Whatever is in that gallery is no longer art if you’re not allowed to form your own impression.

I also note that if you camp out on a bench for 45 minutes to sketch something you are not using the bench the way everyone else is. You are spreading your materials around, and monopolizing the bench that other people might appreciate a few minutes to rest on.

Not only does it disturb the animals, but when you get home you will find you have a lot of lovely pictures of dim reflections of you and your camera in the glass. While it’s *possible* to take a flash picture through glass, it takes either special equipment or a lot of skill. Pointing your $99 digicam at the glass and snapping away will not suffice.

If you really wanted to be obnoxious, you could always have a small spyglass on a tripod and claim a visual disability requires you to use it to appreciate the art. IME when PC clashes with (C) PC usually wins.

But then I am an uncultured barbarian.

And yes, as another poster commented, the museum often sites that the rule prevents crowding.  However, I remember asking one museum official, “If I’m sitting on this bench that you have put here for people to rest on, how am I blocking the walkways around the artworks?”  And when they could not answer that question, I proposed I stick only to chairs and benches and was allowed permission to draw.  Yes, I got yelled at later by other gallery workers.

I wish I had a copy of the Tech Museum’s official policy regarding sketches. When a teacher of mine asked them if she could arrange a field trip, they sent a contract that each student would have to sign that effectively granted Gunther VonHagens copyright over the drawings done from the bodies in the exhibit. This was a good week after student night, so my drawing is still mine.  The teacher decided against the field trip after scoffing loudly. 

I understand that there are idiots out there who will take a picture or make a sketch and then put it up on the net for everyone to see, but why should we let those fools ruin it for everyone? I’ve never shared someone else’s artwork online (that wasn’t already there) but then I went to art school, so I understand how pissed off I would be if it happened to me. Oh, and touching/marking someone else’s work? That’s my definition of sacrilege.

There is nothing wrong with documenting things you like. There is something wrong with sharing such documentation with others against the artist’s will.

It’s the special exhibitions where rules like this show up.

This is why we can’t have nice things.