphia to make hay out of the collection, I have come up with an idea I think could satisfy all involved.

Gail Ferretti, a local artist, had seen The Gross Clinic only in art books, newspapers and magazines. So she was excited as she stood in a line last night waiting to enter gallery 151 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There, in its gold frame, hung the 19th-century painting by Thomas Eakins, which has become the cause of much angst and joy in Eakins' home city. "I have seen it in print, and the colors always look different," Ferretti said. "I want to see what the real colors look like.

The terrible prospect of Thomas Eakins' The Gross Clinic leaving the city has reignited an idea that has been smoldering in my mind for some time. To combat Philadelphia's continuing job-loss problem, we need to identify sectors of the economy that are still viable and build upon them. One way of building is to first "dramatize. " Our medical and health-sciences industry is one of the largest on the planet. We have six medical schools, two dental schools, innumerable great hospitals and nursing schools, a host of pharmaceutical and bioresearch companies, health-care insurers, and thousands of medical doctors in private practice.