On 5/25/07, Candace Perry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I expect that these museums are quite literally tapping into an untapped
> audience of persons who would otherwise not set foot in museums.  And at the
> risk of being woefully pessimistic, I don't think we're going to rope them
> in, no way, no how.

I went to a fundamentalist church as a child and Candy is right. The
types of people who are going to the Creation museum would probably
never go to any other museum. They are very insular and tend to live
by the creed "be in the world but not of the world." The
interpretation of this is usually: don't socialize with people outside
of your church, don't watch anything that is secular on TV or the
movies, send your children to Christian schools or homeschool, and go
to church several times a week for services, Bible studies,
women's/men's groups, youth groups, etc. etc.

Very few of the visitors have probably ever gone to a museum before
nor would even consider going to a museum because of the stigma
against them. They are "secular". Some like history and thus will
visit historic sites and homes. But I doubt any of them would go to an
art museum if given the chance and certainly not a science museum.
None of the parents or members of my old church seemed to do any of
that. Most of them wouldn't buy or sell on Sundays either. They'll
flock to revivals, spiritual retreats, or conferences but they would
seldom do anything that didn't have a religious connection to it.

Deb

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).