A Visit to the Neon Museum (...it definitely deserves a glowing review!)

She's always buzzing just like
Neon, neon...
...Who knows how long, how long, how long
She can go before she burns away*

If you simply drive too quickly through the intersection of Brand and Caruso in the city of Glendale, CA you might do a double-take, trying to figure out why there's a girl diving off a building into the deep blue sky.

But if you fail to stop and explore this amazing building, you'll miss one of the most unique and amazing museums in the area: the Museum of Neon Art.

Seriously, who doesn't love a neon chicken?

The neon lights may be bright on Broadway, but it turns out that Los Angeles was once the neon capital of the world. At the MONA, you can learn all about the history of neon in Los Angeles, and check out the pieces they've rescued and recovered from all over the area. Started in 1981, MONA has inhabited several locations before finally coming to rest in Glendale.  The walls are covered in a wide variety of signs.  Most are working; but some are beyond repair, leaving you wistfully imagining what they must have looked like in their glory days.

In the background, one of the girls of a tumbling series of signs that used to hang on the boulevard. Most of the lights are missing, but it must have looked incredible when it was all in place and working....

The MONA has made it their mission to collect and preserve these glowing jewels of the metropolis, displaying them for you to enjoy.  There's also a lab on premises designed to encourage the education of the craft with on sight demonstrations and classes.

It's a colorless, odorless, inert gas...so what is about the glow from a neon light that evokes such a wide variety of feelings?  Is it nostalgia: do we think about days gone past when streets were lined and lit with signs for everything from motor oil to the corner market, and think it was a simpler time?

Or perhaps it's comfort in the familiarity of a light that reminds us of places we frequent the most...

Maybe we're enamored in the artistry:  it's more than a picture, but not quite a sculpture....

Or maybe it's just plain fascination about a sign that glows.  Science meets magic, as it were.....

By far, one of my favorites at the museum. (This is a single row sign, with individual elements lighting up as the paratrooper glides towards ground - but I wanted you to see it in one panel)

My friend Mollie actually turned me on to the awesomeness of neon signs.  I mean, they were always been around...usually lighting the way to the nearest dive bar for me to haunt.  But one night, as I watched her snap pictures around the skyline at the Baltimore Inner Harbor, she explained the beauty and magic she saw in a neon sign; and how much she loved capturing that on camera.  Seeing what she saw through her lens, I found a greater appreciation for them from then on.

Yes, the REAL sign from the Hollywood and Vine location!!

The museum may not be very large, but it is filled with interesting anecdotes, history and awesome, beautifully lit signs.

So if you find yourself blowing some bucks at The Americana, take a break from the glitz and glamour of shopping and take a walk through history at the Museum of Neon Art.  If you're able to linger a bit after dark, be sure to check out the pieces that come to "light" nearby.

By the way, MONA also hosts Neon Cruise nights through Hollywood and DTLA; so if you can't get enough of the lights inside, jump on the bus and see what else the city has to share!  Hopefully I'll see you there!

PS...Mollie....don't forget your camera!

The Museum of Neon Art is located at 216 S Brand Blvd in Glendale.  Learn more about the museum HERE

*"Neon" by John Mayer (lyrics by Douglas Clay Cook / John Clayton Mayer)