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It is a good question: how do history museums draw more people in?US history museums struggle to update exhibits
The problem is not museums, the problem is education. People are not engaged with history anymore and don't see how it is relevant to their daily life. Therefor, why go to a museum?
By not having stupid expeditions like post-modern deconstructionist art and get back to the good ole stuff.
By not having stupid expeditions like post-modern deconstructionist art and get back to the good ole stuff.
I too, love looking at collections of artifacts. It is like every piece tells a tale. I hate the new style of history museums that is full of flashy media presentations. They have their place but a good display of artifacts with explanatory storyboards does more for me than some hopped up you-tube or history channel video on a high-def screen. They need more things like the diorama at Gettysburg. It's about the history not they hype.When I go into a new style museum I=anymore I am always reminded of the military aphorism about "If you can't blind them with your brilliance, then dazzle them with your bulls&*t." I feel dazzled instead of blinded in newer museums.
I personally like context in museums. We've probably all had those experiences where we fly through an art or historical museum because we don't know the gravity of what we're looking at. There might be a snippet on a rectangular tag nearby, but aside from that there's not much other context for the work. I remember enjoying the National Museum of American History in D.C. because of all the context the place provided for what was on display. I guess it's the difference between having an educational experience (which is better kind of experience) and having a visual experience only. Sure, if you are an expert in the field, you can get a lot out of a museum simply on the works themselves; however, few of us are expert enough to be able to describe in detail the context of most works in a museum.
Yeah we need context but the artifacts are the actual residue of history and should not be kept in a vault somewhere. There is just a feeling you get when looking at something that was there that is missing when you see a picture of it in a slideshow. I will never forget the wonder I had as a child when visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas and looking at the multitude of artifacts on display with thee accompanying explanations. There is a fine balance though between just piling artifacts on shelves and meaningful displays. In my opinion, some museums do an excellent job and others do it horribly.
It wouldn't surprise me if most major museums display only a fraction of the items they hold in storage. I agree that I like to see more on display, but at the same time I can understand that space is limited. I was at a university museum last weekend and while the galleries on ancient Greek and Roman art were pretty impressive, it did feel cramped in there when lots of people were passing through. I love it when I go to museums and I am the only person in an entire room to admire the works. 🙂
That's funny because most of the bigger museums I've been to don't seem like they are utilizing their floor space. Both the Boston MFA and Met Museum in NYC has plenty of empty floor space to display maybe not all, but more of the stuff they keep in storage.
The new museum style is lots of empty space, multimedia and a bare minimum of artifacts. I learned that this past summer when I audited a class and helped out at a local museum here hoping to get a job working in one.
That's funny because most of the bigger museums I've been to don't seem like they are utilizing their floor space. Both the Boston MFA and Met Museum in NYC has plenty of empty floor space to display maybe not all, but more of the stuff they keep in storage.
Are you sure it's not space used for exhibitions that is temporarily empty?
It could have been, or it was because the middle of the room was empty for traffic control or design or something. It just seems they could have fit a few more statues or other artifacts in the row or made another row. I don't know, it's just my preference. I came there to see the Corinthian shields not the finely carved benches in the middle of the floor.
I could be wrong, but I bet when they get large school groups coming through those rooms need the space. At the museum I was at on Saturday, the amount of space between artifacts was nice if there were two or three groups of 2-3 people in each. Problem was these large high school or college groups came trouncing through and then it got really loud in the cramped space and there wasn't much room to move around.
