In response to Claudia J.Niclson's question ............how do
museums really educate the public to what we are trying to do?
I 'd like to suggest to all on the list to consider creating an exhibit
illustrating the process of creating exhibits. This could be placed at
the entrance to the museum ,preparing the visitor in hopes to supplement
their notions of what is the context .
Until I joined the museum field there was always a mystique of how the
exhibit originated.Who wrote the storyline ?
The Children's Museum of Manhattan I visited a few years ago had a large
pyramid constructed of white arborite . Underneath was sheet metal.
Magnetic Post-It size cartoons depicted components of a storeyline. The
visitor could arrange them and in effect become " curators' for the day.
It was a great exhibit on "Hobbies ..Why I Collect."
We forget that the internal working flow charts that are second nature
to us are not evident to the visitor or at least to most.
The Maritime Museum in Norfolk VA is a great museum. For any of their
staff on the list who may read this ,please take a bow. The staff,
research librarians and volunteers are cheerful and so helpful. It has
to be the brightest and most exciting of museums on the eastern
seaboard to visit with a great giftshop for those on the list who love
the sea and maritime memorabilia ,all that is there.
I learned of a video in 1992 they created when I viewed their exhibit
in one area on the Conservation of the Leif Ericson statue .
There were black and white photos along with the video to show behind
the scenes and how different departments work. Education- the visitor
will appreciate it I am sure if we "let them in on the process" of our
craft , we all sometimes take for granted
Yes we are magicians .Smoke ,mirrors and the works ,let's show them and
measure the response and share the reults on this list!
We as staff members were all offered a case to curate no matter where in
the museum we worked.
Len Hambleton - Chief Conservator
North Carolina Museum of History
5 East Edenton Street
Raleigh NC. 27601-1011
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919-715-0200 x244
"Information in the spirit of sharing,catch the wave!"
Opinions expressed in this message may not represent the policy of my
agency
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nicholson, Claudia [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 1998 2:06 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: VANDALISING UNPOPULAR STATUES ETC. - using the
> pieces inmuseums
>
> Harry Needham has raised an interesting point when he noted that the
> museum gets accused of "glorifying" Hitler because they show the
> decapitated head of a Hitler statue in the museum.
>
> I ran into the same problem in South Dakota. An exhibit of a Ku Klux
> Klan robe brought a sharp response from some visitors, including one
> who
> bothered to write her anger. She accused us of "glorifying" the Klan
> because we showed the outfit. We thought that it would be good to
> point
> out that the Klan was not simply an organization of the American
> South--that it was active in the northern parts of the country too,
> and
> in the case of South Dakota, went after foreigners and Catholics.
>
> Unfortunately, many visitors still think that what museums do is
> glorify
> the past. Anything that we show, therefore, is out for the public to
> see so that they might revel in the ever-upward spiral of
> civilization.
> Although the context and explanatory labeling of any potentially
> controversial object in a museum exhibit can very carefully show why
> the
> object is not there to be glorified, if the visitor does not read the
> label or pay attention to the context, they can make an incorrect
> assumption.
>
> Once again, I will ask the question: how do museums really educate
> the
> public to what we are trying to do? How do we get visitors in a
> questioning frame of mind when they come through our doors? How can
> we
> get them to question--and then seek to find the answer--when they see
> something in our galleries that they think is inappropriate? How do
> we
> get them to understand that, at least in history museums, we are tying
> to talk about both the good and the bad of the past?
>
> Claudia J. Nicholson
> Curator
> Museum Collections Department
> Minnesota Historical Society
> 345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
> St. Paul, MN 55102-1906
> Tel.: 612/297-7442
> FAX: 612/297-2967
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> >
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