I have taken many, many people to the Gardner Museum, including family, friends, clients, and colleagues from toddlers to those in their ninth decade. Every single one has been engaged and enlightened. I am sure this, in large part, is due to the immersive, sensory, intimate experience to be enjoyed here.

I always start and end my visits in the Moorish and Renaissance influenced Courtyard: smelling the earth and plants, hearing the water, feeling the sensation of sun (or the humidity or coolness), and being overwhelmed, yet again, with the new plantings and ancient art. There is both the comfort of familiarity and foreign expectation of luxury in this garden.

As a teacher, I appreciate the brilliance of ISG’s use of the senses in the construction of an environment seeking to inspire and promoting deep learning and reflection. Even more than the palaces, homes, and museums she visited around the world, and a far cry from the encyclopedic Museum of Fine Arts a few blocks away, and a century before research confirmed the benefits, ISG chose sights, sounds, smells, and the feel of her Fenway Court to enhance her own, and our own, whole-self experience.

I am just sorry to have missed The Fenway Court friends and family Grand Opening on January 1, 1903 which was catered with donuts and champagne. Taste, yet another sense she employed with expertise and flair.